A preflop range is the set of hands you take an action with from a seat, against a specific action in front of you, at a specific stack depth. It is not "the hands I like." It is not a color-coded poster from 2005. It is a 13-by-13 map of 169 cells, each cell a type of starting hand, each color an action you are willing to take often enough that the table cannot just wait you out.
If the seats still feel interchangeable, read starting hands and position first. If you do not know who acts after the flop, read the rules. This page assumes 100 big-blind six-max no-limit cash, because that is the laboratory. Tournaments, 40bb Zoom, and 200bb live are modifications. They are not a reason to skip the laboratory.
How to read a 13x13 grid without getting hypnotized
Ranks run Ace to deuce on both axes. The diagonal is pairs: AA in the top-left, 22 in the bottom-right. Above the diagonal, the first rank is higher and the hand is suited (AKs, QJs, 76s). Below the diagonal, the hand is offsuit (AKo, QJo, 76o). Each suited cell is 4 combinations. Each offsuit cell is 12. Each pair is 6. If you treat AKs and AKo as "the same hand," you are off by a factor of three on combination count, and your three-bet math will lie to you.
On this site the paint is simple: green is a raise, blue is a call, red is a bluff-heavy raise we have marked on purpose. Empty cells are folds. The grid below is a toy — a handful of cells filled in so you can see the paint — not a range you should load into a HUD.
AA through JJ and Ace-King are raises. 76s is painted as a call, which already tells you this is not an opening range. Openers raise or fold. Calls show up when someone has already opened and you are continuing. If a chart shows 76s as a UTG open and as a big-blind defend versus that same UTG open, someone is selling you a mashup. Ask which action, which seat, which depth. If they cannot answer, it is a poster.
Combinatorics, quickly, because this is where people invent frequencies. There are 1,326 starting-hand combinations in Hold'em (52 choose 2). AA is 6 of them. AKs is 4. AKo is 12. A "15% UTG open" is about 199 combinations. If your grid looks like a 15% open but you are counting cells instead of combinations, you will overweight the suited junk (4 combos) and underweight the offsuit Broadways (12). Count combos, or at least remember that offsuit cells are fatter than they look.
A tight UTG open, 6-max, 100bb
Under the gun you are opening into five players. The default is a raise-or-fold range, no limps, about 14–16% of hands. The grid below is a heuristic. It is not equilibrium. It is a band you can remember: pairs, suited aces you will actually barrel, suited Broadways, Ace-King, Ace-Queen, some Ace-Jack and King-Queen. 22–44 and the baby suited aces are the first cells to cut if the table three-bets a lot, and the first to add if the table folds too much.
What is missing on purpose: 76s, J9s, KJo, QJo, ATo, the offsuit connectors, and most of king-x. Those hands are playable later. From UTG they force you to play flop first, often multiway, with a holding that makes second pair and second-best draws. The implied odds are a story. The reverse implied odds are a stack.
Open size in this game is 2.2x to 3x. Online six-max has drifted toward 2.2–2.5x. Live six-max still sees 3x and 4x because someone limped and someone else "doesn't like small raises." Size is part of the range. A 2.2x open can be wider than a 4x open because you are offering a better price to the blinds and risking fewer chips when you get three-bet. If you open 4x UTG with the grid above, you are building a pot out of position with 98s. Maybe stop doing that.
Combo count, this UTG paint
Pairs 22+ : 13 ranks × 6 = 78
Suited aces A4s+ except A6s (AKs–A7s, A5s, A4s): 10 × 4 = 40
Suited kings K9s+ : 4 × 4 = 16
QTs+, JTs, T9s, 98s : 5 × 4 = 20
Offsuit: AKo, AQo, AJo, KQo = 4 × 12 = 48
Total: 78+40+16+20+48 = 202 combos ≈ 15.2% of 1,326
That is a UTG open, not a personality. Cut 22–44 and A4s–A8s if you are getting three-bet in a blender. You will land near 11–12%, which is still fine.
A button steal, same depth, not the same planet
Folds to the button. The blinds are the only people left. You open a lot. Not any two — 92o still has to fold to a three-bet and still flops ugly — but most suited hands that can make a straight or a flush, most pairs, most ace-x, a slice of offsuit broadway and offsuit connectors. The grid below is a steal, roughly 40% of hands. Some regs open 45–50% when the blinds are asleep. Some open 32% when the small blind is a squeeze demon. Both can be correct. Neither is "the" button range.
76s is a raise here. On the UTG grid it was empty. That is not a contradiction. That is position. If you flatten these two grids into one "starting hands I play," you will either fold the button like a nit or open UTG like a button. Both leak. The position page is the argument; this is the picture.
Notice the offsuit junk that is still missing: J4o, K2o, Q5o, T3o. Those cells are the ones people add when they are bored or tilted. They are also the first cells a thinking big blind starts three-betting, because they fold to a three-bet too often and they flop a pair that cannot stand heat. A button range without a fold-to-three-bet plan is a donation with extra colors.
Three-bets: value, bluffs, and the part people skip
A three-bet is a raise of an open. In six-max cash at 100bb, the three-bet is how you punish wide opens and how you get stacks in with the top of your range. The shape is polarized-ish in position and more condensed out of position, because calling out of position with medium hands is how you bleed.
Versus a UTG open, your button three-bet is small and strong: QQ+, Ace-King, some Ace-Queen, a few suited aces that block Ace-King, maybe 76s or A5s as the bluff side if you actually continue when they four-bet small. Versus a button open, your big-blind three-bet is much wider, because the open is much wider. If you three-bet the same 8% versus both, one of those spots is a mistake.
PREFLOP 6-max, 100bb. UTG opens 2.5bb. Folds to Hero on BTN with A5s.
Hero three-bets to 8bb. SB folds. BB folds. UTG 4-bets to 22bb.
Hero folds. The bluff asked a question and got an answer. That is a successful three-bet tree even when you fold — as long as UTG is not four-betting 40%.
A5s is a three-bet candidate because it blocks AA and AK, it flops wheels and flush draws, and it is not a great call versus UTG out of position. It is a terrible call versus a four-bet. The hand is a tool. If you always four-bet-call it, you have turned a tool into a punt. If you never three-bet it, you have turned your three-bet range into a billboard that says QQ+.
Does this 3-bet need to work?
UTG open 2.5bb. Pot when it is on you (folds in between): 2.5 + 1.5 blinds = 4bb, plus your yet-to-be-posted 0. Wait: blinds 1.5, open 2.5, pot = 4bb.
You 3-bet to 8bb from BTN. You put in 8. UTG needs 5.5 more to call.
If you are bluffing and you only profit when they fold: risk 8bb to win 4bb, so you need folds 8 / (8+4) = 67% of the time if the alternative is folding pre and the 3-bet never has equity when called.
That 67% is a ceiling, not a plan. A5s has equity when called. QQ has a lot of equity when called. Pure air (J4s as a 3-bet versus UTG) really does need a high fold rate. Do not three-bet air versus a UTG open unless you have a reason they fold more than two times in three, or unless you will barrel the right flops. Most UTG opens do not fold 67%.
Cold four-bets, squeezes, and the BB defend
A cold four-bet is a four-bet from a player who has not yet put money in besides blinds. Example: UTG opens, button three-bets, you four-bet from the big blind. Your range should be extremely polarized: the nuts (QQ+, AK) and a few blockers you can fold to a jam. There is no "I cold four-bet King-Jack because I like my hand." You are representing a stack-off. If you do not stack off with the value side, you are lighting money on fire for a story.
A squeeze is a three-bet after an open and at least one call. The extra caller adds dead money and caps the caller's range. Squeezing is more profitable than three-betting heads-up against the same opener, which is why people start squeezing 76s from the big blind and then cannot continue when the opener four-bets. Squeeze with a plan: value that can play a 4-bet, bluffs that block the four-bet, and a fold to the jam. Size up. A min-squeeze into two players is a gift.
PREFLOP UTG opens 2.5bb. HJ calls. CO folds. BTN folds. SB folds. Hero (BB) squeezes to 12bb with AKo and with 76s as a mix.
UTG folds. HJ folds. Pot +12bb, no flop. That is the squeeze working.
UTG 4-bets to 28bb. 76s folds. AKo continues, sometimes jamming, sometimes calling 100bb deep depending on the opener. Do not "default call" 76s because you already squeezed. The squeeze was the bluff. The 4-bet was the answer.
Big-blind defending is the other half of the button steal. You do not need a pretty hand. You need a price, a plan, and the discipline to check-fold a lot of flops. Against a 2.5x button open, you are getting about 27% pot odds if the small blind folded, as worked on the position page. That defends J9o, 87s, K5s, 22, A2o — not 93o, not J3o, not 72o. Against a 4x live open from UTG, the price is worse and the range you face is stronger. Defend tighter. The grid is not allowed to ignore the size.
A workable BB defend versus a button 2.5x is huge: most pairs, most suited hands, a lot of offsuit ace-x and broadway, some offsuit connectors. You will play the flop out of position. That is the tax. Realize equity by mixing check-raises on wet boards, check-calls on dry boards with showdown, and honest check-folds with air. If your defend range always check-calls two streets, you are a station. If it always check-folds, the button will c-bet 100%. C-bets and barrels is the sequel.
Four-bet or fold versus call, 100bb
When you open UTG and the button three-bets to 8bb, calling QQ is fine, calling AKs is fine, calling 98s is how you play a dominated draw out of position in a 3-bet pot with a bad SPR. The heuristic: call with hands that flop well and can stand a barrel (medium pairs, suited Broadways, AQ), four-bet the top (JJ+ sometimes, AK), four-bet-bluff a few blockers (A5s, K9s in position), and fold the rest. "The rest" includes a lot of hands you liked when you opened. Opening and then folding to a three-bet is not a contradiction. It is the cost of a wide-enough open.
In position, you can call a three-bet wider because you will see the flop last. Out of position, you should four-bet or fold more often. That single sentence will save more money than a new grid. Small blind versus button is the worst call-heavy strategy on the table. You will be first to act for three streets with a capped range. Three-bet or fold is the adult line. Completing the small blind versus a raise is how 2005 still lives in your HUD.
A street-by-street three-bet pot, so the grid has a body
You open the cutoff with Ace-Queen suited. Button three-bets. Blinds fold. You call. You are in position, 100bb to start, about 92bb behind after the three-bet gets called.
PREFLOP Folds to Hero (CO), raises AQs to 2.5bb. BTN 3-bets to 8bb. Blinds fold. Hero calls. Pot 17.5bb. SPR ≈ 5.3.
FLOP Qc 7d 2s. BTN is the 3-bettor and is out of position. BTN c-bets 6bb. Hero calls with top pair, second kicker. Pot 29.5bb.
TURN 2d. Pair the board. BTN checks. Hero bets 14bb (thin value vs AK, KQ, pocket pairs that floated). BTN calls. Pot 57.5bb.
RIVER 9h. BTN checks. Hero bets 28bb. BTN folds or calls with worse queens and some stalled AK. Hero does not check back out of fear of a two. The two is on the board for both of you.
The grid put AQs in the cutoff open. The three-bet put you in a medium-SPR pot with a hand that flops top pair a lot. The rest is postflop fundamentals. If you skip the flop plan, the preflop grid was just interior decorating.
How to use a grid without becoming a grid
Memorize two pictures: a tight UTG open and a wide button steal. Everything else is a slide between them. Hijack is UTG plus a few cells. Cutoff is button minus a few cells. Big-blind defend is a price. Three-bet is a response, not a personality. When a spot is not on this page — live straddle, 6-max with a recreational in the blinds, 25bb MTT — start from the nearer grid and move two or three cells, on purpose, with a reason you can say out loud.
Then go play. A 40,000-hand sample will tell you if your button steal is too tight. Twenty hands of a cooler will not. If you need the flop to start making sense, keep going to postflop fundamentals. If you need the actual price of a call, open the pot odds tool and stop guessing 25% when it is 31%.