gg101: Preflop:
- my basic strategy preflop is to decide whether this is going to be a very multi-way hand (which it often will at very loose tables after a few limpers up front) or a HU/3way hand (which it will be at tighter tables after a few folds up front)
- if the table is loose / likely to be multi-way to the flop, my strategy is to also play fairly loose (although my loose will still be tighter than the average loose player at the table, plus more position dependent), try to flop a hand / nice draw, and then get paid off by opponents who can’t fold mediocre hands postflop when I hit; in many ways, I’m playing quite similar to the fish preflop (i.e. bingo!) but my plan is to play a lot better than them postflop (i.e. lose less money postflop on mediocre hands than they do, and make more money postflop on solid hands than they do)
- if the table is tighter / likely to go HU/3way to the flop, I have a decent image, opponents are fit/foldy, etc. then I’m simply looking to win the pot outright preflop or on the flop, so I’m looking to get things HU in position with initiative where I’m usually cbetting most flops hoping to take it down (and perhaps two barrelling good turns); these won’t be the goldmine tables that the loose tables are, but hopefully I can ride it out and make a small profit with well timed aggression until the table loosens up a bit
- so, at most tables, here’s my starting hand chart (more-or-less); these obviously aren’t written in stone, and they are on a sliding scale depending on looseness / tightness / toughness of table and current limpers, opponents behind me, my image at the moment, etc.; some hands from the bottom of my raising range could fall into my limping range versus some hands from the top of my limping range could fall into my raising range depending on conditions, plus the suitedness vs unsuitedness could have an effect of how I play a hand; plus, if I feel the need, I’ll throw in the occasional raise with a weaker speculative hand; but overall it’s my default, more-or-less
- ha, I never realized how difficult it is to list all of these possible combinations (i.e. EP/MP/LP raise/limping range, what to do to a raise, a re-raise, etc.); it’s possible I haven’t caught everything and have let some things fall thru the cracks here…
- EP: raise TT+/AK/AQ; limp 99-/Axs/other suited broadway; I’ll also consider limp/reraising AA/KK/AK if table is extremely loose / preflop raisey / stacks are on the small side; and, yes, I’m folding offsuit AJ/KQ type hands here
- MP (after limpers): raise TT+/AK/AQ/AJ/KQ; limp 99-/Axs/other suited broadway/suited connectors
- MP (no limpers): raise TT+/AK/AQ/AJ/AT/KQ/other suited broadway; limp 99-/Axs
- LP (after multiple limpers and/or loose blinds): raise TT+/AK/AQ/AJ/AT/KQ; limp 99-/Axs/Kxs/other broadway/connectors/one gappers/two gappers
- LP (after 0/1 limpers, or perhaps 2 tight limp/fold limpers, and tight blinds): raising any hand I would consider playing (including ATC if I feel my image and table conditions are correct)
- SB: raise TT+/AK; complete 99-/Axs/other broadway
- BB: raise TT+/AK
- note that my raise vs limp borderline for pocket pairs is TT vs 99; while that line is rather arbitrary, I will say that TT can make the nut straight while 99 can’t, so as far as arbitrary lines go, I think that’s as good a reason as any; this is also my reason for the playability of ATo+ vs A9o- (where the former can make nut 3 card straights, where the latter can’t); this is also similar to my reason why I find two gappers acceptable while three gappers not acceptable (flopping a 3-to-a-straight with a three gapper has high RIO against bigger straights)
- note that I hate playing OOP, especially in a bloated multi-way pots, especially against limp/cally tricky villains, which is why I’m fairly tight raising out of the blinds; in very multi-way loose limped pots, I might even be fairly happy almost setmining and limping in with JJ/TT and perhaps even AK and playing cautiously postflop; at tighter tables with only an ABC limper or two, I’m expanding my raising range
- when I raise, my goal is simple: I want to narrow the field to 3way to the flop at absolute worse (with the best situation being HU); if we go 4+ways to the flop, I feel I’ve failed, which means I should have either raised more or perhaps just not raised at all (or perhaps limp/reraised with the stronger hands); raise size is obviously table dependent, but I just try to get a gauge for what raise size everyone else is doing (which is usually creating 4+ way pots) and then I simply tune my raise size to way more than that (I typically have the largest raise size at my table); at my 1/3 NL table, with no limpers I typically open between $15 and $20 (I’ve never opened for less than $15); as soon as a limper is involved, I usually bump it up to $20, and with more limpers $25+ (again, obviously table dependent, but a good default starting point)
- I don’t believe pot juicing raises with speculative hands are necessary if most stacks are <= 100 bbs; it will usually just take one postflop raise in position to be able to play for stacks, so with speculative hands I’d rather keep my SPR as high as possible plus allow as many opponents into the pot as possible (the more opponents seeing a flop, the more chance I have at stacking a single one of them, plus more chance of multiple players putting in dead money postflop)
- facing a re-raise of my raise: unless the 3bettor is shortstacked and has shoved and I’ve got the odds to call with a lot of junky hands that perhaps I’ve been getting out of line with in LP, I’m folding to most re-raises (if we’re super deep, then perhaps we can think of continuing with some weaker hands, but otherwise a typical 3bet is going to set up too small an SPR to have any wiggle room postflop); I’m typically only continuing with AA/KK/AK with QQ/JJ really being soul read / stack size territory
- 3betting a raise: my 3betting range is usually fairly small (the normal expected live default of AA/KK); as the looseness of the raiser increase, obviously my 3betting range increases; I’m fairly happy 3betting AK against a loose raiser especially after some callers have put in dead money, and ditto for QQ/JJ; I’m also 3betting AQ after a loose raise
- light 3betting: I very rarely light 3bet as my typical game conditions usually don’t see too many opportunities arise; however, every once and a while it will get folded (or 1 fishy limped) to a positionally aware player in MP/LP who opens, in which case I’m often 3betting light here (and usually with hands that I can easily fold to a 4bet and not feel I’ve perhaps given up the chance at smashing a flop, so for example I’d much rather light 3bet with Axs than 55)
- flatting a raise: I’ll typically always flat a raise with any pocket pair I’m not 3betting so long as stacks are decent and/or it is likely going to be a multi-way pot; I’m more or less setmining, although in position things could change on the flop if it is checked to me; against some raisers (such as tight and/or EP) and without a lot of other callers, I’m usually just flatting AK; I can dump AQ fairly easily to a tight/EP raiser; if there are already some callers to the raise and the price is fairly decent, then I’m flatting in LP with a fairly wide range of hands (non-3betting pocket pairs/non-3betting AK/AQ/Axs/suited broadway/suited connectors/ suited one gappers and perhaps even some offsuit connected stuff if price is decent and opponents are droolerish)
- limp/calling: I’m typically limp/calling pocket pairs that I’ve limped in with (apart from AA/KK which I was limping in with the plan to re-raise); the exception would be if stacks aren’t great and/or it doesn’t look like it is going to go very multi-way; if it’s going to go very multi-way, I could perhaps see my limp/calling with Axs/suited broadway hands but I see this as probably being on the leaky side (especially OOP where these hands will be hard to play and get paid off on postflop)
- I basically rarely squeeze lightly (i.e. a wide opener raises and gets a weak fish call or two or whatever and we start salivating over the dead money); the problem with squeezing lightly after multiple callers is that a lot of players rarely 3bet with hands as strong as AK/QQ, and obviously those hands (and many more that are crushing our light squeezing range) are never folding
- I never straddle; in all my hours of recorded poker, I’ve straddled exactly 0 (zero) times and yet I still get all the action I desire, still get paid off when I hit, etc.; don’t be the guy trying to generate table action by putting in 2 big blinds an orbit blind at one of the worst positions of the table, and instead be the guy taking advantage of those who do
- for you players coming from Limit, you might be surprised at how passive my preflop play is; in Limit, in general, we have to maximize even our smallest of equity advantages on each street, including preflop, because we simply can’t make up for missed bets on later streets; in NL, this is not the case; we can pass on our smallish preflop equity advantages (which will be measured in percentages of a bb or two) and simply wait until we have a hugenormous equity advantage postflop (where our advantage will be measured in percentages of stacks)
