No-Limit Hold’em cash preflop charts (6-max, 100 bb)
A preflop chart tells you what to do with each of the 169 starting hands depending on your position and the action before you. These are the POKER AULA opening charts for 6-max cash with 100 bb effective stacks and a 2.5 bb open: the same ones used by the courses, the Training and the Calculator.
How to read them: above the diagonal are the suited hands (s), below it the offsuit hands (o), and the pairs sit on the diagonal. Each color is an action; two-color cells are mixed hands, played one way some of the time and the other way the rest.
RFI from UTG
Plays 17.6% of starting hands.
- Raise
- Fold
- Mixed
- Raise: Pairs, suited aces (playability and blockers) and strong broadways. Suited hands realize their equity better when we get called from behind.
- Fold: With five players left to act, marginal offsuit hands are dominated too often and suffer from reverse implied odds.
RFI from HJ
Plays 21.9% of starting hands.
- Raise
- Fold
- Mixed
- Raise: Compared with UTG we add K9s, Q9s, J9s, 98s, 87s and ATo/QJo: there's less risk of running into a strong range behind.
- Fold: Weak offsuit hands and unconnected suited hands still don't make the cut.
RFI from CO
Plays 30.6% of starting hands.
- Raise
- Fold
- Mixed
- Raise: Only the BTN and the blinds are left: we steal the blinds often and, against the blinds, we'll play in position.
- Fold: Low unconnected offsuit hands stay out: the BTN can still 3-bet or call in position.
RFI from BTN
Plays 50.5% of starting hands.
- Raise
- Fold
- Mixed
- Raise: We'll always have position postflop and only the blinds are left: we win the pot right away a lot of the time and realize our equity well when they call.
- Fold: The lowest offsuit hands (like 93o, 62o) don't win enough, even with position.
SB when everyone has folded: raise or fold (optional limp)
Plays 49.0% of starting hands.
- Raise
- Limp
- Fold
- Mixed
- Raise: Hands with good equity or blockers raise to 3 bb: we often win the pot right away and, if they call, we're not worse off on the flop.
- Limp: Alternative option (not the course's base strategy): playable but weak hands see the flop for 0.5 bb more without inflating the pot out of position. If the BB raises, we fold almost all of them.
- Fold: The weakest hands aren't worth even the half bb: playing OOP against the BB with junk loses in the long run.
BB vs BTN open
Plays 57.5% of starting hands.
- 3-bet
- Call
- Fold
- Mixed
- 3-bet: Strong value and, with the mixed block, a more polarized 3-bet using suited aces as bluffs.
- Call: Almost any suited hand and many offsuit hands that are connected or have a high card have the equity the price requires.
- Fold: The ugliest offsuit hands (like 72o, 83o, 94o) and low, unconnected suited hands (like 72s, 93s, J2s): even with the price, they don't realize enough.
The 100 POKER AULA preflop charts
On the platform you get every cash preflop situation, explained, with 100, 40 and 200 bb stacks and for every position:
| Situation | 100 bb | 40 bb | 200 bb |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opening when folded to you (RFI) | 7 | 4 | 4 |
| Facing an open: 3-bet, call or fold | 10 | 3 | 1 |
| Big blind defense | 6 | 4 | 3 |
| Small blind when folded to you | 1 | 1 | — |
| Facing a 3-bet | 15 | 3 | 2 |
| Facing a 4-bet | 10 | — | — |
| Facing limpers (isolate) | 3 | — | — |
Also: full ring (9-max) charts and tournament charts with antes as a complement.
Practice it with 48 free hours of all of POKER AULA
Level-by-level No-Limit Hold’em cash game courses, interactive Training with THE WHY behind every decision, a Calculator and Preflop Charts, in Spanish, English and Portuguese.