Final Table Push-Fold Charts for Every Stack Depth

You're six-handed at a final table with 12bb. UTG shoves. You look down at KJo on the button. Is this a call? If UTG folded and it came to you, would you shove? The difference between calling and shoving ranges at shallow stacks is often the difference between a min-cash and a victory, yet most players treat them identically. Understanding push-fold ranges across different stack depths and positions is the foundation of profitable final table play.

These charts assume there is nothing to win but chips and pay jumps. Add bounties and the ranges move: PKO strategy: why covering the table changes your preflop ranges compares a solved knockout final table against the chip-EV baseline.

One effect these charts hide is that a shove folds out more than the caller's range suggests when there are stacks still to act; shove overlay explains why.

Every chart in this article changes under payout pressure. Read what is ICM in poker? for why, and use the free ICM calculator to see the risk premium your exact stacks and payouts create.

In Part 1 of this series, we explored how ICM pressure fundamentally changes hand values in tournaments. Now we'll apply those concepts to the most critical skill in late-stage tournament poker: push-fold strategy. This isn't about memorizing static charts, it's about understanding the mathematical framework that generates optimal ranges at every stack depth.

The Stack Depth Framework

Push-fold strategy operates on a spectrum, but we can identify distinct strategic zones based on effective stack sizes:

• Hyper-shallow (5bb and under): Pure survival mode with extremely wide ranges
• Shallow (6-10bb): The classic push-fold zone where postflop play becomes prohibitively expensive
• Medium-shallow (11-15bb): The transition zone where some hands can still call and see flops
• Medium (16-20bb): Mixed strategies emerge; not all hands are all-in or fold

Each zone requires distinctly different ranges. The mistake most players make is using 10bb ranges when they have 15bb, or worse, playing fit-or-fold poker with 18bb stacks.

The Mathematics Behind Push-Fold Ranges

When you're deciding whether to open-shove, three factors determine your range:

Fold equity becomes increasingly valuable as stacks shallow. With 8bb on the button against blinds that are folding too much, the bottom of your shoving range stops being about showdown value at all. You are not hoping to win the pot at the river, you are hoping to win it immediately. The EV calculation is straightforward:

EV = (Fold% × Pot) + (Call% × (Equity × Total Pot - Your Investment))

With antes in play and 8bb effective, you're risking 8bb to win approximately 2.5bb (SB + BB + antes) immediately. If your opponents fold 50% of the time, you need only 30% equity when called to break even. This is why solver outputs show such wide shoving ranges from late position at shallow stacks.

However, ICM pressure dramatically tightens these ranges at final tables. The ICM Deal Calculator reveals that chips you lose are worth more than chips you gain, the asymmetry that defines final table strategy.

Position-Specific Ranges by Stack Depth

Hyper-Shallow: 5bb Effective

At 5bb, you're in crisis mode. Here are approximate GTO ranges for open-shoving:

• Button: Top 65% of hands (any Ace, any King, Q2s+, Q7o+, J5s+, J9o+, T7s+, 97s+, 87s, 76s, all pairs)
• Small Blind: Top 55% (any Ace, K2s+, K7o+, Q5s+, Q9o+, J8s+, JTo, T8s+, 98s, all pairs)
• Cutoff: Top 45% (any Ace, K5s+, K9o+, Q8s+, QTo+, J9s+, T9s, all pairs)
• Hijack: Top 30% (A2s+, A5o+, K8s+, KJo+, QTs+, JTs, 77+)

Against these shoves, calling ranges must be significantly tighter due to the pot odds you're getting versus your showdown equity requirements. From the big blind with 5bb behind facing a button shove, you're calling roughly: 77+, A9s+, ATo+, KJs+, KQo, approximately 13% of hands.

Shallow: 8bb Effective

The sweet spot for push-fold play. Ranges tighten slightly but remain aggressive:

• Button: Top 50% (any Ace, K2s+, K6o+, Q4s+, Q9o+, J7s+, JTo, T8s+, 98s, 87s, all pairs)
• Small Blind: Top 40% (A2s+, A3o+, K4s+, K9o+, Q8s+, QJo, J9s+, T9s, all pairs)
• Cutoff: Top 32% (A2s+, A7o+, K8s+, KTo+, QTs+, JTs, 66+)
• Hijack: Top 22% (A5s+, A9o+, K9s+, KQo, QJs, 88+)

The key difference from 5bb: your opponents now have enough chips to fight back meaningfully, so speculative hands lose value while Broadway cards and pairs gain importance.

Medium-Shallow: 12bb Effective

This is where many players make critical errors. At 12bb, you have enough chips that some hands prefer a min-raise strategy, planning to call off if shoved on. However, many hands still prefer the shoving line:

• Button shove: Top 28% (A2s+, A5o+, K9s+, KJo+, QJs, JTs, 77+)
• Button min-raise: Top 15% premium hands (99+, AJs+, AQo+, KQs) that can call a shove
• Small Blind shove: Top 25% (A4s+, A7o+, KTs+, KQo, QJs, 88+)
• Cutoff shove: Top 20% (A7s+, ATo+, KJs+, QJs, TT+)

The emergence of a min-raise strategy creates complexity. Hands like 99 or AQo prefer raising smaller to fold out more hands while maintaining flexibility against a shove. The Preflop+ app provides detailed visualizations of when to shove versus min-raise across different stack depths.

Medium: 16-20bb Effective

At 16bb+, pure shove-fold poker becomes suboptimal except from the blinds and button. Most positions should use a mixed strategy with min-raises dominating and shoves reserved for polarized situations:

• Early position shove: Essentially never (perhaps AA-QQ in specific ICM spots)
• Button shove over limps: Top 35% when isolating limpers
• Small blind shove vs button min-raise: A7s+, ATo+, KTs+, KQo, QJs, 99+
• Big blind shove vs button min-raise: Slightly wider at A5s+, A9o+, K9s+, KQo, QTs+, 88+

At these depths, postflop skill matters again. The shift from pure push-fold to mixed strategies represents a fundamental change in approach.

ICM Adjustments: What Actually Changes

Raw chip-EV push-fold charts assume tournament chips have linear value. They do not. The usual summary of what that means, "play tighter under ICM", is half right and gets applied to the wrong half of the strategy.

Here is a controlled comparison from GTO Ranges+. Two solved 8-handed tables, every seat on exactly 12bb, identical in every respect except the payout model: one chip EV, one final table with ICM. Because the stacks are equal, nobody covers anybody, so this isolates the payout effect from the covering effect.

The button jams more under ICM, not less, and by a wide margin. The reason is on the other side of the table:

ICM tightens the calling ranges by roughly two thirds, because the caller is the one risking elimination for a marginal edge. Once the blinds are folding more than nine times in ten, the button's fold equity goes up, and the correct response to more fold equity is to jam wider. That is the adjustment most players get backwards: ICM makes you a tighter caller and a looser shover.

Source: GTO Ranges+, 8-handed, all stacks 12bb. Both grids decoded from the solve, all 169 hand classes.

The limp is the other half of the story

Look at what happens to the premiums. In the chip-EV solve the button does not jam aces at all: AA limps 97% of the time, KK 90%, QQ 86% and AKs 77%. The jamming range is the middle of the range, hands like AKo, AQo, A9o and KTo that want fold equity rather than callers. That whole limping strategy exists because at chip EV you can afford to build a pot slowly with the nuts.

Under ICM it vanishes. The limp goes to zero, aces and kings raise small to 2bb instead, and queens through nines are jammed outright. When your opponents cannot call, slow-playing stops paying and the strategy collapses into two buckets: a small raise with the very top, and an all-in with everything else you want to play.

The caveat that makes this usable

Everything above is measured at equal stacks, where no player can eliminate another. That is what isolates fold equity. Change the stack relationships and the conclusion changes with them:

• When you cover the table, the effect above is amplified. You are the one who cannot be eliminated, so you can attack with the widest range at the table. Covering vs covered works through that asymmetry, and the PKO version shows it with bounties layered on top.
• When you are covered, it reverses. Your tournament life is the thing at risk, the risk premium applies to you, and both your jamming and your calling ranges should tighten.
• Near a real bubble with a short stack about to bust, the effect is larger again, and the medium stacks are the ones most squeezed. Surviving the money bubble covers that case.

Run your own configuration through the free ICM Calculator before you decide which side of this you are on. The risk premium it reports is the number that tells you whether to widen or tighten, and it is specific to your stacks and your payouts.

Calling Ranges: The Other Side of Push-Fold

Knowing when to call a shove is the harder half, and as the numbers above show, it is where ICM bites hardest. In the equal-stack 12bb solve the big blind defends a button jam with 26.6% of hands at chip EV and 8.5% under ICM. That is not a small trim, it is a different strategy.

The practical version, without a chart in front of you: your calling range against a jam should be built from hands that are still ahead of a wide shoving range and that do not need to improve, and it should shrink sharply as the pay jumps get steeper or as the shover's stack grows relative to yours. Broad rules of thumb built for chip EV will have you calling roughly three times too wide at a final table.

For the exact ranges at your stack depth and payout structure, the ICM and chip-EV charts sit side by side in GTO Ranges+, and the Stack to Blinds Calculator tells you whether you are in push-fold territory to begin with.

Common Mistakes in Push-Fold Execution

Mistake #1: Static thinking. Players memorize a 10bb chart and use it at 8bb, 12bb, and 15bb. Each big blind matters. Your shoving range with 11bb should be measurably tighter than with 9bb.

Mistake #2: Ignoring antes. Once antes are in play, pot sizes increase by 30-50%, dramatically increasing your fold equity. A hand that's borderline without antes becomes a clear shove with them.

Mistake #3: Failing to adjust for opponent tendencies. If the big blind is folding 90% to button shoves, you should be shoving 80% of hands even with 10bb. GTO provides the baseline, but exploitative adjustments are mandatory when opponents deviate significantly.

Mistake #4: Calling too wide as the short stack. When you're the 3bb stack at a four-handed table, tighten calling ranges dramatically. You need a double-up to matter, but you're also likely to cash by folding to the money.

Training Your Push-Fold Game

Push-fold proficiency requires both memorization and situational awareness. While charts provide the foundation, recognizing when stack depths, payout structures, or opponent tendencies warrant adjustments separates strong players from average ones.

The GTO Ranges+ app offers comprehensive tournament ranges across all stack depths and positions, allowing you to drill specific scenarios until the ranges become intuitive. For postflop situations when you're in that 15-20bb zone and do see a flop, Postflop+ provides the training you need to navigate these critical spots.

Key Takeaways

Final table push-fold strategy is a spectrum, not a binary. At 5bb, you're shoving half your range from the button. At 20bb, you're rarely shoving at all outside blind-versus-blind situations. The transition between these extremes requires understanding:

• How each additional big blind affects your range width
• When ICM pressure demands tighter play than chip-EV suggests
• How position amplifies or reduces your shoving incentive
• The critical difference between shoving and calling ranges
• When to exploit weak opponents by deviating from equilibrium

Master these concepts, and you'll navigate final tables with the confidence of a seasoned professional, maximizing your tournament equity in every shallow-stacked situation.

Put It Into Practice

Ready to drill these ranges until they become second nature? Download GTO Ranges+ for iOS or GTO Ranges+ for Android to access tournament-specific push-fold ranges for every position and stack depth. Practice makes permanent, ensure you're practicing the right strategy.

In Part 3 of this series, we'll explore final table dynamics beyond push-fold: navigating bubble pressure, adjusting to different player types, and maximizing your equity when stacks are deep enough for postflop play.