GTO preflop charts

GTO preflop charts are colour schemes showing per starting hand what the equilibrium strategy does: raise, call or fold. They are calculated by solvers and form the most reliable basis there is for your preflop game. Before they are any use to you, though, you have to understand what you are looking at.

The grid of 169 hands

Every chart is a grid of thirteen by thirteen squares, one for each unique starting hand. The pairs sit on the diagonal, the suited hands top right, the offsuit hands bottom left. AKs top right is therefore something different from AKo bottom left, and that difference is bigger than beginners think: suited hands make flush draws and so play better after the flop. What such a set of hands represents you can read in what is a range in poker.

Colours and frequencies

Every action has a colour, usually red or orange for raising, green for calling, blue or grey for folding. A completely red square means: this hand always raises. More interesting are the split squares, where a hand raises 30 percent of the time and folds 70 percent, for instance. That is called mixing, and it exists because at equilibrium the hand balances on the edge. In practice you may simply round borderline hands off: pick the biggest colour and keep it simple.

One chart per situation

There is no single GTO preflop chart, there are dozens. Which chart applies depends on your position, on what happened before you and on the stack depths. The chart for opening from the button is far wider than the one for opening from early position, and the answer to a 3-bet, a raise over your raise, is a completely separate scheme again. So start small: the opening charts per position first, exactly as we recommend in preflop ranges by position.

From paper to reflex

Hanging a chart beside your screen only works up to a point: at the moment you need it, you have no time to search. Training works better than peeking. Take one position, cover the chart, name the action for twenty random hands and then check yourself. With the free range visualiser you see every range as a grid and your eyes get used to the shapes that keep coming back: pairs on the diagonal, the broad band of suited hands, the narrow point of offsuit.

The trap of blind trust

Charts are a baseline, not an order. They assume opponents who also play equilibrium, and those rarely sit at your table at low stakes. If your table clearly deviates, think of five players who want to see every flop, then you may deviate too: open a little tighter, play value wider, bluff less. The chart gives you the foundation, your opponents decide the finish.