RangeSharp
RangeSharp
Opening ranges for all 6 positions in 6-max cash. UTG to BB, percentages, hand types, and how to memorize them.
If you've ever wondered what hands to open from each seat at a 6-max table, you're in the right place. This guide covers all six positions with rough percentages, hand categories, and some honest advice on what GTO actually says versus what matters at your stakes.
One caveat before we dive in: exact ranges depend on stack depth, rake, and your opponents. GTO gives you a baseline. At live 1/2 or soft microstakes, you can tighten up. At midstakes against competent regs, the solver numbers become more relevant.
Under the gun opens the tightest. You have five players left to act, and most of them have position on you postflop. That costs you.
UTG opens roughly 15% of hands. You're raising all pocket pairs (22 through AA), suited broadways down to ATs, KQs, and AJo. Suited connectors start around T9s. A5s and A4s get in there as well. Offsuit, you're mostly playing AJ+, KQ, and sometimes KJo depending on the solver.
The hands that surprise people: A5s and A4s open from UTG in GTO. They have good playability, nut flush potential, and wheel straight draw options. A3s and below usually fold.
The highjack (or lojack, seat 2) opens slightly wider than UTG. You're adding more suited connectors (98s, 87s), maybe A9s, and a few more offsuit broadways. We're talking about 18% or so.
The logic: one less player to worry about, and you'll have position on UTG when they fold. Still, the cutoff and button can 3-bet you, so you don't go crazy.
The cutoff is where ranges noticeably widen. You're opening around 25% of hands. Add more suited aces (A8s, A7s), suited kings (K9s, K8s), suited connectors down to 65s, and small suited gappers like 97s, 86s.
Offsuit, you're adding KJo, QJo, and sometimes T9o. Pocket pairs stay in, and you're now including some weaker suited hands that can flop well in position.
The button is the money seat. You're opening 40% or more. Almost every suited hand that can make a flush, most suited connectors, all pocket pairs, and a ton of offsuit hands that can hit top pair or a straight.
You're adding hands like 54s, 43s, 53s, K7s, Q9s, J9s, and offsuit stuff like T8o, 97o, 87o. The idea is simple: when everyone folds to you, you're last to act preflop and will be last to act on every street postflop. That's worth a lot.
The small blind is weird. Some strategies have you raising 35% or so. Others use a mix of limp and raise. The key point: you're out of position against everyone except the big blind, so you can't open as wide as the button. But the discount (half a bet) makes some speculative hands profitable.
You're playing most of what the button plays, but trimmed. Hands like 72o stay in the muck. Suited junk gets cut. You need hands that can either dominate the BB or play reasonably well out of position.
When the button opens, the big blind defends roughly 40–55% of the time. That includes 3-bets and calls. You're not just calling. You're 3-betting your strong hands and flatting a range of medium-strength hands that play well postflop.
Suited connectors, suited aces, pocket pairs, and broadway hands make up most of the defense. Offsuit hands need to be either strong (AQo, KQo) or have some structure (connected, suited). The exact mix depends on the solver and the BTN's opening range.
Vs other positions, BB defends less. Vs UTG, you might defend 35–40%. The tighter the opener, the more you can value 3-bet and the less you need to defend with marginal hands.
Pocket pairs: 6 combos each. They're in every opening range from every position because they can always flop a set. The smallest pairs (22–66) might fold from UTG in some charts, but most GTO solutions open them.
Suited hands: 4 combos each. They flop flushes and flush draws, so they get in more often than offsuit. A5s opens from UTG; A5o doesn't. That's the suited premium.
Offsuit hands: 12 combos each. They're the most common hand type, but they play worse postflop. You need either high cards (AK, AQ) or good connectivity (KQ, QJ) to open them from early position. From the button, you add more.
Reading a chart is one thing. Knowing it at the table under the gun is another. I used to print out range charts and stare at them. It didn't work.
What works: practice with feedback. Use a trainer that shows you a hand and asks for the action. Wrong answers come back more often. Right answers fade into the background. That's spaced repetition, and it's the same method medical students use for anatomy. Your brain needs repeated exposure with corrective feedback.
RangeSharp's library has 6-max GTO ranges for all positions, ready to train. You can add them to your workspace and run decision drills. Over a few weeks, the ranges start to stick. You'll still make mistakes, but you'll know when you're unsure instead of guessing.
Another trick: learn the borders. What's the worst hand that opens from UTG? What's the cutoff between fold and call from the BB? If you know the edge cases, the middle of the range is easier to fill in.
If you forget everything else, remember these: UTG 15%, HJ 18%, CO 25%, BTN 40%, SB 35%. BB defends 40–55% vs BTN, less vs earlier positions. The curve from tight to loose is smooth. Each position adds a few percent. The jump from CO to BTN is the biggest because that's when you go from "sometimes have position" to "always have position when heads up."
Premium hands (AA, KK, QQ, AK): Open from every position. 3-bet from every position when someone opens before you. These are never folds preflop in normal scenarios.
Strong broadways (JJ, TT, AQ, AJs, KQs): Open from every position. Maybe fold JJ from UTG in some extreme rake environments. Rare. These are the backbone of your range.
Suited aces: A5s and A4s open from UTG. A3s and below fold. As you move later, add A9s, A8s, A7s, A6s. The wheel potential and flush potential make suited aces valuable. Offsuit, you need AJ+ from UTG, maybe ATo. From the button, A8o and sometimes weaker get in.
Suited connectors: Start around T9s from UTG. Add 98s, 87s, 76s, 65s, 54s as you move later. The button opens 43s, 53s, maybe 42s in some configs. These hands flop straights, flush draws, and pair+draw combos. They need multiple streets to realize equity, so position helps a lot.
Small pairs: Open from every position in most GTO solutions. 22 from UTG is a raise. The logic: set mining. When you hit, you stack someone. When you miss, you lose a small amount. The math works. Some simplified charts fold 22–55 from UTG to reduce complexity. That's fine for beginners.
At $0.02/$0.05 or live 1/2, you can tighten up. Players don't 3-bet enough, so you're not punished for opening wide. But they also don't fold enough, so your bluffs and thin value get called. The net effect: play fewer hands, value bet more. UTG might drop to 12%. BTN might stay around 38%. You're not giving up much.
At $5/$10 or higher, opponents 3-bet more and play more competently. The GTO numbers matter. Deviating without a reason becomes costly. Stick closer to the chart.
Against a maniac who 3-bets 15% of the time, tighten your opens and expand your 4-bet range. Against a rock who only 3-bets AA and KK, open wider and flat more. The chart assumes someone in between.
UTG: folding A5s (it should open), opening A5o (it shouldn't). Suited matters. So does the wheel potential.
CO: folding K9s (it opens), raising 72s (it doesn't). K9s has playability. 72s is a meme hand for a reason.
BTN: opening 92o (too loose in most configs), folding 54s (it opens). Connected suited hands beat random offsuit junk.
BB: calling too much with suited junk that can't realize equity, 3-betting too tight. You need a mix. Over-calling and you're exploitable. Over-folding and the BTN prints.
These percentages are guidelines, not scripture. A solver tuned for 100bb, 2.5bb open, 0.5bb rake will spit out different numbers than 50bb or 200bb. But the structure holds: tight early, wider late. Position matters more than most beginners realize.
Start with one position. Get it down cold. Then add another. Trying to memorize all six at once is a recipe for confusion. UTG and BTN are the most important. Nail those first.
Master your preflop ranges.