3-Bet Range by Position: Charts for Every Seat

Your 3-bet range by position is not one fixed list — it shifts with the seat you’re re-raising from and the seat the opener came from. The core logic never changes (value hands plus bluffs), but how wide and how polarized your range should be depends on two things: whether you’ll play the pot in position or out, and how strong the opening range you’re attacking is.

Why position changes the whole range

A 3-bet from the button against a cutoff open is a completely different bet than a 3-bet from the small blind against a button open, even if the hand is identical. On the button you’ll act last on every postflop street; from the small blind you’ll act first, with the big blind still lurking behind you. Out of position, your bluffs realize less equity because opponents can check back and see free cards, so out-of-position ranges skew tighter and more value-heavy. In position, you can add extra speculative bluffs because you control the pot size and steal more pots on later streets.

The opener’s range matters just as much. Early-position opens are tight and 4-bet you back, so you attack them with premiums and a few high-blocker bluffs. Late-position opens are wide and fold-heavy, so you can pressure them with a much broader polarized range. For the flip side of this — what to do when someone 3-bets you — see defending against 3-bets.

3-bet range from the button

Against a cutoff or middle-position open, the button is the best seat to 3-bet from. You’ll be in position for the rest of the hand, so you can run a wide polarized range.

Bucket	Example hands	Notes
Premium value	A-A, K-K, Q-Q, A-K	Always 3-bet
Value	J-J, 10-10, A-Q suited, A-Q offsuit	3-bet, occasionally flat
Bluffs	A-5s to A-2s, K-Qs, Q-Js, suited connectors 8-7s, 7-6s	Pressure the loose open

Total width lands near 10-14% against a wide open. The suited wheel aces (A-5s down to A-2s) are the workhorse bluffs: they carry an ace blocker and flop nut-flush and wheel-straight draws.

3-bet range from the small blind

The small blind is the trickiest seat. You’re out of position against everyone, and the big blind still has to act. Flat-calling from the SB is usually a trap — you invite the big blind to squeeze and you play the rest of the hand out of position. So the SB range is built polarized around 3-betting, not flatting.

Bucket	Example hands	Notes
Value	9-9+, A-J suited+, A-K, A-Q, K-Q suited	3-bet for value
Bluffs	A-5s to A-2s, K-J suited, Q-J suited, J-10 suited	Suited blockers only
Fold	Offsuit junk, small offsuit aces	No playability out of position

Against a button open this is roughly 9-13% of hands. Notice the bluffs are all suited: out of position you can’t afford dead-money bluffs, so every bluff needs blocker value or the ability to flop a real draw.

Combo math: how the ace blockers stack up

Bluff selection is a counting exercise. There are 16 combos of any two unpaired ranks, but only 4 of those are suited. The suited wheel aces — A-5s, A-4s, A-3s, A-2s — give you 4 suited combos each, 16 total of premium bluff material. Each combo holds an ace, so together they remove meaningful chunks of your opponent’s A-A (6 combos), A-K (16 combos), and A-Q (16 combos) — the exact hands that 4-bet you. That blocker density is why suited wheel aces anchor almost every position’s bluffing range, while offsuit hands like K-7o (which offer no blocker to premiums and no suited playability) never make the cut.

A worked spot from the small blind

You’re in the small blind with A♠ 3♠. The button opens 2.5bb — a wide, position-driven late-position range.

• Flat-calling is bad: you’d play out of position with the big blind still able to squeeze, and A-3 suited flops too few strong pairs to defend comfortably.
• Folding surrenders a hand with real bluff equity.
• 3-betting is best. The ace blocks A-A and A-K, so the button’s 4-bet range shrinks. When the button folds their loose opens, you win outright. When they call, A-3 suited flops nut-flush draws and wheel outs, so you can keep barreling.

Now move that same A♠ 3♠ to the button facing an UTG open. It becomes a fold — that early range is too strong to bluff-raise, and you’d rather keep your button 3-bets value-heavy against tight opens.

Big blind and cutoff notes

• Big blind: you’re closing the action and already have money in, so you can flat wider than the SB. But 3-bet a polarized range against steals — big pairs and suited-ace bluffs — to punish loose button and cutoff opens.
• Cutoff: against a middle-position or under-the-gun open, keep the 3-bet range tighter and more linear, since players behind can cold-call or squeeze. Save the wide polarized stuff for when you’re the button.

Common position mistakes

• Same range from every seat. The single biggest leak — a button 3-bet range used from the small blind is far too loose out of position.
• Flat-calling from the SB. You invite squeezes and play out of position. Prefer 3-bet-or-fold from the small blind with most hands.
• Offsuit bluffs out of position. Without blockers or suited playability they can’t realize equity. Cut them.
• Ignoring the opener’s seat. Widen against late opens, tighten against early ones, regardless of your own seat.

Putting it together

A 3-bet range by position is the same value-plus-bluffs framework tuned by two dials: your seat and the opener’s seat. Go wide and polarized in position against loose opens; go tight and value-heavy out of position against strong opens. Pair this with a solid default 3-bet range and you’ll re-raise correctly from every chair. The full preflop framework lives in the preflop strategy hub.