Poker Preflop Quiz: 10 GTO Spots to Test Your Range (2026)

KTo is not in the standard UTG opening range at 6-max 100bb. UTG opens around 18% of hands — a tight range of strong pairs, suited broadways, and high-equity suited hands. KTo is an offsuit hand that plays poorly out of position against 3-bets and gets dominated too often by the stronger Kx and Tx hands in opponents' continuing ranges. The suited version (KTs) is a different story: KTs is a standard UTG open. The offsuit version bleeds chips in the long run from early position.

The button opens around 43-45% of hands at 6-max 100bb — one of the widest ranges in poker. T7s is a solid member of that range. It has flush draw potential, two-pair and straight possibilities, and plays well in position against the blinds. The BTN opens virtually all suited connectors down to 54s (and sometimes lower), so T7s is not even close to the borderline. Players who fold T7s on the button are leaving significant EV on the table.

The big blind defends around 32-38% of hands against a UTG raise. 87s sits comfortably inside that range. Suited connectors are among the strongest hands to defend from the big blind: they have high implied odds (flopping straights and flushes), they do not get dominated by UTG's strong range the way offsuit broadway hands do, and they realize their equity well multiway. You are getting roughly 3.5:1 on a call here, and 87s has enough equity and playability to make defending correct. This is not a 3-bet hand against a tight UTG range — it is a call.

JJ from the big blind versus a button open is a clear 3-bet for most solvers. The button opens ~43-45% of hands, so JJ is well ahead of the average hand in that range. The main reason to 3-bet rather than call: you will be out of position for the entire hand, and calling lets the button see a cheap flop with a wide range and play poker in position against you. A 3-bet to around 9-10bb takes the lead, narrows the BTN's range, and lets you play with initiative. You will face a 4-bet occasionally — that is fine, you can call the 4-bet with JJ at 100bb.

AQo from the small blind versus a button open is one of the cleaner 3-bet spots in the game. Calling is wrong: you would be out of position with a hand strong enough to take the lead. Folding is obviously wrong. AQo crushes the BTN's wide opening range, it blocks AA and AK, and 3-betting makes you the aggressor with a hand that plays well when called. The SB's 3-bet range versus the button is not polarized the same way it is versus early position — AQo is a pure value 3-bet here, not a bluff.

This is a strong squeeze spot. When a cold-caller enters the pot, three things happen: there is more dead money in the middle, the BTN's range is somewhat capped (the BTN would have re-raised with the very strongest hands), and the cold-caller's range is capped even more (no 4-bet is likely coming). AJs squeezes well here for two reasons: the ace blocker reduces the chance either player holds AA or AK, and the suited nut-flush potential gives you outs when called. Squeezing to around 10-11bb is standard. See more on squeeze spots in the poker squeeze play guide.

A5s from the button facing an HJ open is a mixed-strategy spot, but most solvers favor 3-betting. The key properties of A5s that make it a strong 3-bet: it blocks the aces in the HJ's 4-bet range (AA, AK, AQ), it has nut flush draw potential, and it can make the wheel straight. When you 3-bet A5s as a semi-bluff, you benefit from fold equity and retain good equity when called. A5s plays worse as a flat call: you take a speculative hand OOP with a weak top pair and an ace that often makes your opponent fold the second pair. The 3-bet is the preferred line. Review the full 3-bet strategy guide for more on polarized ranges.

The big blind defends around 40-44% versus a CO open at 100bb. Q6s sits inside that range. The CO is a middle-late position opener with a range of around 28-30% — wider than UTG, but still semi-tight. Q6s has queen-pair potential, flush draw equity, and decent implied odds when flopping a flush draw or two pair. Getting ~3:1 pot odds plus the 1bb already in the pot, calling Q6s is correct. Folding would be too tight and give the CO too much fold equity. See the full big blind defense guide for detailed defense frequencies.

A7o from the SB at 12bb is a clear shove in any GTO push/fold chart. At this stack depth, your options are shove or fold — there is no room for a standard open-raise. A7o has an ace blocker (reducing the chance the BB holds a strong calling hand), decent raw equity against the BB's calling range, and significant fold equity since the BB has ICM pressure to fold marginal hands on the bubble. Even accounting for ICM pressure, A7o generates positive ICM EV from the SB at 12bb. Players who fold A7o here are making a significant mistake — they are letting their stack blind down to a point where they have no fold equity at all. See the short stack push/fold guide for full shove ranges by stack depth.

ATs on the button versus an HJ open is a genuine mixed-strategy spot where both 3-betting and calling are correct — the solver splits between them. 3-betting works because: ATs blocks the HJ's 4-bet range (ace blocker), it has nut flush potential, and taking the lead in position with a strong hand is generally good. Calling also works because: ATs plays extremely well in position postflop, you avoid giving away range information, and you keep the HJ's range wider (they keep hands they would fold to a 3-bet). If you had to pick one line, 3-betting has a slight edge for most player pools where opponents over-fold to 3-bets. But this is one of the spots where the exact action matters less than the reasoning behind it.