Push or Fold? How to Play a Short Stack in Poker Tournaments
Published 2026-09-27
Short answer
Below about 15BB, shove the Nash range for your seat and fold everything else — at 10BB in 6-max that is 38% of hands on the button and 14% under the gun.
Push/fold is a short-stack strategy where you only ever shove all-in or fold preflop — no min-raises, no calling. Once your stack drops to roughly 10-15 big blinds, a standard raise-and-play-postflop plan stops working well, and a precomputed Nash push/fold range becomes the correct, unexploitable default.
When does push/fold apply?
As a rule of thumb: start thinking push/fold at 15BB effective, and treat it as your default plan under 10BB. Above that, you generally have enough chips behind to open smaller, see a flop, and play postflop poker. Below it, a small raise commits too much of your stack to fold to a re-raise, but leaves too little behind to play a hand out — so the range of workable options collapses to two: shove, or give up the hand.
The exact cutoff moves with position and table size. A shove from under the gun at a 9-max table has to survive eight players acting behind it; a shove from the button or small blind only has to survive one or two. That is why push/fold charts are broken out by position, not just by stack size.
What are Nash push/fold ranges, and why do they work?
A Nash push/fold range is the shoving frequency, per hand, that makes you unexploitable at a given stack depth and position — no matter what range your opponents call with, you can't be made to lose more chip-EV by adjusting. It's computed, not guessed: for every 1 of the 169 starting hand classes, the math finds the exact push frequency where shoving and folding break even against a rational calling range.
The practical upside is that you don't have to solve this at the table. The range is fixed for a given (table size, position, stack) combination, so studying it ahead of time — away from the table — means the decision is already made by the time you're actually short-stacked and under pressure.
The ICM caveat
Nash ranges assume every chip is worth the same amount — that's chip-EV. Real tournaments don't work that way once the payout structure starts to matter: near the money bubble, at a final table, or in a satellite where min-cashing is the whole game, losing your stack costs you more in real money than winning the same number of chips gains you. That's what ICM (Independent Chip Model) measures, and it means the correct range in those specific spots is tighter than the pure Nash chart — you need a better hand to shove, because busting is disproportionately costly. Away from those pressure points, the Nash range is the right default.
Three worked examples
These numbers come straight from RangeMyHand's push/fold charts — no rounding for effect.
6-max, Button, 10BB
The button pushes 38% of hands at 10BB in a 6-max game — a wide range, since only the two blinds are left to act. That's 3% tighter than the range at 8BB, and the marginal hands at this exact stack include 98o, K9o, and J9o. See the full 6-max button 10BB chart.
6-max, Small Blind, 8BB
From the small blind at 8BB, 6-max, the push range is 69% — wider than the button's 41% at the same stack, since only the big blind is left to act — and 12% tighter than the small blind's range at 5BB. Marginal hands here include . See the full 6-max small blind 8BB chart.
9-max, Under the Gun, 15BB
Under the gun at a 9-max table with 15BB, the range drops to just 7% — eight players still have to fold behind you, so only the strongest hands shove. It's 1% tighter than at 12BB, with AJs and 77 sitting right at the margin. See the full 9-max UTG 15BB chart.
Common push/fold mistakes
- Using one range for every position. The correct shove range from the button is nowhere close to the range from under the gun at the same stack depth — treating them the same is one of the most common leaks.
- Ignoring table size. A 9-max under-the-gun range is far tighter than a 6-max one at the same stack (9% versus 14% at 10BB), because more players are left to act behind you.
- Applying Nash ranges blindly near the bubble. That's the ICM caveat above — tighten up when a bust-out costs more than the chips are worth.
- Folding too much because a hand "feels" weak. Nash ranges include hands like offsuit connectors and weak aces at wide stack depths precisely because folding them loses more equity than shoving does.
For the math behind how these ranges are actually computed, see Nash push/fold charts explained. To see how these ranges narrow by seat at 10BB and under, see push/fold by position.
FAQ
What is push/fold poker?
Push/fold is a short-stack strategy where, preflop, your only two options are to shove all-in or fold — no calling, no raising to less than your full stack. It applies once your stack is short enough that a standard raise-and-play-postflop plan no longer works well, which in practice starts somewhere around 10 to 15 big blinds effective.
What stack size should I start playing push/fold?
As a rule of thumb, start thinking push/fold once your effective stack drops to about 10-15 big blinds, and treat it as the default plan under 10BB. The exact line shifts by position and table size — earlier positions need a stronger hand to shove than the button or small blind, since more players are still left to act behind.
Do Nash push/fold ranges account for ICM?
No — Nash push/fold ranges assume chip-EV, where every chip is worth the same regardless of stack size. In tournaments near the bubble or a final table, chips are not worth the same (that is what ICM measures), so the correct range is tighter than the Nash chart shows. Use the Nash range as your baseline and tighten it in those specific spots.
Drill these ranges until they're automatic — free trainer, no account needed.
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