Seats and opening ranges, 6-max and full ring

In this lesson

• Name every seat at a 6-max and a 9-max table.
• Explain why opens widen as fewer players are left to act behind you.
• Compare the early seats of a full-ring table with UTG at 6-max.
• Choose opens by seat from Rail's 6-max and 9-max charts.

Concepts used: Raise first in (RFI), Position, Stealing the blinds, Ranges

Every seat has a name

Seats are named by where they sit relative to the button. At a six-handed table they are UTG (under the gun), HJ (hijack), CO (cutoff), BTN (button), SB (small blind) and BB (big blind). The first player to act preflop is UTG; the button acts last on every street after the flop.

A full-ring table adds three seats at the front: UTG, UTG+1, UTG+2, LJ (lojack), HJ, CO, BTN, SB and BB. Rail names a seat by its distance from the button, so the last six seats of a nine-handed table carry the same names as a six-handed one.

The players behind you set the risk

When you open, you win the blinds at once only if everyone still to act folds. Each extra player behind you is one more chance that somebody holds a hand good enough to call or re-raise.

A made-up number shows how fast this adds up. Say every player behind you, on any given hand, holds something worth continuing with 10% of the time. Everyone folds 0.9 × 0.9 × … once per player: with two players behind that is 81%, with five about 59%, with eight about 43%.

So the same hand that opens happily from the button can be a fold from under the gun. Nothing about the cards changed; the number of people who can wake up behind you did.

Position after the flop

The second reason is position. An open from the cutoff or button is usually played in position after the flop, because only the blinds act after you and they act first on every later street. An open from UTG is often called by a player who will act after you on every street.

Acting last lets you see what the opponent does before you decide, take free cards, and bet when they show weakness. Hands that need help from the board, such as suited connectors and small pairs, gain the most from that. This is why opening ranges get wider with every seat closer to the button.

Why the button opens so many hands

From the late seats an open is partly a steal: you risk the open to win the 1.5 bb already in the middle. A 2.5 bb open breaks even if everyone folds 2.5 / (2.5 + 1.5) = 62.5% of the time, even if it never wins when called.

In practice a called steal still has equity, and from the button it keeps position, so the real break-even is lower. Only two players are left to beat, which is why the button opens far more hands than any earlier seat. The small blind is its own case: one player left, but out of position to that player for the whole hand.

Six-max and full ring

The seat names line up, and so does the logic. From the lojack onward a nine-handed table plays much like a six-handed one, because the same number of players is left behind. The difference is the three seats in front: UTG, UTG+1 and UTG+2 at full ring have six, seven and eight players behind, so they open much tighter than six-max UTG.

Online cash games are mostly six-handed; live games are mostly eight to ten-handed. If you play live, the early seats are where most of your discipline is needed. Rail has charts for both, and the drills below deal from them seat by seat.

• Count the players behind you before you look at your cards.
• The first three seats at full ring are the tightest seats in poker.
• From the lojack to the button, think six-max.

Rules of thumb

• The fewer players behind you, the wider you open: each seat closer to the button adds hands.
• At full ring, UTG to UTG+2 are tighter than six-max UTG; from the lojack on, the seats play like six-max.
• A 2.5 bb steal into 1.5 bb of blinds breaks even at 62.5% folds before counting the equity it keeps when called.
• Open or fold first in; leave limping to the small blind, where the charts use it.

When they break

• Blinds who defend and 3-bet a lot make late-seat steals worse; blinds who fold too much make them better.
• Antes, straddles and short stacks change the price and the hands that play well, so the 100 bb no-ante picture shifts.

Example hands

Practice

The lesson is mastered when every exercise below that Rail can grade is passed. Missed items come back later as review cards.