Your poker opening range is the set of hands you raise with when the action folds to you and nobody has entered the pot. It's the most repeated decision of your session — several per orbit — which is why being one percentage point off there costs more than any spectacular river bluff ever wins.
The short rule: the closer you sit to the button, the more hands you open. Not because your cards improve, but because fewer players are left behind you and you'll play the rest of the hand watching everyone else act first.
How many hands to open from each seat (6-max)
These are normal online-table reference points, not scripture:
- UTG — 15-18%. Pairs from 55 up, AJo+ / ATs+, KQo, KTs+, QTs+, JTs.
- HJ — 20-24%. Add the small pairs, KJo, all suited kings, T9s, 98s.
- CO — 28-32%. All suited aces, middling suited queens, connectors down to 65s.
- BTN — 42-50%. Nearly everything suited, any ace, connectors and one-gappers.
- SB — 35-45%. Raise or fold — calling almost never.
In full ring, shift everything down a step: UTG at a nine-handed table opens closer to 12-14%.
The point isn't nailing the number, it's seeing the jump. From UTG to the button you triple the hands you play. If you open roughly the same from every seat, you're either far too tight on the button or far too loose up front — and the second one costs much more.
Why the small blind is its own problem
From the SB you'll play the whole hand out of position against the big blind. Calling there means paying for the privilege of acting first all the way down. Hence the practical rule: raise or fold — a shorter raising range than the button's, aggressive, with almost no calls.
Raise size, and why rake belongs in this conversation
2.5 big blinds online; 3 or more live, where people call with anything. A bigger size demands a better range: you're risking more to steal the same thing.
And there's a factor no chart includes: rake. At tables that take a heavy cut of every pot, marginal hands stop being profitable and every range shrinks a little, the early ones most of all. It's one reason the table you choose matters as much as how you play it.
Adjustments worth more than memorising the chart
- Blinds that never defend. Open wider from CO and BTN — you're stealing blinds at immediate profit.
- Blinds that 3-bet constantly. Cut the weak offsuit broadways (KTo, QJo) and keep hands that can handle a 3-bet.
- A strong player on your left. Open slightly tighter: most of your hands will be played with him acting after you.
- Short-handed (4 or 5 players). Everyone moves up a seat: the HJ at a five-handed table is effectively a CO.
How to train it in a week
Don't try to learn all six seats at once. Take one per session: today you only watch what you open from UTG. Afterwards, filter your history by that position and count the real percentage. Almost everyone finds the same thing — too wide up front, too tight on the button.
Two sessions later, repeat with another seat. In a week you've calibrated all six with your own numbers instead of a chart built for someone else's pool. Seeing your real per-seat percentages takes hand tracking: the software we use is listed on our tools page.
The lesson
An opening range isn't a chart to memorise, it's a consequence: how many players are left behind you, what the pot costs you, and what the blinds do about it. Learn the jump from UTG to the button, adjust for the table in front of you, and check your actual numbers once a week. It's the cheapest ground to gain in poker — nobody loses a stack fixing their opening range, and the improvement shows up every single orbit.
Don't expect to see it in Tuesday's result, though. These decisions pay out over thousands of hands, not one session. That's variance doing its job.
If you want to play those ranges at stable tables with the rake coming back as rakeback, that's where the club comes in. I want in on the club.