Why You Should Shove Wider Than You Call

If you've looked at a shoving chart and then a calling chart for the same spot, you might have noticed something strange. The Button can shove a hand like K2s at 10bb, but the Big Blind should fold that same hand when the Button shoves.

So why can you shove a hand you can't call with?

Two ways to win

When you shove, there are two ways for it to go well:

When you call a shove, there's only one way to win - you need the best hand by the river. There's no fold equity when you're the one calling.

When you have fold equity, you need less raw showdown equity to be profitable.

Here's what it looks like in our 6-max ChipEV solutions at 10bb:

There is one thing that helps narrow this gap. The Big Blind already has a big blind in the pot, so they're getting a better price to call.

Look at the hands that move between the two charts. At 10bb, the Button shoves K2s, J7s, T8s and 96s. The Big Blind folds all four of them against that shove. They're fine hands to shove with because they win so often when everyone folds. However, without that fold equity, these hands are not profitable enough.

This gap gets bigger as stacks get deeper

At 20bb the gap is much bigger:

With more chips behind, calling risks a lot more to win the same pot, so your calling range needs to be a lot tighter.

One exception: really short stacks

At very short stacks, this trend flips. At 5bb, the Button shoves about 47% of hands, and the Big Blind calls with about 66%!

When the shove is that small, the Big Blind is getting such a good price that almost any two cards with a bit of equity can call. This is also why waiting until 5bb to shove is a bad plan - you lose most of your fold equity.

What this means for your game

• Don't call as wide as you shove: If you'd happily shove a hand from that seat, it doesn't mean you can call a shove with it.
• Think about who's shoving: The Big Blind calls a lot wider against a Small Blind or Button shove than against UTG.
• Stack depth matters: The deeper the shove, the tighter you call.

Have a look at the calling ranges for each position and stack depth in the solutions, and compare them with the shoving ranges for the same spot. Then run some call/fold drills - it's the quickest way to get a feel for how these ranges interact.