Guides / Ranges in practice / When to Shove
When to Shove in a Poker Tournament
Published How these ranges are solved
Going all in preflop is one of the most important decisions you'll make in a tournament. Shove too often and you'll bust. Wait too long and you'll blind down to nothing.
So when should you shove? It mostly comes down to three things:
- Your stack size in Big Blinds
- Your position
- The tournament situation (ICM and who's left to act)
Start with your stack size
Count your stack in Big Blinds, not chips. 50,000 chips might sound like a lot, but at 2,500/5,000 that's only 10BB. If you're not sure, the poker stack calculator will work it out for you.
As a rough guide:
- 10-15BB: Shoving becomes a big part of your strategy, especially from later positions. At the top of this range you can also open with a smaller raise. We only solve shove or fold, so the numbers here show the shove.
- Under 10BB or so: Shove or fold. This is where push/fold strategy is at its best, and it's the optimal strategy in ChipEV.
How does position change your shoving range?
The fewer players left to act behind you, the wider you can shove. Here's how much of their range each position shoves in our 6-max ChipEV solutions, at every stack from 4BB to 15BB:
| Stack | UTG | HJ | CO | BTN | SB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4BB | 34% | 37% | 42% | 49% | 83% |
| 5BB | 32% | 34% | 40% | 47% | 78% |
| 6BB | 30% | 33% | 38% | 46% | 76% |
| 7BB | 28% | 32% | 35% | 44% | 73% |
| 8BB | 26% | 30% | 35% | 43% | 71% |
| 9BB | 24% | 29% | 33% | 41% | 69% |
| 10BB | 22% | 28% | 33% | 39% | 66% |
| 11BB | 21% | 26% | 32% | 37% | 64% |
| 12BB | 20% | 25% | 31% | 37% | 63% |
| 13BB | 19% | 23% | 29% | 36% | 60% |
| 14BB | 17% | 22% | 28% | 35% | 59% |
| 15BB | 17% | 21% | 27% | 34% | 57% |
The Small Blind shoves about three times as many hands as UTG at 10BB. There's only one player left to get through! And every seat shoves a little less with each extra Big Blind - UTG goes from about 34% at 4BB to about 17% at 15BB.
Under the Gun at 10bb - 22%
Small Blind at 10bb - 66%
How do ranges tighten as you get deeper?
Take a few hands from UTG:
- At 10BB: KJo, A9o and 22 are all shoves.
- At 12BB: KJo and 22 are still shoves most of the time, and A9o is shoved a bit under half the time.
- At 15BB: KJo and 22 are only shoves about a fifth of the time, and A9o is a fold.
The deeper you are, the more you're risking to win the blinds, so you need a stronger hand. The stack depth guide puts the Button's 5BB, 10BB and 15BB charts side by side.
Why you shouldn't wait too long
A common mistake is waiting for a 'good hand' while your stack keeps shrinking. However - the smaller your stack gets, the less your shove scares anyone.
At 5BB, the Big Blind calls a Button shove with about two thirds of hands. At 10BB, they call with only about 31%. A shove at 10BB still gets a lot of folds. A shove at 5BB mostly gets called. That's fold equity disappearing.
So if your hand is in your shoving range, take the spot. Waiting for Aces usually just means shoving a weaker stack later on.
Then adjust for the tournament
The numbers above are ChipEV, which is a great baseline. From here, we can consider other factors:
- ICM: Near the bubble or at a final table, your ranges change - sometimes a lot. Who's covering you, and who's shorter than you, matters. Start with what ICM is, then see the bubble charts.
- Opponents: If the players behind you fold too much, you can shove wider. If they call too much, tighten up. The exploits guide shows which hands move.
- Antes: Bigger antes mean more to win, so you can shove wider.
Quick summary
- Count your stack in Big Blinds.
- Under 10BB or so, it's shove or fold.
- The later your position, the wider you shove.
- Don't wait until 5BB - shove while it still gets folds.
- Adjust for ICM and your opponents.
Have a look at the solutions for your stack size and position, then run some drills until the shoves feel automatic.
Ready to put this into practice?
Common questions
- When should you go all in during a poker tournament?
- Once your stack is around 15 big blinds or less, shoving becomes a big part of your strategy, and under about 10 big blinds it's mostly shove or fold. Shove the hands in your range for your stack and position, and widen from later seats: at 10bb in a 6-max game, UTG shoves about 22% of hands and the Small Blind about 66%.
- How many big blinds should you have to shove?
- There's no single number. Shoving ranges exist at every stack from 4bb to 15bb and beyond - they just get tighter as you get deeper. At 15bb the Button still shoves about 34% of hands, and at 5bb it shoves about 47%.
- Is it better to shove early or wait for a better hand?
- Shove when your hand is in range rather than waiting for a premium. The shorter you get, the less your shove makes people fold: the Big Blind calls a 5bb Button shove with about 66% of hands, but a 10bb shove with only about 31%.
Sources and assumptions
- Chen & Ankenman, The Mathematics of Poker (ConJelCo, 2006) - Includes the classic jam-or-fold analysis of short-stack play.
- Fold equity (Wikipedia) - The standard definition of fold equity.
- Independent Chip Model (Wikipedia) - A general overview of how ICM turns stacks and payouts into prize equity.
The solved numbers on this page
- Chip-EV shove/fold solves, 6-max unless a figure says 9-max.
- 0.125bb ante per player (not a big-blind ante). Stacks are counted before blinds and antes are posted.
- Percentages are shares of all 1,326 starting combos, rounded to the nearest whole number.
- Only shove and fold are modelled. Limps, min-raises and postflop play are not.
See new guides first in Google
Add Push Fold Trainer as a preferred source and Google shows our new articles more often in Top Stories.
Related guides
- 2.3Push/Fold Strategy by Stack Depth: 5bb vs. 10bb vs. 15bbHow the button's opening range actually changes from 5bb to 15bb effective, with the three solved charts side by side.
- 1.4What Is Fold Equity? The Math Behind Every ShoveHow often your opponent folds, multiplied by the pot you win when they do - and why that number and your equity when called have to be read together.
- 4.1What Is ICM? A Guide to the Independent Chip ModelWhat the Independent Chip Model is, why a tournament chip's value is variable rather than fixed, and how that makes correct play tighter in some spots and far more aggressive in others.