PREFLOP CHART · ~28% of hands
CO opening range — 6-max cash 100bb
The cutoff is the second-most profitable seat after the button. At 100bb in 6-max cash, CO opens about 28% of hands — tight enough that you usually have the equity advantage when called, but wide enough to keep BTN from 3-betting you light. CO's positional edge is real but smaller than BTN's: you only have position over the blinds, and you face a calling/3-betting button that gets to play in position the entire hand.
Range — the hands you play
- All pocket pairs (22 – AA)
- All suited aces (A2s – AKs)
- All suited kings down to K6s
- All suited queens down to Q8s
- Suited connectors: T9s, 98s, 87s, 76s, 65s, 54s
- Broadway offsuit: AKo, AQo, AJo, ATo, KQo, KJo, KTo, QJo, QTo, JTo
- Offsuit aces: A9o (sometimes), A8o – ATo at full frequency
Key insights
- Compared to BTN, drop most weak offsuit aces (A8o–A5o), small suited gappers, and the bottom suited Kx.
- The biggest mistake at CO is opening too wide — your range collides with BTN's flatting range, putting you OOP with a worse range in 3-bet pots.
- CO benefits from raising a touch larger (2.5x – 3x) at live games where SB/BB defend wider than equilibrium.
Frequently asked
How does CO open differ from HJ?
CO opens about 28% vs HJ's 22%. The extra 6 percentage points are mostly suited connectors and weak suited Kx that become profitable once you remove HJ from the players-left-to-act count. HJ has to worry about both CO and BTN re-raising; CO only has the BTN.
Should CO fight back against BTN 3-bets?
Yes — 4-bet QQ+, AKs, and a small bluff slice (A5s, K9s mixed). Calling 3-bets with TT, AQs, AJs, KQs and some suited connectors realizes equity reasonably well even out of position. Pure folds: everything below pocket eights, off-suit broadways below KQo.