Hi I'm just doing some work with ranges does anyone have an MDF percentage we should defend the BB vs each position please. I'm only interested with it being for hu situations in 6max. So hu folded to us BB vs UTG , and hu folded to us BB vs MP etc... Then i can build the ranges from the percentage of hands needed. I feel i'm calling and defending a little to tight here vs some positions

Thankyou very much for your time.

well you can use the solvers/bots to see they're ranges, like snowie.

you can do the math urself or google it to figure out MDF % vs different PF raise sizes...like vs a minraise in the BB you gotta call 1BB, pot has 3.5BB in it already, etc...Then adjust these ranges based on villains PFR%

You should get Applications of No Limit Holdem - all the numbers for this, the ranges etc are available within. Not only that, but it's a fantastic book with a lot of great information in.

Ive looked at snowie and those ranges seem very loose. Are they the correct calling ranges ?. I'm just after constructing some basic default calling ranges vs unknowns. And just vs standard sizings 3x from utg mp c/o and sb and 2.5x from btn.

ok i just looked at snowie range and yea its looser than my default ranges.

However, they aren't THAAAAT loose. you can just take some of the weaker parts of the range out. so for example BB vs BTN with snowie has 64s and ATo A7s, etc...you can take these types out.

I'd suggest you make your own ranges and post them in here for people to see and then they can give you feedback.. I doubt anyones going to just make ur preflop ranges for free.

SB vs BB is the simplest case since we're the only player responsible for defending. So if SB is raising to 3 BB they're risking 2.5 BB to win 1.5 BB. Our minimum defence frequency is 1.5/(2.5+1.5) = 37.5%. If we're defending less than that, the SB can make an immediate profit by raising any two cards.

Against other positions it's a bit more complicated since the bet has to go through multiple players. For example, when the button opens to 2.5x they're risking 2.5 BB to win 1.5 BB, so the minimum defence frequency is again 37.5%, but this is now divided between the two players who are facing the bet. So if for example the SB is defending 15% and the BB 27%, the button cannot make an immediate profit by raising any two cards since their bet would need to get through 62.5% of the time and it only gets through 85% * 73% = 62.1% of the time.

Also, we need to defend more than the minimum frequency if we're ever defending by calling (ie. not 3-betting everything). The more we're calling, the bigger the defence frequency we need. This is because even villain's worst hands continue to have equity against us when we just call.

^^^ Thanks for that nolispeifaflaatoi. I was after mainly vs utg and mp from the bb. Ive got ranges i've built and currently use and was just tinkering with them. I just thought they might be a little tight vs those positions when looking at snowies ranges suggested.But snowie looked a little loose so was just after a rough percentage number.

For reasons mentioned I would not use the MDF very much other than for river spots because villain should have a ridiculous amount of equity and position, therefor just defending the minimum for him to make an immediate profit is disastrous.

I am always a bit skeptical about the one street at the time calculations. In practice, one thinks further (exploiting) and as GTO, it might have a different opinion (one can buy or compute that info if one thinks it is worth it).

But interesting to think (if it seems worth it in practice) that one can play some fewer hands when one 3-bets more. Or plays more aggro postflop.

In tournaments, I often think about the other players who should be doing their share of defending, and I am not too fancy about the marginal hands (I read that from a book).

(An AT folding in BB vs. the button open raise. Likely not, as not too much in danger of being dominated).

This is a good start but remember it’s prone to being wrong.

E.g. how will you account for the amount of times SB and BTN must defend? How much “more” does B.B. have to defend than the other positions? Will sizing affect the ratio?


No one will be able to give you what you asked for in the OP because it’s not available to anyone. The best you’ll get given is a preflop chart and you just have to hope it’s right.

Rather then start a new thread I'll just put my question here.

So if it's a 2.5bb raise the calculation would be 1.5/(2.5+1.5) = 37.5%

How do I go about making some default ranges to defend?

Can I call hands that have 37.5% equity vs there opening range?

also, in the BB vs BTN scenario we are OOP the rest of the hand.

So when we call, we certainly want our call to be better than folding, and folding looses 1BB per situation.

I would rather 3bet or fold, makes our live easier.

The minimum defense frequency is SB and BB combined, not just the BB.
Folding loses nothing, it's EV neutral. That 1BB isn't ours anymore as soon as we decided to get dealt into the hand.

Fair point.