Hijack Opening Range Under Final-Table ICM (20bb, 8-Max)

ICM does not change which hands are strongest, it changes how much a marginal spot is worth. In a chip-EV game every chip you win is worth exactly as much as every chip you can lose, so a slightly profitable open is an open. At a final table the chips you can lose are worth more than the chips you can win, because busting in 8th pays less than laddering to 7th, 6th, and up. That asymmetry taxes every thin open, and the tax lands hardest on the loosest ranges. The Hijack sheds 6.7 points of opens between the two charts, and the hands that disappear are exactly the ones you would expect: the weak suited aces, offsuit broadways, and the bottom of the suited-connector group that were barely breaking even for chips.

The practical read: keep your early-position ICM ranges close to their chip-EV shape, but discipline the steal positions. The cutoff and button are where chip-EV instincts bleed the most equity at a final table, because that is where the widest, thinnest opens live. Fold the bottom of those ranges and let the big stacks do the gambling.