At 8 big blinds on the button, which hands go all in, and which ones do you call with?
Updated September 28, 2026
At 8 big blinds, a small raise no longer makes sense: raising to 2 BB already commits a quarter of your stack and leaves nothing behind to fold with. The format simplifies itself: all in or fold.
This page gives the two ranges that matter at that depth: the button opening, and the small blind calling. The grids come from the reference range pack in the app, which publishes 7 BB and 9 BB, the two depths around 8 BB.
The three zones of a Spin and Go stack.
Why raising stops working
At 25 BB, raising to 2 BB risks 2 BB to win 1.5 in blinds, and 23 BB are left to play with. At 8 BB, the same raise leaves 6 BB: no room to fold to a shove, no room to play a flop.
Going all in removes the problem. It leaves the opponent a binary choice, it takes the blinds without a flop most of the time, and it keeps you out of pots where your stack decides for you.
Button at 7 BB, three players. Hands missing from the grid fold.
The button opens wide, and tightens as it gets deeper
At 7 BB the button shoves 37.9 % of hands and folds 61.2 %. Every pair, every ace, the big broadway kings and the suited connectors are in.
At 9 BB the same range drops to 31.4 %. Two big blinds deeper, six points fewer hands: the taller the stack, the more a lost stack costs, and the more hand you need to risk it.
Button at 9 BB: the weakest hands leave the range.
What the small blind calls with
Against a 7 BB button shove, the small blind calls 25.2 % of hands. The big blind is still behind her, so she calls tighter than she would heads-up.
Keep the orders of magnitude: you shove a little over a third of hands, you call with a quarter. The gap between the two is fold equity, and it is what makes the shove profitable.