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Taking It Further

This page will be regularly updated with advice for advanced players who want to push their thinking further and squeeze out additional EV gains.

📊 Advanced Blind Levels

Most advanced charts are grouped in 2-blind increments (14–16, 12–14, 10–12, etc.). To build them, we always started from the middle level.

For example, the 14–16bb chart is based on a study at 15bb.

What if you have 14bb?

Should you look at the 14–16 chart or the 12–14 chart?

In reality, it doesn’t matter. If one chart shows a limp and the other shows a shove, it means the hand lies in a close EV zone: both limp and shove will yield very similar results.

👀  The EV difference will therefore be marginal. You can make your choice depending on your opponent and your knowledge of how the hand evolves as the stack decreases. But don’t overthink it — this won’t affect your CEV.

🤏 The 4–6bb Charts

These charts work a little differently from the others, as some are actually push-or-fold charts running from 0bb up to 6bb.

If you see any of the following notations in a chart cell, it’s a push-or-fold chart, and you can use it all the way down to 0bb:

  • If you see a number in a chart cell: it indicates the blind level from which you should push the hand.
For example, a “5” in the K5o cell means push K5o below 5bb. So at 5.1bb you don’t push, but at 4.9bb you do.
  • If you see an interval, for example ]4;2[: it means push above 4bb and below 2bb, but not between 2 and 4bb.
For instance, 53s should be pushed at 4.1bb, folded at 3bb, then pushed again at 1.9bb.
  • If you see a greater-than sign: it means you only push this hand above the indicated stack size.
For example, at 4.9bb 65s should be folded. At 5.1bb or higher, this hand should be pushed.
❌  Note that below 6bb, the charts no longer show any limps.

In GTO there are no limps below 5.5bb.

Even versus recreational players, limping at this depth quickly becomes awkward.

A good simplification is to play push-or-fold only under 6bb, while keeping the option to limp against very passive opponents who never ISO shove.

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🚦 Note on Colors

Some intermediate colors in the 4–6bb charts don’t carry a particular meaning: they simply help visualize how the ranges evolve as stacks shrink.

Roughly speaking, the lighter the color, the earlier the hand becomes a push at short stack.

For instance, 82o is shown in a lighter shade than Q2o because it should be pushed starting from only 2bb, compared to 6bb for Q2o.

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To aid memorization, the minimum push/call thresholds are written:

  • 🔴 in red for offsuit hands.
  • 🟢 in green for suited hands.

These thresholds are crucial to memorize.

Concrete example, BB vs SB all-in in Heads-up below 6bb:

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You can call all offsuit hands below 2.7bb (🔴), and all suited hands below 3.4bb (🟢).