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The hijack is the seat two to the right of the button — one before the cutoff, one after the lojack. The name describes what the seat does: the cutoff and the button are both waiting to attack the blinds, and opening from the hijack takes that steal before either of them gets the chance. At a nine-handed table it acts fifth with four players behind it, and it is the first seat where you should be raising because of who is left to act rather than because of what you were dealt. Tap HJ on the map below to see it in context, and switch to six-handed to watch it become the second seat to speak.
Where the hijack sits at a nine-handed and a six-max table
The hands it opens that under the gun folds, side by side
What to do when the cutoff and the button keep three-betting you
Table positions
Preflop action starts left of the big blind and moves clockwise. The button moves one seat after every hand.
Players behind you
4
Position group
Middle
Everything about these four seats is decided by one number: how many players still have to act. Read the table downward and the ranges widen for exactly that reason, not because the cards get better.
Seat
Lojack
Abbreviation
LJ
Seats from the button
3
Players still to act (9-handed)
5
Rough opening range
20%
Seat
Hijack
Abbreviation
HJ
Seats from the button
2
Players still to act (9-handed)
4
Rough opening range
23%
Seat
Cutoff
Abbreviation
CO
Seats from the button
1
Players still to act (9-handed)
3
Rough opening range
28%
Seat
Button
Abbreviation
BTN
Seats from the button
0
Players still to act (9-handed)
2
Rough opening range
45%
The same hands, four seats apart. Nothing about the cards changed between these two columns — four of the players who could have raised you are already out of the hand.
Hand
ATo
Under the gun
Fold
Hijack
Open
What changed
Four players behind instead of eight, so the chance of running into a better ace is roughly halved.
Hand
KJo
Under the gun
Fold
Hijack
Open
What changed
Two of the seats that dominate it have already folded.
Hand
Q9s
Under the gun
Fold
Hijack
Open
What changed
Suited and connected enough to keep playing, and it often wins the pot before the flop.
Hand
87s
Under the gun
Fold
Hijack
Open
What changed
It wants a cheap flop and a chance to represent later streets; from here it usually gets both.
Hand
A5s
Under the gun
Marginal
Hijack
Open
What changed
The wheel draw and the blocker are worth more when fewer players can re-raise.
Hand
J8o
Under the gun
Fold
Hijack
Fold
What changed
Offsuit, unconnected, dominated by everything that calls. It is a button hand at best.
Start at the button and count two seats backwards, against the direction of the deal. That is the hijack. Forwards from it are the cutoff and then the button; backwards is the lojack and then the early-position cluster. At a nine-handed table it is the fifth of nine players to act before the flop, with four still to speak — the point where the count of players behind you finally drops low enough to matter.
The cutoff got its name from cutting off the button's steal. The hijack is one seat further back and does the same thing to the cutoff — it hijacks the attempt before it is made. Plenty of players write and search for it as high jack, which is the same seat spelled the way it sounds; there is no separate position by that name. The lojack completes the joke: one more seat back, low instead of high, the earliest seat where taking the blinds is a plan rather than an accident.
These three seats are not three different strategies. They are the same strategy with a shrinking number of opponents left behind you: five, four, then three. Each seat you move closer to the button removes one player who could raise you and one player who could call and take the flop with position. That is why the opening range climbs from roughly a fifth of hands to nearly a third across those three seats, and why memorising three separate charts is a waste of effort compared with understanding the count.
This is the seat where the reason to raise changes. Under the gun you open because the hand is strong. From the hijack you also open because the cutoff folds too much, or the button only plays premiums, or the big blind has folded eight in a row. If the two players between you and the button are tight, the hijack is worth more than any chart says it is and you should be opening close to a cutoff range from it. If they three-bet constantly, it is worth less. The chart is the starting point; the players are the answer.
Six-handed tables keep every late seat and delete the early ones, so the order becomes UTG, hijack, cutoff, button and the two blinds. The hijack is now the second player to speak with four still behind it — the same count as nine-handed, which is the neat part: the range barely moves. What does change is how often you sit there. You reach the hijack every sixth hand instead of every ninth, so a leak in this seat costs you half again as much per hour.
One aggressive player on the button undoes most of what makes this seat good. Every hand you open, they re-raise, and you are folding out of position or calling to play a bloated pot with the worst of it. The fix is not to keep opening into it and hope. Tighten to hands that can take a raise — pairs, big broadway, suited aces — and go back to the wider range the moment they leave or the seat changes hands. Position is only worth what the people behind you let it be worth.
Fold more than feels comfortable, and pick a small set of hands to fight back with rather than defending randomly. Suited aces and suited broadway continue well because they make hands that can call a bet on the river; offsuit hands that flop a weak pair do not, however painful it is to keep folding to the same player. If you never re-raise them back, they will three-bet you every time and be right to. One or two four-bets a session with a hand you would happily play for stacks is enough to stop it.
Home games rarely have nine players for long, and the hijack is the seat that quietly disappears as they shrink — at five-handed the seat left of the big blind already is what the hijack was. Track the count rather than the name: how many people still act after you is the only thing any of this measures. If you run the game in a room on PokerChip.live, the seat order and the button move themselves, so the count is visible instead of remembered.
FAQ
01
The seat two to the right of the button, one before the cutoff. At a nine-handed table it is the fifth player to act before the flop, with four players still to speak behind it.
02
Because it takes the steal the cutoff was about to attempt. The cutoff is named for cutting off the button's steal, and the hijack does the same thing one seat earlier.
03
Yes. It is the same seat written the way the word sounds. There is no separate position called the high jack, and both spellings turn up constantly in home games.
04
One seat to the right of the hijack, three seats before the button. It is the earliest seat at a full table where attacking the blinds is a realistic plan rather than a hope.
05
Yes — six-max keeps UTG, the hijack, the cutoff, the button and the blinds, and drops the UTG+1, UTG+2 and lojack seats. The hijack there acts second with four players behind it.
06
Around 23% of hands as a default, which is roughly one deal in four. Widen it toward a cutoff range when the two players behind you fold too much, and tighten it when either of them re-raises often.
07
No. The cutoff has one fewer player behind it and is the better seat every time. The hijack is the last seat where you are still opening mostly for value rather than mostly for the blinds.
08
That is the common leak, and it costs money in the other direction from the usual one — most players open too many hands early and too few here. Four players behind you is a licence to raise that most home games never use.
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