MTT Preflop Strategy: GTO Charts & Ranges by Position & Stack Depth

Why MTT preflop is different from cash games

The biggest mistake tournament players make is treating every hand the same way regardless of stack depth. A cash game player opens the button at 100BB and barely thinks about it. A tournament player opening the button at 18BB is making a completely different decision — one that determines whether they’re going to the final table or the rail.

Three things separate MTT preflop from cash game preflop:

The most important number: your stack in big blinds

Stop thinking about chip counts. Start thinking in big blinds (BB). A 50,000 chip stack means nothing on its own — at 500/1,000 blinds it’s 50BB, at 2,500/5,000 it’s 10BB. Those are completely different strategic situations.

Here’s how most professionals categorize MTT stack depths:

Free MTT preflop charts at 40BB: GTO opening ranges by position

Forty big blinds is the most common and most consequential stack depth in tournament poker — deep enough to open from every position, short enough that every decision has real chip consequences. Below are free GTO MTT preflop charts and tournament preflop ranges for raise-first-in (RFI) at 40BB with antes, expressed as opening percentage and range boundaries:

These MTT preflop charts assume a standard ante structure (big-blind ante or button ante). Without antes, tighten each position by roughly 2–4%. The SB at 40BB should play raise-or-fold from virtually all hands — limping is too exploitable with positional disadvantage for the rest of the hand.

All 40BB MTT opening ranges are linear — meaning each position plays the strongest hands available and the range simply extends deeper into weaker holdings as you move toward the button. There is no gap in the middle. If you know the worst hand you would open from a seat, every hand above it is also an open.

The Rule of 5-6-7-8-9-10

Memorizing 400+ hand combinations is impractical at the table. The Rule of 5-6-7-8-9-10 gives you a fast shortcut: the lowest suited card you can open decreases by one as you move from UTG toward the button. UTG needs a 10 as its lowest card (T9s, meaning 9 is the low card — suited 9x). The button can open down to a 5 (75s, 85s, 95s).

The shortcut: focus on the range perimeter, not the interior. Once you know the weakest hand that opens from each position, the rest of the range fills itself in automatically. At the hijack, suited 7s are your floor — so T7s, J7s, and Q7s are all opens. At the cutoff, suited 6s — so T6s, J6s, Q6s, 86s all make the cut. This single boundary tells you everything.

The Offsuit Extension: Rule of 8-9-10

The same perimeter logic applies to offsuit hands — the floors just shift higher because offsuit hands realize equity less reliably. The Rule of 8-9-10 gives the offsuit low-card floor for BTN, CO, and HJ:

Offsuit hands are strictly worse at realizing equity than their suited equivalents — they can't make flushes and have fewer straight draws. That gap is why the offsuit perimeter sits 3 cards higher than the suited perimeter at every position. If a hand falls below these floors, fold it — opening it is a VPIP leak that drains chips over a long tournament.

MTT preflop charts at 100BB: deep stack opening ranges by position

At 100 big blinds, MTT preflop play resembles cash game ranges most closely. The primary driver of your opening range is position. The deeper your stack, the more hands can realize their equity postflop — which means small pairs and suited connectors have implied odds.

Opening ranges at 100BB with antes (approximate):

Key difference from no-ante play: antes roughly cut the effective cost of each hand by 10–15%, which pushes every position toward wider opens. If you’re still using tight no-ante ranges in ante-level tournaments, you’re leaving chips on the table.

MTT preflop charts at 50BB: opening ranges by position

Fifty big blinds is the stack depth most players encounter during the middle levels of a tournament — past the opening-level 100BB play, before the serious short-stack decisions below 30BB. At 50BB, small pairs and suited connectors still have implied-odds value from late position. Open-shoving is almost never correct except from the SB vs. a BTN raise. These are GTO MTT preflop charts for 50BB with antes:

Comparing 50BB to 40BB, the ranges look nearly identical from late position — the antes keep BTN and CO ranges wide at both depths. The meaningful difference appears in early position: at 50BB, small pairs (22–55) recover modest set-mining value from UTG and LJ because there is enough stack behind to justify seeing a flop. At 40BB, those same pairs are generally fold-or-shove from EP.

The other 50BB danger zone: 3-bets. At 50BB, a standard 3-bet to ~9–11BB commits roughly 18–22% of your stack. You can still fold, but you’re doing it from a weakened position. Before calling a 3-bet at 50BB, know your plan for every flop texture — because with ~35BB behind after calling, you’re likely going to face a continuation bet that forces a commitment decision.

MTT preflop charts at 30BB: the transition zone

Thirty big blinds is one of the most misplayed stack depths in tournament poker — too deep for reckless open-shoving, too short for speculative calling and folding. A standard 2.5x open to 7.5BB commits 25% of your stack before you see a flop. Three-bets at 30BB are near-commitments. These free MTT preflop charts for 30BB show how GTO ranges compress relative to deeper stacks:

The critical 30BB adjustment is how you handle small pairs. At 40BB, 55–77 can open from HJ and fold to a 3-bet while retaining decent implied odds. At 30BB, those same pairs face a brutal math: open to 2.5BB, face a 3-bet to ~7.5BB, and calling commits 25% of your stack with a hand that sets up only 11% of the time. The correct play from UTG–HJ at 30BB is shove-or-fold with small pairs — not min-open.

Antes at 30BB still make late-position stealing very profitable — the pot adds roughly 1–1.5BB in dead money before action, keeping BTN and SB open ranges nearly as wide as at 40BB. Think of 30BB as “mid-stack with shove-lean”: EP ranges contract sharply (no implied odds), LP ranges stay wide (antes justify stealing), and 3-bets from any position should only happen with hands you’re happy to stack off with.

MTT preflop charts at 20BB: the push-or-fold boundary

Twenty big blinds is the single most misread stack depth in tournament poker. Players routinely open to 2.5BB and then face a decision they haven’t thought through — call off 17.5BB more with a medium hand, or fold and lose the open. At 20BB, the math almost always points toward open-shove or fold from late and middle position rather than min-raise/fold. These are free MTT preflop ranges at 20BB with antes:

The key exception: hands you’re happy to call a 3-bet shove with — AA, KK, QQ, AKs — can still open small to 2–2.5BB because you want more money in the pot when called. Everything else should shove outright or fold. Opening AJo to 2.5BB and then facing a 3-bet from the BB forces a difficult call for 17.5BB more; just shove it and remove the decision entirely.

The 20BB ante effect is significant: with antes, the pot entering any stealing situation contains roughly 3–4BB in dead money. That makes a 20BB BTN shove profitable against most lineups with roughly 50% of hands — a much wider tournament preflop range than players use in practice.

Mid stacks (40–60BB): sharper decisions, fewer speculative hands

At 40–60 big blinds, the SPR (stack-to-pot ratio) after a preflop raise drops dramatically. You can no longer profitably set-mine with 22 from UTG hoping to stack someone — there’s not enough money behind. Implied odds dry up.

At 40BB, the adjustments are:

At 50BB, you’re in a sweet spot where 4-bets from late position can still fold out hands — but don’t get caught 4-bet bluffing against players who’re committed. At 40BB, 4-betting is almost always for value or a shove.

Short stacks (20–35BB): raise/fold strategy kicks in

At 20–35 big blinds, you enter the zone where open-shoving from late position becomes correct with a wide range of hands. This is the most misplayed spot in amateur tournament poker. Players min-open and then fold to a 3-bet, which bleeds chips over time.

At 25BB, the math changes like this: if you open to 2.5BB and fold to a shove, you’re investing 2.5BB to potentially win 3.5BB (antes + blinds) — but your equity when called is already committed. You’re better off either:

Approximate shoving ranges from BTN at 25BB (simplified Nash):

At 20BB, UTG shove range expands to roughly 20–22% of hands. At 15BB, you’re shoving almost any two reasonable cards from CO/BTN/SB.

Push-fold charts at 10–15BB

Once your stack falls below 15BB, raise/fold is no longer viable from any position — you either shove or fold. These push-fold charts are simplified Nash equilibrium approximations:

ICM tightens these ranges near bubbles and pay jumps. At 10BB on the money bubble, you can fold many of the marginal shoves above if multiple shorter stacks are at risk at other tables.

Exact Nash equilibrium MTT ranges at 5BB and 10BB

At 5–10BB, Nash equilibrium push-fold solutions provide the most precise tournament preflop ranges. These are approximate ICM-neutral Nash figures for a full-ring (9-max) tournament without pay-jump pressure:

The “raise-small” category at 10BB applies only to premium hands like AA, KK, QQ — hands that have crossed the threshold where jamming forfeits too much value. At 10BB, AA can open to 2BB and call any 3-bet shove profitably; at 5BB, jamming with AA is always correct since the stack-to-pot ratio is too low to extract more value with a small open.

One counterintuitive finding from Nash push-fold solutions: offsuit Aces jam wider than their suited equivalents at the very shallowest stacks. A2o jams from the BTN at 5BB; A2s is also a jam, but at 10BB the suited version can raise-small slightly earlier because it has better equity realization against calling ranges. Treat offsuit Aces as default shoves from any position at 5–8BB.

Position still wins tournaments

All MTT preflop strategy is position-dependent before stack depth even enters the equation. No matter your stack depth, position is the most consistent edge in tournament poker. The button is the most profitable seat. Early position is a minefield. Here’s the rough positional multiplier on opening ranges — the percentage you should open from each seat relative to UTG:

A practical example: if you open 12% of hands from UTG at 40BB, you should open about 36–40% from BTN. Players who play UTG ranges from the button are leaving massive value on the table.

The deeper reason position matters so much is equity realization. A hand’s paper equity (how often it wins a showdown) only matters if you can actually realize that equity over multiple streets. In position, you control the pot size, see free cards more often, and pick off bluffs more cheaply. Out of position, you bleed equity — you check when you should bet, face raises you can’t call, and fold the best hand. This is why suited connectors and small pairs drop so sharply from your MTT preflop strategy when you move from the button to UTG: they have high equity but terrible equity realization out of position at shortened stacks.

The steal from the button is your biggest tournament leak opportunity. Most amateur players at live tournaments fold to button steals at roughly 60–70% frequency — far higher than they should. When players are not defending correctly, you can steal profitably with nearly any two cards from BTN.

Small Blind strategy in MTTs: raise-or-fold, never limp

The Small Blind is the most strategically awkward seat in tournament poker. You have a partial investment (half a blind), but you play every postflop street out of position against the entire table. At 40BB in a modern ante tournament, the correct SB strategy is almost always raise or fold — limping surrenders positional initiative at exactly the wrong moment and invites the BB to see a cheap flop with a wide range against you.

When the action folds to you in the Small Blind, your raise-first-in (RFI) range at 40BB sits between the CO and BTN — roughly 35–40% of hands. You’re only stealing against one player (the BB), which widens the range; positional disadvantage postflop tightens it back down. The suited floor drops one card relative to your BTN range, and the offsuit floor is significantly tighter because offsuit hands bleed equity from out of position.

Suited hands play better from the SB than offsuit hands for a simple reason: flush draws and backdoor equity generate playability even without pairing. T7s from the SB has outs even when it misses. T7o does not. This is why all suited 7x+ hands (T7s, J7s, Q7s) open from the SB at 40BB while offsuit equivalents need high-card strength (KTo, QTo, JTo at minimum).

When facing an open from the Button or Cutoff, the SB’s best play is nearly always 3-bet or fold — not call. Calling locks you into three postflop streets out of position against a late-position range. At 40BB, a SB 3-bet commits roughly 18–22% of your stack, so restrict value 3-bets to QQ+, AKs and semi-bluff 3-bets to suited Aces (A2s–A5s), which block strong Ace holdings and retain equity when called.

At 25BB and below, the SB shifts to shove-or-fold entirely against late-position opens. A min-3-bet at 25BB leaves ~18BB behind — too short to fold to a shove without giving up massive equity. Know which hands you’re shoving (22+, A2s+, K5s+, KTo+, strong broadway) and fold everything else rather than calling and playing out of position at sub-25BB depths.

ICM: when to tighten up preflop

ICM (Independent Chip Model) is the framework for valuing tournament chips relative to actual prize money. As you approach pay jumps, the equity cost of busting increases sharply — which tightens your preflop ranges.

MTT Big Blind defense: calling ranges by position

The Big Blind is your most important defensive seat in tournament poker. You’re getting a discount to call — at 40BB with antes you often need only 25–30% equity to break even against a steal. The Rule of 5-6-7 tells you the weakest offsuit hand you can call from the BB based on who raised:

The pattern is simple: the later the raiser’s position (and thus the wider their range), the more hands you defend. Against a BTN steal you can call with 75o and 65o because the BTN is opening 50%+ of hands. Against a UTG raise you need real hand strength — UTG opens only ~17% of hands, so your pot odds don’t justify speculative calls.

In MTTs at 30–40BB, consider mixing in 3-bets as part of your BB defense. Suited Aces (A2s–A5s) are the ideal bluff 3-bet — they block strong Ace holdings, have equity when called, and force the original raiser to fold wide portions of their range. Value 3-bets from the BB: QQ+, AKs, and situationally JJ/AKo.

5 MTT preflop mistakes that bust most players

How to practice MTT preflop ranges

Reading about ranges and actually executing them at the table are two completely different skills. The gap between knowing that you should shove K9o from the button at 22BB and actually doing it under pressure — when someone at the table has been catching cards all day — is huge.

The most effective way to close that gap is repetition-based training: drilling ranges away from the table until the decisions become automatic. That’s exactly what Preflop Wizard is built for. Instead of static charts you forget between sessions, Preflop Wizard quizzes you on real scenarios — position, stack depth, opponent action — and gives immediate feedback on every decision.

Most players who use it daily for two weeks report noticing a clear improvement in their preflop confidence. The decisions that used to take 30 seconds of mental math start to feel obvious. And obvious preflop decisions are the foundation of every winning tournament run.

For more foundational strategy, see our guides on opening ranges by position, preflop raise sizing, and 3-bet strategy.

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