Guides / Push/Fold by Stack Depth
Push/Fold Strategy by Stack Depth: 5bb vs. 10bb vs. 15bb
Published Updated How these ranges are solved
This is where push/fold actually lives. Below 5bb almost every playable hand is a shove regardless of position; above 15bb effective there's usually enough stack behind to open-raise and still make a real postflop decision, so a pure shove/fold model stops being the right tool. 5bb, 10bb, and 15bb is the range where the shove-or-fold question is genuinely live and genuinely close.
The button's range at all three depths
5bb effective
47% shove · 82 hands at full frequency
10bb effective
40% shove · 69 hands at full frequency
15bb effective
34% shove · 62 hands at full frequency
How much the width actually changes
The headline number falls steadily, not in one step: the button shoves 47% of hands at 5bb, 40% at 10bb and 34% at 15bb. The count of hands shoved at full frequency tracks it down the same slope, 82 to 69 to 62. The 10 big blinds between the first chart and the last cost you 13 points of shoving range, because every one of them buys back a little of the fold you could not previously afford.
Which hands change places
The width is the boring half of the story. The interesting half is that the hands filling it swap over as the stack grows, and they swap in the opposite direction to most players' instincts.
Small suited connectors are the clearest case. The shortest stack does not want them: 65s shoves 2% of the time at 5bb and 99% at 10bb, and 86s goes from 53% to 100% across the same five big blinds. At 5bb a hand's raw equity has to carry more of its value on its own, the caller is getting a price that keeps dominating hands in, and a connector that wanted to flop something has neither the fold equity nor the implied value to justify itself.
Offsuit high-card hands run the other way. Q9o is the marker: a pure shove at 5bb, still 87% at 10bb, and essentially a fold by 15bb. K9o holds on longer and then falls further, still 100% at 10bb and 3% at 15bb. That is the depth where there is finally enough stack behind to raise-fold a hand like that against real aggression instead of committing it blind.
So the range does not simply widen as you get shorter. It rotates. A 5bb chart is built out of high cards, and by 15bb the same seat is shoving a tighter range made disproportionately of suited hands that play well when called.
Want the same comparison for a different position, or every depth the solver covers, not just these three?
Common questions
- At what stack depth does push/fold actually apply?
- Roughly 5bb to 15bb effective. Below 5bb almost every playable hand is a shove regardless of position, so there isn't much decision left. Above 15bb there's usually enough stack behind to open-raise and still make a real postflop decision, so a pure shove-or-fold model stops being the right tool.
- Does a shoving range get wider as your stack gets shorter?
- Yes, and steadily. On the button the solver shoves 47% of hands at 5bb, 40% at 10bb and 34% at 15bb, with the count of hands shoved at full frequency falling from 82 to 69 to 62. What that headline number hides is that the hands making up the width change places: the shortest stack leans on offsuit high-card hands, and the deeper ones lean on suited connectors.
- Why do hands like 86s and 65s shove at 10bb but not at 5bb?
- At 5bb a hand's raw equity has to carry more of its value on its own. High card hands become more valuable, as you are more likely to get called with such a short jam. Avoiding the smaller suited connectors also avoids situations where you are dominated. At shorter stack depths, the calling range gets wider, so more of the hands that dominate your suited connectors stay in rather than folding out. For example, jamming 86s at 10BB, will likely get a fold from Q6s at 10BB, but potentially not at 4BB.