Short-stack spots in tournaments move fast, and a push/fold chart turns those all-in choices into a simple reference away from the table. 

With 10–15 big blinds or less, one mistake can cost an event, so many players study these charts before logging into a site or taking a live seat.

Reading a Push/Fold Chart: Blinds, Position, and Ranges

A push/fold chart lays out stack sizes in big blinds on one axis and table position on the other, then groups hands into shove or fold decisions. 

Each row or cell gives a simple answer for a given stack band, such as 5, 8, 10, or 15 big blinds, so a player knows which holdings shove from early, middle, or late position. A push/fold chart is a poker strategy chart built for speed when chips run short.

Most versions cluster hands into broad classes such as pairs, big aces, suited aces, broadway cards, and selected suited connectors. A 5 big blind stack on the button might shove close to 45–55 percent of starting hands, while that same stack under the gun might shove closer to 12–15 percent.

Common chart features include:

• Stack size in big blinds, split into bands such as 5, 8, 10, and 15 BB
• Table position from under the gun through the blinds
• Hand classes, such as pairs, big aces, suited aces, and broadways
• A simple mark for shove or fold, sometimes with approximate shove frequencies
• Notes on antes and table size so the push/fold chart fits the actual format

When Push/Fold Starts: Stack Depth Benchmarks in Practice

Push/fold decisions matter most once stacks drop below about 15 big blinds, and they dominate once stacks hit single digits.

Take a nine-handed event with blinds at 300/600 and a 600 big blind ante. A 10 big blind stack holds 6,000 chips in that spot. One full orbit costs 300 as small blind, 1,200 as big blind plus ante, so 1,500 in total. 

That is 25 percent of the stack gone without winning a pot. A chart helps a player shove earlier in late position instead of drifting into a tiny stack where opponents call wider and apply pressure.

Poker Tournament Charts and Real Structures

Live poker rooms often post full structure sheets online before events begin, so checking a venue’s tournament schedule in advance helps players know when push/fold decisions are likely to dominate the day.

In many 30-minute level events, stacks can drop from 75–100 big blinds at the start toward the 20 big blind zone by levels six to eight, and push/fold ideas start to matter much more at that stage.

Players often use charts alongside structure sheets in simple ways: to track current big blind count after each level or major pot, and to mark levels where stack bands like 15, 10, or 7 big blinds and key high payout poker stages make push/fold decisions the main focus.

Push/Fold Ranges by Stack Size and Position

A poker shove chart turns vague short-stack aggression advice into concrete ranges tied to stack size and position. It does not try to cover every nuance; it offers a baseline, often built from Nash-style or Chip EV models that assume standard rake and no extreme exploits, and shows roughly how wide to shove in common tournament spots.

The table below gives simplified examples using approximate shove frequencies, so ranges stay easy to remember away from the felt.

The table shows baseline shove ranges for unopened pots; limpers, callers, re-shoves, and bounty formats can push recommended ranges noticeably wider or tighter.

At common ante levels, an 8 big blind shove from the button often risks those 8 big blinds to win a pot of roughly 2–3 big blinds when everyone folds. 

Take the 8 big blind button row as a practical spot. Suppose the blinds fold often enough that your shove gets through around 40 percent of the time. When called, you hold roughly 38–42 percent equity against a typical calling range. 

That mix gives the shove positive Chip EV, since the pot you pick up uncontested offsets the times you are called and lose; the chart turns that background math into simple hand-class groupings and shove frequencies.

Push/Fold Chart Rows and Labels

These example push or fold chart rows assume:

1. Full-ring nine-handed tables with antes in play.
2. No open limpers or callers before the shove.
3. No bounty component or progressive knockout prizes.
4. Regular-speed MTT structures rather than turbo or hyper formats.
5. Typical low- to mid-stakes fields without extreme exploitation.

The 5 BB and 8 BB rows follow pure Chip EV logic in standard MTTs, while the 12 BB under-the-gun row reflects an ICM bubble example, so that the early-position shove band stays tighter.

Chart labels such as “Chip EV” or “ICM-aware” signal whether spots aim at pure chip gain or take payout ladders into account. Players usually pick one model and drill its numbers so that shove decisions feel automatic under time pressure.

Population tendencies matter as well. Many low- and mid-stakes pools still overfold to large preflop shoves, while some live events show loose calls once antes climb. Small, disciplined adjustments handle that; shove ranges can stretch slightly when players fold too much and tighten when callers arrive wide.

Detailed combo-based charts often show small differences between hands in the same class, yet the hand-class and frequency approach here is easier to memorize away from the table.

Adjusting a Push/Fold Chart for Payouts and ICM

Pure Chip EV spots treat every chip as equal, yet tournament payouts change that story near bubbles and final tables. A push/fold chart built on Chip EV often shoves wider from an early position than an ICM-aware chart would when a min-cash or pay jump is close. 

Stack preservation gains value when a payout ladder turns one more orbit of survival into a large jump in real prize money; for example, the 2024 WSOP Main Event offered a $10,000,000 first prize from a $94,041,600 prize pool across 10,112 entries, as reported by ESPN in July 2024.

Many mid-stakes series now post payout tables where a min-cash sits around 1.8–2.0 times the buy-in, and jumps between spots on final tables can reach 30–40 percent or more. Those numbers drive ICM adjustments that tighten some shoves and widen others.

Consider a nine-handed final-table bubble in a $215 online MTT with 12 big blinds under the gun and two stacks below 8 big blinds still in. A Chip EV run might treat a hand such as ATo as a clear shove, since chip gain from folds and calls looks acceptable. An ICM-aware run of the same spot often prefers folding, because busting here gives up a near-lock on a min-cash while survival preserves a large amount of pay-jump equity.

Simple rules of thumb help bridge Chip EV charts and ICM reality:

• Tighten early-position shoves near bubbles when covered by big stacks.
• Keep or widen late-position shoves when short and folded to on the button or small blind.
• Avoid marginal calls when losing would drop a stack from a comfortable zone, such as 25 big blinds, into short-stack territory around 8–10 big blinds.
• Respect big final-table pay jumps where one ladder equals several starting buy-ins, often several times the buy-in in mid-stakes events.

Push/Fold Charts in Online Poker Rooms and All-in Formats

Short-stack formats in online poker rooms turn push/fold decisions into a daily skill. Sit & Gos and spin-style tournaments often start with around 25–50 big blinds, yet short levels and fast structures pull stacks under 15 big blinds quickly. 

A push/shove chart matches these formats by cutting out small openings and focusing on clean shove-or-fold decisions once stacks dip under common thresholds such as 10 or even 8 big blinds.

Some all-in-or-fold cash products run with a fixed entry stack close to 8 big blinds at each buy-in, so a player sits in permanent push/fold territory and can use a chart to decide which hands shove from each seat.

From Charts to Instinct on the Short Stack

Charts work best as a structured way to learn the logic behind short-stack decisions, and regular study of a push/fold chart at home builds a mental map of which hands shove in which seats at each stack band, so decisions come faster during real sessions.

A steady approach helps. Pick one chart pack that matches regular buy-ins, drill a few spots each week, then apply that work in smaller live or online tournaments before raising stakes. Keep emotional control on short stacks as well; frustration can turn good shove ranges into random punts. 

If gambling stops being fun, step back or call 1-800-GAMBLER.

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