Free poker reference
Big blind Preflop Range
These charts are the starting point
Sharkling solves the spots the chart can't cover, and grades your play against the answer.
The big blind has no opening range
By the time the action reaches the big blind, everyone else has already acted — there is nothing left to open into. What matters here is the defending range, which depends on who opened and for how much. Those charts are part of Sharkling’s full library.
Static charts can't cover every postflop spot
Build the board, stacks and ranges in Neural Custom Solve, then study the flop strategy while the exact solve runs.
Playing the big blind
The big blind never opens — by the time the action reaches you everyone else has acted, so there is nothing to open into. What the big blind does is defend, and the ranges for that are the widest calling ranges in poker.
The reason is the money already in front of you. Facing a 2.5x open, you are being asked to put in 1.5 more big blinds to win a pot of about 4.25 — well over 3 to 1. At that price you only need to win around 26% of the time, and an enormous number of hands clear that bar.
The two things that move the range are the opener’s position and the raise size. Against a button open you defend far wider than against an under-the-gun open, because the button’s range is far weaker. Against a large raise you defend much tighter, because the price is worse.
Being out of position with a wide range is genuinely hard to play, and the big blind is still the seat that loses the most money over a career. Defending correctly is about losing less, not about winning.
The other seats
Position changes the correct range more than any other single factor. Compare:
- Under the gun — opens 16.6% of hands
- Middle position (hijack) — opens 21.5% of hands
- Cutoff — opens 29.6% of hands
- Button — opens 49.3% of hands
- Small blind — opens 40.6% of hands
Once you know which hands to open, the next question is how they perform when called. The equity calculator will run any of these ranges against a specific hand or another range — paste the range notation from above straight into it.
Frequently asked questions
What is a preflop chart?
A grid of all 169 starting hand types showing which to raise, call or fold from a given seat. It is the compressed output of a solver run: the machine plays the spot millions of times and the chart records the strategy it settles on.
Should I follow preflop charts exactly?
As a default, yes — they are far better than instinct, and preflop is where the most money is lost to bad habits. But charts assume opponents who play back correctly. Against players who never fold or never defend their blinds, deviating is where the profit is.
Why does position change the range so much?
Two reasons. Acting last after the flop is worth several big blinds per 100 hands on its own, and opening from an early seat leaves more players still to act behind you. The button opens roughly three times as many hands as under the gun.
Do these charts work for 9-handed games?
Choose a 9-max set in the chart browser for a full-ring game. The opening examples below the browser are for 6-max cash games, so use the set that matches your table size and stack depth.
Are all the charts free without an account?
Yes. Every published set and action is free to browse and share, including opening, calling and re-raising ranges. The postflop presolve library is also free. Training, personal analysis and custom solves have their own account and plan requirements.
Related tools
- Hand RankingsEvery hand, ranked — and what beats what.
- Equity CalculatorHand vs hand, hand vs range, range vs range.