Shove Fold Charts Poker

 

Free downloadable push/fold charts to help you play perfect short-stacked poker in heads up games. Never make a mistake when you fall below ten big blinds. Play error-free poker! The result of this is something called Push-Fold charts. Google/Bing/Yahoo the term and you'll find lots of information on this approach to short stack play. Or, even better, let Uncle Bug do it for you: Just go to a site like Exceptional Poker to get the charts. For instance, here's a chart for open-shoving when you're at 10 big blinds at a.

In the last Sit N Go article I discussed the role of ICM in SNG strategy. Another key part of SNG strategy as the tourney moves on into the middle and late stages is the Push/Fold Game.

What is the Push/Fold Game?

Push/fold strategy boils down to limiting your choices to either pushing all-in or folding your hand. This allows for maximum fold equity to pick-up the blinds and antes and makes it so you don’t commit some valuable chips pre-flop but then fold to post-flop pressure. You also get the added benefit of nice double-ups when your opp’s call you with inferior hands.

Shove Fold Charts Poker Dice Game

When to start the Push/Fold Game

The push/fold game starts once you reach the 50/100 and the 75/150 levels. Here, the 1,500 starting stack is only 10-15bb’s, and this is where many SNG players start their push/fold game. Everything you’ve learned up to this point has been geared to get you to this profitable spot. It’s profitable because your opponents call shoves too wide or don’t shove wide enough to pick-up the super important blinds and antes.

Pay attention to all showdowns and take note on your opponents regarding when they start their push/fold game and what they push with. Some begin early at sub-15bb’s. Others start super late at 7bb’s, and some never do it. Noting when they tend to push/fold will alert you to any changes in behavior, which could indicate hand strength. If you know that “9bb Norman” always pushes at 9bb’s or less, but suddenly at 7bb’s he min-opens, there’s a chance he’s got a nut hand and wants action. You can play him accordingly and give his unusual play the respect it deserves and fold out all but the best pre-flop hands.

(Of course, smart players can use this against you, so make note if you ever catch someone using a reverse tell like this.)

Why Use the Push/Fold Strategy

This is all about maximizing fold equity. When the blinds/antes are a big portion of your stack, you’ve got to do all you can to collect them.

If you’ve got a 1,500 chip starting stack, the 6 max blinds and antes at the 50/100 level could be 210 chips and collecting these adds 14% to your stack. At the 75/150 level? This would add up to 315 chips or 21% to your stack. Either of these are significant equity gains to your stack.

Pushing all-in maximizes your fold equity as only the strongest hands (or weakest players) will call for a big part of their stack, so we’ll be folding out most hands that would contend with a smaller raise of 2-3bb’s.

Another benefit of pushing all-in instead of making a smaller opening raise is that it doesn’t give our opponent the chance to re-raise all-in to put the pressure back on us. By shoving, we’ve put max pressure on our opponents and now the “ball’s in their court” as the saying goes.

Push/Fold Considerations

Shove Fold Charts Poker Tables

Your Hand

  • The stronger your hand, the less fold equity you need; the weaker your hand the more you need.
  • Try not to change your plays based on the strength of your hand. Like mentioned previously, perceptive opponents will notice when you deviate from your normal strategy and can change their plays based on your unusual actions.

Opponent Tendencies

  • How likely will he fold? HUD stats and notes on opponents will tell you if he’s 90% likely to fold or only 70%.
  • Against tight players (TAG’s and NIT’s) open up your range as much as possible
  • Against loose callers (LAG’s, Fish and Donks) push a range that’s more value intensive (Aces are good for this as they’re less likely to have one if you do)
  • Choose who you shove against wisely. Don’t jam wide vs wide callers.

Stack Sizes

  • Pay attention to the stack sizes of those remaining in the SNG
  • Big stacks call wider vs short-stacked shoves; fish call wider as well
  • The bigger your stack in relation to theirs, the more pressure your shove puts on them
  • Short stacks are much more likely to call than big stacks. They have lots to gain with the blinds/antes along with your bet, so they’ll call very wide.
  • You have lots of fold equity vs similar sized stacks
  • As a big stack put pressure on the medium sized stacks, especially when there’s a short stack or two in play near the bubble
  • As a medium stack with a short stack or two in play, be more judicious in your choices to push all-in as you need to outlast these shorties.

Number of Players Remaining

  • Players are less likely to call when on the bubble (OTB) because of the pressure of outlasting opponents to get into the money
  • Jam wider OTB to build a big stack
  • Make reads and take note of how your opponents play the bubble and just before the bubble
  • Be careful that you know your opp’s and are making notes and reads to help you decide whether or not to shove.

Learning From Your Push/Fold Opportunities

As an SNG player, you’ll encounter the bubble and push/fold situations more times than you can shake a stick at.

Shove Fold Charts Poker

As you play, tag hands where you have a push/fold decision and analyze them later in your HH review sessions. Use an ICM calculator (like ICMIZER or SNG EGT as discussed in the Middle-Stage SNG post). As you assign ranges to your opponents, make their ranges a little tighter when calculating their all-in shoves and wider when calculating their calling ranges. Being a bit more conservative on both fronts will slightly tighten you up, making your all-in ranges stronger.

The more you study these push/fold spots, the better innate understanding you’ll have of them which will help with profitable in-game decisions.

Push/Fold Charts

I mention using Push/Fold charts in the SNG Middle-Stage article, so please check that out, but I’ll make a quick mention of it here.

I used them in the past, but I found them to be a crutch and I would follow them overly-strictly and not even rely on opponent reads or the current game dynamic. I do recommend trying them, though, as many SNG players swear by them. Google “push fold charts” and try some for yourself.

Practice, Practice, Practice

The Push/Fold game isn’t something that anybody gets right off the bat. It takes time on and off the felt to work on this part of your game. Drop in stakes if you have to in order to get comfortable with shoving at around 10bb’s if you don’t yet do this. Tag hands and analyze them later, take notes on what you’ve learned, and put these into play in your next session.

Until next time, study smart, play much and make your next session the best one yet!

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Push Fold Chart Review

All experienced poker players already know that to be successful in online poker, you should use all available online instruments for analyzing your poker gaming. In this post, you will know all the essential info about the push-fold chart poker tool.

The push-fold chart is a perfect tool to be used while participating in Hold’em poker tournaments. The principal goal of this instrument is to assist players in choosing the best game strategy on a short stack. That is why the maximum effect from push-fold charts can be reached while playing poker tournaments because they usually end in the dangerous all-in or fold stage.

As you know, stack in poker indicates the total number of chips a player has at the table and can use to make bets. In Holdem poker tournaments, the stack size is determined by the settings of each tournament, but most often it varies from 1,500 to 3,000 chips. When a player loses his stack, he/she is eliminated from the tournament. Therefore, when talking about a short stack, we mean a player who has less than 100 Big Blinds in a given cash game. Therefore, a short stacker needs to rebuy to stay in the game. And it is a push fold chart that will help to choose the best strategy for short stackers.

Push-fold charts help to solve hand range with the help of math. They are arranged in a simple diagram, which should help you to play on preflop in the most successful way while participating in tournaments. In other words, when you are on a short stack or in push/fold mode, you have only two possible decisions on preflop – to fold or go all-in.

One of the best advantages of push fold charts is that you can use them during the game itself. It will help you to turn into s short stack guru quickly!

How does a push fold chart can help in a poker game?

As we have already mentioned, the main principle of push chart work is based on math. They offer pre-designed ranges for every hand. With the help of push fold charts, you can play all hands in the best way via the GTO strategy. Push fold chart helps you to be ahead of your rival`s range. This ideal mathematical module accounts for your equity when called. Moreover, owing to the push fold chart, you will know in advance which hands to fold or to shove.

Consequently, push fold charts are extremely valuable instruments that help you to identify the exact hands you need to play in any prearranged position with a particular depth of the stack. Therefore, depending on your position and the size of the stack, push-fold charts do the best to provide you with the most winning gaming options in poker tournaments.

Shove Fold Charts Poker Tournaments

How to make use of push fold charts in the best way?

Push fold charts must be used in a short stack game when your gaming options are limited to folding or going all-in.

A push fold chart is limited to the maximum of 10 big blinds.

However, in some situations, you can go all-in up to fifteen or more big blinds. That is why a push fold chart can be extended to deepen a depth of the stack.

Push-fold charts modifications

We have already explained that push fold charts are one of the most important and working instruments to be successful while playing various poker tournaments. However, you should know that push fold charts should be used together with other tools for poker analyses such as FlopZilla or Holdem indicator. It is just a worthy recommendation from experienced poker players. Additionally, push-fold charts never account for such important aspects as еру table difficulty, hourly rate, etc.

Consequently, it is recommended that you should slightly adapt your folding/pushing ranges when you are in a certain situation at the table, which allows you taking advantage of your rivals’ style of playing poker.

There are some situations at the table, when you may have a certain desire to play alternatively. For example, you may feel like folding to a jam when your rival is playing exceptionally straightforwardly. Such an advantageous situation allows you stealing reasonably and not jeopardizing your own stack.

There is no single strategy allowing winning in all poker games. So, short stackers can modify push fold charts when they have ten or more big blinds. Depending on a particular situation at the table, you can expand or narrow your range by shoving, raising, or folding.

Alongside this, experienced players keep on reminding that you should practice much to get the necessary experience to modify push fold charts in the best way to take full advantage of your edge. Never expect that you will always win just after you have downloaded a push fold chart.

Therefore, to master push fold charts, you need to take into consideration the following aspects:

  • Analyze field difficulty

There are situations when you play in a so-called soft field. Thus, you may have a great desire of pushing with a narrower range, while waiting for the most favorable handicap. On the other hand, if your rivals over-fold, it is high time for you to go all-in wider and steal the big blinds.

  • Consider the given size of your stack

In a certain situation when behind you there are plenty of big stacks, which may force you to shove, you may desire to go all-in with a narrower range. In different circumstances, when you have many short stacks behind you, it is recommended that you should keep calm, control your anger, and go all-in somewhat wider.

Shove Fold Charts Poker Charts

Therefore, you should better use the mentioned aspects in a poker tournament to choose the most favorable push-fold strategy on a short stack.

Conclusion

Now you know the main principle of the push fold chart work and how it can help you while participating in poker tournaments. It is an ideal instrument for all poker players who desire to improve poker skills and, therefore, pocket good money.

A push fold chart will undoubtedly help to boost equity in any short stacked game.

Push Or Fold Chart Pokerstrategy

We recommend that you should download push fold charts now and try to use them while playing poker. Therefore, as your stack size changes during the game, you will always have the best decision in every unique situation.