Hi all

Everyone in poker knows that position is power!

But in a lot of situations with certain hands it can be tough to stick to positional play (don't really play any in EP, play a few in MP and try play most in LP. Is what most people go with)

But what I would like to know is if anyone has any charts on what hands to never really play OOP and when its ok to play suited connectors EP or not.

I am trying to cram in as much poker info as I go along playing tourneys to better my game but sometimes I don't pay much attention to positional play if I have say A10 in EP or JJ's in MP.

Any info would be great and would help massively!

Oli

Small pair and suited connectors go down in value as the antes kick in and blinds increase in value. Big Aces go up in value.

Nice and simple reply, I like it! Thanks

What cards should I avoid in certain positions say if I have 90BB and antes are included?

Would love abit of in depth or any links or more info?

(a) Absolute position when you are on the left of opponents better on the button (OTB) you act last and see what every dude is doing.

(b) Relative position is your position in relation to the pre-flop raiser.

There is often going to be a pre-flop raiser in the game, and your position at the table in relation to this raiser can be good or bad depending on where you are sat and how many players are left to act after you. In a nutshell, it is better to be to the immediate right of the preflop raiser than it is to be to the immediate left, even if your actual position at the table is better if you are sat to the left of the preflop raiser. Because when he raises preflop and gets called including you and on the flop (OTF) he does a continuation bet on your left you can see what all other players do before you call or bail out not getting squeezed between the monkeys.

The important think is you got to be very relaxed like nothing is happening. Just live into the NOW.

There are a few dangers of playing in early position.

1. You will be acting in all rounds with less information
2. You never have the opportunity to close action
3. Preflop, there are more players who have unknown hands

I won't give you hand charts, those are readily searchable, but are exploitable beyond the most rudimentary of tournaments. You should always adjust your ranges based on the table, your image, and recent history

1. Since you will be acting without knowledge, it will be difficult to tell if your villains hit the flop or not. This makes playing weak hands for value (like AK on a Q high uncoordinated board) difficult.

2. As you are never closing action, you are always vulnerable to a raise or reraise. For example, say that in the middle of a tournament you raise to 3x from UTG+1 with J9s. A pretty reasonable move, right? But if your opponents detect that you have a lot of speculative hands like suited connectors and suited one gappers in your open range, they will start three betting you, and next thing you know, you are either leaking with a lot of R\F, or you end up playing for stacks with marginal holding. The closer you are to closing action, the less vulnerable you are (Note: one counter point here-A lot of players recognize that other players know this, so they will assume your range UTG is tighter, which allows you to open wider in early position, and fold with confidence if they three bet you. Just don't do it often enough that they pick up on your pattern. I got killed at a circuit event because two of the better players figured out that I have too wide a spread between my open range and threebet calling\4 betting range)

3. The later you are in position, the less likely it is that someone has a premium hand. Doing simple math, if I act first, and there are 9 players to act behind me, there is around a 35% chance that one of them has a top 5% hand. If I act in the CO, and only the button and blinds are behind me, there is less than a 15% chance that someone has a top 5% hand. This equates to the fact that AT is a trap hand from UTG (most people's calling range has a lot of dominating hands), but is playable for value from the CO or later

So basically, from early position you

1. Don't want to play a lot of hands that will hit, but not form nuttish hands (KQ, AT,middle pairs(unless you are strictly set mining)). These are difficult to play post flop without information
2. Don't play too many hands that you won't call a three bet with if the table is aggressive (avoid suited connectors, one gappers, small pockets, unless you are fairly deep)
3. Avoid hands that play poorly against premium hands. Again, broadway cards, medium aces are all dangerous

You can play hands that flop hard, especially if you are deep. In those cases (either if you are very deep, or if the table is passive), setmining, small pocket pairs all become playable.

I would never advise a static strategy on what you should and should not open with. You ant to balance your range, so that you have a proper mix of value hands, speculative hands, and bluffing hands. And you want to play the top of your range the same as the bottom of your range. Don't be that guy who opens for 9x utg with QQ because you are afraid of the flop.

Well, if your EP opening range is something like 88+/ATs+/AQo+/KQs/QJs/JTs, then the hands you shouldn't play are... everything else.

Typically, the hands that play badly OOP are offsuit hands and small pairs. OOP, you want to focus on playing hands that flop good (dominating) top pairs, two pairs, top/middle sets, and draws to the nuts, not hands that flop top pair bad kicker, 2nd pair or worse.

Just consider how often you'll be able to c-bet with a hand like QQ or AJs, and compare it with how often you'll be able to c-bet (and feel good about it) with 33, 76s, or QTo.

SpewingIsMyMove.. Thanks for the big reply, really summed up a lot for me, I've just downloaded Equilab and am just messing about with it atm but I'm sure it wil be useful sometimes, as you said not all the time should you use a chart or anything as you need to also get a feel of the game etc etc.. thanks for your helpful reply much appreciated

Makes a lot of sense thank you feel like I'm learning so much since I joined 2+2 much appreciated all replies thanks