---
title: "Push or Fold Calculator for Short Stacks"
url: "https://georgelipoker.com/tools/push-fold-calculator.md"
canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/tools/push-fold-calculator"
last_updated: "2026-10-23"
type: "tool"
summary: "Free push or fold calculator: shove and call charts from 1 to 20 big blinds heads-up, plus a prize-money mode that prices a shove with ICM."
related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/tools.md"]
---

# Push or Fold Calculator for Short Stacks

Free push or fold calculator: shove and call charts from 1 to 20 big blinds heads-up, plus a prize-money mode that prices a shove with ICM.

The push or fold calculator tells you whether to shove all in or fold a starting hand at a short stack, with the full chart for that depth. It has two modes: heads-up with chips only, and with prize money (ICM).

## How to use it

Chips only: enter an effective stack from 1 to 20 big blinds, choose the small blind (push or fold) or the big blind (call or fold), and enter your two cards. You get the action, the EV of acting and of folding, your equity, the share of hands the chart plays and a 13 by 13 chart of the whole range. Choosing a cell in the chart puts that hand in the box. A stack between two steps is read at the nearest half big blind.

With prize money: enter 2 to 6 players with their chip stacks in the order the seats act (the last two seats hold the small and big blind), the blinds, the payouts for each place, the seat that shoves, the one seat that can call and the top percent of hands it calls with, then your hand. You get the value of the shove minus the value of folding in prize money and as a share of the prize pool, how often everyone folds, your win, tie and lose chances when called, the same push in chips alone, and the calling range at which the push stops paying. Input that breaks a rule shows a message and no number.

## How it is computed

Chips only. Blinds are 0.5 and 1, with no ante and equal stacks. The small blind shoves or folds, and the big blind facing a shove calls or folds. Shoving and calling ranges are an equilibrium over the 169 starting-hand classes, with the pairs of hands that share a card counted, solved at 39 depths until neither side could gain more than 0.001 big blind a hand. Folding is worth -0.50 big blinds for the small blind and -1.00 for the big blind facing a shove. Calling is worth S x (2e - 1) big blinds for a stack S and equity e.

Prize money. The shove is worth f x E(steal) + (1 - f) x (w x E(win) + t x E(tie) + l x E(lose)), where f is the share of the caller’s hands that fold with your blockers counted, w, t and l are your win, tie and lose shares against the hands that call, and E is your ICM prize equity after each outcome. Folding is worth E(fold), where the big blind collects the small blind. The all-in is the shorter of the two stacks, and the blinds of seats outside the hand stay in the pot.

## Worked examples

A9o as the small blind at 10 big blinds: push. Pushing is worth +0.93 bb against -0.50 bb for folding, with 54.0% equity when called, and the chart pushes 58.3% of all hands at this depth. [Open it in the calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/push-fold-calculator.md#mode=a&stack=10&pos=sb&hand=Ah+9c).

K8o as the big blind facing a shove at 10 big blinds: call. Calling is worth -0.11 bb against -1.00 bb for folding, with 49.4% equity against the shoving range. The same hand shoves as the small blind up to 18 big blinds and calls as the big blind up to 13.5 big blinds. [Open it in the calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/push-fold-calculator.md#mode=a&stack=10&pos=bb&hand=Ks+8h).

| Spot | Action | EV of acting | EV of folding | Equity | Chart share |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| A9o, small blind, 10 bb | push | +0.93 bb | -0.50 bb | 54.0% | 58.3% |
| K8o, big blind, 10 bb | call | -0.11 bb | -1.00 bb | 49.4% | 37.4% |

Prize money: three players with stacks of 2,000, 6,000, 4,000 chips, blinds 100 and 200, payouts of $50, $30, $20, and the hero shoving J8o from seat 1 into a big blind who calls with the top 25 percent of hands. [Open it in the calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/push-fold-calculator.md#mode=b&players=3&stacks=2000%2C6000%2C4000&sb=100&bb=200&pay=50%2C+30%2C+20&hero=0&caller=2&hand=Js+8h&range=25&cur=%24).

## Questions

### What does push or fold mean?

With a short stack the useful choices shrink to two: move all in or fold. The small blind shoves or folds, and the big blind facing a shove calls or folds. This calculator gives that answer for any hand from 1 to 20 big blinds, and shows the whole chart for the depth you pick.

### How are the charts worked out?

Each chart is an equilibrium: the shoving range and the calling range are each the best reply to the other. They are solved over all 169 starting-hand classes with the real chance that two hands share a card counted, at 39 depths from 1 to 20 big blinds in half-blind steps, until neither side could gain more than 0.001 big blind a hand by changing its range. Blinds are 0.5 and 1 with no ante.

### Why can calling be right when the EV is negative?

Folding is not free. Facing a shove the big blind has already put in 1 big blind, so folding is worth -1.00 bb. K8o calling a shove at 10 big blinds is worth -0.11 bb with 49.4% equity against the shoving range, which loses less than folding does, so the call is correct.

### Why does prize money change the answer?

In a tournament a chip you lose costs more prize equity than a chip you win earns, so a shove that is right in chips can be wrong when places pay. The prize-money mode prices the same shove with ICM, using the stacks, the blinds and the payouts you enter, and shows the gain over folding in prize money and as a share of the prize pool.

### What stacks and blinds does it cover?

The chips-only mode covers 1 to 20 big blinds heads-up, blinds 0.5 and 1, no ante. The prize-money mode takes 2 to 6 players with your own stacks and blinds (each stack at least the big blind, the small blind below the big blind), no ante, and one player who may call, using a calling range you set as the top percent of hands. A stack typed between two steps is read at the nearest half big blind, and a note under the answer names the stack it used.

## Related pages

- [Push or fold charts](https://georgelipoker.com/push-fold.md): Every heads-up shove and call range by stack depth.
- [Heads-up at 10 big blinds](https://georgelipoker.com/push-fold/heads-up/10-bb.md): The small blind’s push chart and the big blind’s call chart at ten.
- [K8o: where it shoves and calls](https://georgelipoker.com/push-fold/heads-up/hand/k8o.md): The deepest stack at which K8o shoves and calls.
- [ICM calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/icm-calculator.md): Turn chip stacks and payouts into prize equity and a bubble factor.
- [Equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md): Win, tie and equity for any two hands, ranges or random hands.
- [ICM examples](https://georgelipoker.com/icm.md): Worked prize equity for common tables and payout structures.
- [Free data downloads](https://georgelipoker.com/data.md): Every shove and call frequency as CSV and JSON.

## Related

- [Free Poker Calculators: Odds, Equity and ICM](https://georgelipoker.com/tools.md)