Opening from the Button in MTTs

The Button is where winning poker players make the bulk of their profit. At 100bb in a 6-Max MTT, a strong BTN opening range is approximately 45-52%% of hands. That is nearly half the deck, and this width is entirely justified by the combination of position and fold equity. From the Button, only the Small Blind and Big Blind remain. Both are forced to play out of position against you for the rest of the hand if they call. This positional advantage is so powerful that you can profitably open many hands that would be automatic folds from early position. The BTN range at 100bb includes all pocket pairs, all suited aces, all suited kings, suited queens down to Q5s-Q6s, suited jacks, most suited connectors and one-gappers, offsuit aces, most offsuit broadways, and a variety of suited and offsuit combinations that have reasonable high-card value or connectivity. Looking at RangerPro's BTN range in the range builder, the matrix is filled with color across a wide swath. Compared to UTG (15-18%%), the BTN (45-52%%) opens roughly three times as many hands. This visual contrast is one of the clearest demonstrations of why position is the most important factor in poker. Steal frequency is the key concept for BTN play. When both blinds fold, you win 1.5bb uncontested. If the blinds fold to your raise 60%% of the time, virtually any two cards show a preflop profit. But you should not open literally any two cards because the hands at the bottom of the range lose too much when called. The threshold is hands that have some postflop playability or high-card equity. Against competent blind defenders, BTN strategy requires balance. If you open 50%% of hands, you need a plan for when the Big Blind calls (which should happen frequently) or 3-bets. Your range is wide enough that you will often have marginal holdings postflop, which means knowing when to continuation bet and when to give up is critical. RangerPro's BTN range includes mixed-frequency hands, shown at reduced opacity in the range builder. These are hands on the margin where sometimes opening and sometimes folding is the optimal strategy. Paying attention to which hands are mixed helps you understand exactly where the boundary of profitability lies. At 40-50bb, the BTN range stays very wide, often around 40-48%%. At 25bb, it narrows slightly to about 35-45%% because blind reshoves become more effective. Below 15bb, the BTN push-fold range is extremely wide, often 50-65%% of hands, making it the most aggressive shoving position at the table.