Big blind Preflop Range

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.