AOF: two buttons, zero improvisation — range strategy by stack depth
Two buttons. No bet sizing, no post-flop, no reading a bet-sizing tell. AOF looks like it removed the skill from poker — it actually just moved all of it into one number: your stack depth.
Why depth does all the work
With no betting rounds to gather information, your entire hand strength requirement scales directly off how many big blinds you're risking. Shallow stacks push wide because folding loses value fast. Deeper stacks tighten because a bad shove costs proportionally more.
Rough shoving range by effective stack
Calling ranges tighten faster than shoving ranges
You're already committing your entire stack to call — there's no fold-equity component working in your favor the way it does for the shover. That asymmetry is why a standard shoving range and a standard calling range against it never look the same size.
- Position still matters — later positions face fewer live callers, so ranges widen the same way they do in full poker.
- Multiple limpers or shorter stacks behind tighten your range fast — someone else can still wake up with a hand.
- Update your number every time your stack crosses a depth threshold, not once per session.
The instinct that gets punished hardest
Playing a 10bb range at 20bb feels aggressive and correct in the moment — it's actually giving away equity every single time, because the range that was fine at half the depth is now too loose for the risk you're actually taking.
AOF on NUTS POKER rewards exactly one skill relentlessly: knowing your number at every depth, every seat, every hand. Everything else about the format is just packaging.
