Named for cutting off the button's chance to act last, since raising from the cutoff often folds the button out of the hand.
It is the second-best seat at the table and plays similarly to the button, with the caveat that one player still acts behind you. Opening ranges from the cutoff are wide but meaningfully tighter than on the button.
The practical marker is how the cutoff plays against the button. Opening from the cutoff you are hoping the button folds; when it does not, you spend the rest of the hand out of position against the one seat that always acts after you. That asymmetry is why cutoff ranges tighten sharply against an aggressive button and widen considerably against a passive one.
Related terms in poker
- Pot odds — The price a call is getting, compared against how often it needs to win.
- Outs — The cards remaining that would improve your hand to a likely winner.
- Equity — Your share of the pot, meaning how often you win it if the hand plays to showdown.
- Implied odds — The money you expect to win later if your draw comes in, beyond what is in the pot now.
- Position — Where you act in the betting order, and the largest structural edge in poker.
- Button — The dealer position, which acts last on every postflop street.
Where an entry quotes a number, that figure comes from the computed sections of this site rather than from another glossary, so the definition and the derivation cannot drift apart. Each entry links to the page where the number is worked out.