MTT Preflop Strategy: Turning Flat-Calls from Leak to Weapon

Most losing players aren’t bleeding money because of massive, obvious mistakes.

It’s the small, repeated errors that make or break a career.

Slow leaks chip away at your profits little by little.

One of the biggest? Flatting too wide, and in the wrong spots.

In today’s article, I’ll show you how to build solid, theory-driven, profit-generating flat-calling strategies.

Flatting Wide: The Mistake That’s Too Easy to Make

Let’s start with a test.

You’re playing 50bb effective stacks. The UTG player open-raises, and it folds to you in the Hijack.

Lucid Poker cEV, 50bb effective: UTG open-raise strategy.

Red: Raise, Blue: Fold.

Above, you can see UTG’s open-raise strategy.

Okay—quiz time.

Without looking at a chart, try to identify the worst hand in each category that is a full-frequency VPIP from the Hijack facing UTG’s open.

Q1) Pocket Pairs

• 22

• 33

• 44

• 55

• 66

Q2) Suited Connectors

• 54s

• 65s

• 76s

• 87s

• None of the above

Q3) Suited One-Gappers

• 75s

• 86s

• 97s

• T8s

• J9s

Q4) Suited Ax

• A2s

• A3s

• A4s

• A5s

Q5) Offsuit Broadways

• QTo

• QJo

• KJo

• KQo

• None of the above

Do you have your answers? Check the chart and answer key below to see how you did.

Lucid Poker cEV, 50bb effective: HJ facing UTG open-raise strategy.

Red: 3-bet, Green: Call, Blue: Fold.

Answer Key

Q1) Pocket Pairs

Answer: #4 — 55 is the bottom of the full-frequency VPIPs from the Hijack.

Q2) Suited Connectors

Answer: #5 — None of the above. The weakest full-frequency suited connector is T9s. Even 98s is only a 39% frequency play.

Q3) Suited One-Gappers

Answer: #4 — T8s. 97s is a pure fold.

Q4) Suited Ax

Answer: #2 — A3s. A2s is a pure fold.

Q5) Offsuit Broadways

Answer: #5 — None of the above. KJo is a 95% frequency fold, and QJo folds pure. KQo is not a full-frequency VPIP, folding 8% of the time.

How did you do?

Not All Flatting Mistakes Are Equal

If you got some answers wrong above, that’s okay. The reality is there are two kinds of mistakes—and one is worse than the other.

Frequency vs. Pure Mistakes

When a combo mixes between calling and folding, it means you’re at the fringe of your range. Either action is worth zero. So if you overdid it with suited connectors, pocket pairs, or KQo, don’t feel too bad.

It’s the pure mistakes you need to worry about.

Pure mistakes are any actions that are 0% frequency plays—“it’s not a thing.” This applies postflop as well.

For example, in the scenario above, ATo and QJo lose EV. KJo, which 3-bets 5% of the time, breaks even when doing so but loses when flat-calling—the zero-frequency play.

Flatting too often with the right combos is still better than flatting the wrong ones.

What Happens When You Make Frequency Mistakes Preflop?

Getting preflop frequencies right matters for the rest of the game tree.

In the scenario above, if you flat-call suited connectors 100% of the time—while your opponent wouldn’t be able to actively exploit you—there are passive effects. Since these are bottom-of-range calls, everything stronger in UTG’s range would gain a slight bump in EV.

But the impacts aren’t limited to preflop.

Because the densities in your range have shifted, your range will perform better on some boards and worse on others. This is why you should be careful about treating a GTO solve like divine revelation. If your opponents make preflop mistakes, postflop strategies can shift dramatically.

Why We Flat-Call

As a category, preflop flatting carries inherent weakness. By not putting more money in the pot, you greatly reduce the presence of certain hand classes—the strongest ones—from your range, if not remove them entirely. In solver terms, this is called having a condensed range. You are capped. But being capped does not mean being unprofitable.

This is the key point: you flat-call because it makes more money than folding, and at least as much as 3-betting. You may not have a hand that deserves to bloat the pot, but it does deserve to see the first three cards.

If you played only a fold-or-3-bet strategy versus an open, some hands would become unprofitable to play. That’s because you’d unnecessarily increase the cost to see a flop while also raising the risk of having your equity denied when your opponent 4-bets.

The Concepts You Need to Know to Flat-Call Like A Pro

Pros don’t rely entirely on rote memorization when crafting their in-game responses. Charts are useful for checking your work, but it’s the underlying concepts that matter most. Below are the key considerations when thinking about flatting preflop.

Position and Equity Realization

Let’s revisit the first example where you’re in the Hijack and compare it to the Button’s response.

Lucid Poker cEV, 50bb effective: HJ facing UTG open-raise strategy. Red: 3-bet, Green: Call, Blue: Fold.	Lucid Poker cEV, 50bb effective: BTN facing UTG open-raise strategy. Red: 3-bet, Green: Call, Blue: Fold.

The Button’s flatting range widens considerably compared to the Hijack’s—17% versus 10%. While it’s obvious that you can flat-call wider the later your position, it’s worth considering why that is.

The Button has absolute position, which translates to higher equity realization. The Hijack, on the other hand, faces the challenge of being sandwiched by the Cutoff or Button if they over-call or 3-bet squeeze. This reduces the Hijack’s overall equity realization. By flatting tighter, the Hijack ensures they can still play profitably when the hand goes multi-way, while also keeping their call-fold frequency low enough to withstand squeezes from late position.

As a result, the Hijack doesn’t flat-call suited connectors at full frequency, while the Button can even mix in suited two-gappers (75s, 64s, 53s, T7s, Q8s).

The rule of thumb: the more players left to act, the tighter you should play.

Domination

Notice a similarity between both ranges: offsuit Broadways are not fully present—even from the Button.

This highlights the problem of domination. UTG’s range is packed with strong Ax and Broadways. When the weakest offsuit opens in UTG’s range are KQo and AJo, holding hands like KTo, ATo, QJo, or KJo is a losing proposition. Only on the Button does ATo make it in at full frequency, and even then, it’s still worth zero.

One way to think about this: in relation to early position, you need to mitigate domination; in relation to the players behind you, you need to account for equity realization.

Stack Depth

Another important factor is stack depth, which can amplify or soften the effects of a preflop mistake.

In the examples above, you’re playing 50bb effective stacks. But what happens if you decrease the stack depth?

Lucid GTO cEV, 40bb effective: BTN facing UTG open-raise strategy. Red: 3-bet, Yellow: Call, Blue: Fold.	Lucid GTO cEV, 30bb effective: BTN facing UTG open-raise strategy. Red: 3-bet, Yellow: Call, Blue: Fold.
Lucid GTO cEV, 25bb effective: BTN facing UTG open-raise strategy. Dark Red: All-in, Light Red: 3-bet, Yellow: Call, Blue: Fold.	Lucid GTO cEV, 20bb effective: BTN facing UTG open-raise strategy. Dark Red: All-in, Red: 3-bet, Yellow: Call, Blue: Fold.

In the table above, you can see the Button’s response to UTG’s open across stack depths—starting at 40bb effective (top left) down to 25bb (bottom right). A clear pattern emerges: as stacks shrink, suited and connected combos contract.

At 50bb, 86s (a suited one-gapper) flat-called 100% of the time and was worth a nominal +0.01bb. At 40bb, 86s drops to just over half frequency. At 30bb, it disappears altogether. As stack depth decreases further, the weakest one-gapper becomes T8s—and even then, not at full frequency—while stronger suited connectors also start folding more often. By 20bb, 86s actually loses –0.08bb when you call.

Notice, however, that offsuit Broadways don’t contract nearly as much as suited hands. That’s because this hand class performs about the same versus UTG’s range whether stacks are 20bb or 50bb, since UTG’s opening range remains relatively static (around 17%). Whenever your Broadways make top pair, stacking off—or losing a sizable pot—is generally fine, even a bit deeper.

By contrast, the suited region suffers heavily at shorter stacks. These hands benefit from stack leverage and perform best in multi-street situations. With less depth, their equity realization drops off dramatically.

Little stacks like big cards. Big stacks like little cards.

Summary

When developing flat-calling ranges, keep the following factors in mind:

• The Opener’s Range: How often is your hand dominated by the bottom of their range within the same hand class? How does it perform against the rest of their holdings? If the answers are “often” and “poorly,” you have a fold.
• The Players Behind: How likely are your opponents to over-call or 3-bet squeeze? The higher the risk of multi-way action or a price hike when you’re out of position, the stronger your flatting range needs to be.
• Stack Depth: How does your hand perform at this depth? Remember: offsuit high cards retain value when stacks are shallow, while suited, connected, draw-type hands require more depth to justify playing.

And don’t worry—nobody gets it perfect every time.

Good luck!

If you’d like to learn more about strategically folding in MTTs, read: Check or Bet? How to Build Strong Flop Check-Back Strategies in Tournaments.