Somebody expressed surprise in a recent thread when I said I opened T9s for a profit UTG in online poker. I've been meaning to talk about my opening range ever since then, and I finally have some free time to do so.
First, a caveat: I'm just describing what I do. I'm not claiming this is the best or optimal or only way to play EP. But it is a strategy that balances bet sizing, range, table conditions and stack sizes, and is, therefore, more complex than simply betting $16 with a top 3% range and limp/calling everything else.
I do believe that in my games, my strategy is a more profitable strategy than just raising huge with the top 3%. But what I really hope is that you'll see the way I adjust, and come up with your own plan for varying your opening range based on changes in your game condition that happen to come up from time to time.
OK, so my basic plan from EP is to open my standard 8-10% range in UTG and UTG+1. That's not a magic number, it's just the widest range that I know I was playing for a profit at NL $200 online.
It breaks down like this:
Almost always open:
66+
AQo+
KJs+
JTs, T9s
In addition, I usually open:
AJs
22-55
87s
That is 9.8% of all starting hands, but since I do not always open the second group, I am probably raising 8% of the time, not 9.8%
Every now and again I will throw in some random decent hands at a particularly weak table, and UTG+1 I always raise AJs.
Every hand in this EP raising range is a profitable hand; none of them are in there to balance my range or make my range harder to read or for shania or any other reason other than to make .4-.8bb/hand on average when raising them.
Variations based on table conditions:
As I said, that is my default range. If I sit down at a table in MP, and I get one of these hands three hands later UTG, I'll raise it to $8 and see what happens,
with a plan to adapt both my range and my raise size to prevailing conditions.
Mixed tables:
This is by far the most common situation you will find. The table will have a couple guys trying to play TAg, a couple trying to play LAg, and the remainder won't really have an idea what they are doing, but they are generally loose passive preflop and weak tight fit or fold players post flop.
At a normal mixed table, I don't adjust much. If $8 gets three or more callers too many times, I'll start raising my preflop raise in $2 increments until I find the bet size that will get people to fold. I rarely find the correct point, as in a normal session, you'll really only RFI from the first three positions maybe 7 times. So a lot of bet sizing ends up being a guessing game. But you can also get a decent idea of how they will react based on their reactions to other people's bet sizing. So I'm always in the ballpark of the optimal range/raise size mix, but never positive I've got the exact right mix.
Adjusting for looseness:
When I do start increasing my raise size, I also tighten up my starting range by removing the implied odds hands that play the worst. So I'll drop 87s and 22-55 first when I start raising to $10, and at $12 I'll probably be dropping 77, 66, JTs, T9s. If we're deeper than 100bb, then I may keep in some of the speculative hands. I've never found it necessary to use a raise greater than $12 to thin the field to usually between 1 and 3 callers. YMMV, and based on what I have seen in your threads from elsewhere in the country, your mileage certainly does seem to vary considerably.
The goal here is to narrow my range to the hands that flop a decent top pair most often. Multi-way with multiple callers OOP, you're basically playing bingo. I have a little less FE at a normal table than I like to have, so I focus more on the hands that flop something most often. Having KJs in my range is a bit risky for such a table, but I keep it in.
Adjusting for tightness:
At a tight table, where there are maybe 4 people trying to play TAg instead of 2, I will usually reduce my raise size while opening my range to its widest. If there are 5 tight players at the table, I'll probably be raising to $6 or $7, and opening ATs, A9s, A8s, J9s, T8s, 86s and some other stuff that slips my mind at the moment.
I'm semi-bluffing with these hands, basically. Trying to manufacture spots where I get a caller who'll fold to a c-bet. I don't want to get fancy, and don't really want to flop a hand, lolol, if you know what I mean. I expect to make my profit from c-betting air, not from actually flopping a hand. Setting aside the occasional gin flop, most of these hands will get you into trouble if you treat the pair you flopped with much respect. It's just back up equity for when your bluff c-bet gets called when you have 86s and you bet a K62r flop or an AJ6 flop. the great thing about your back up equity is it comes with great implied odds. If you raise UTG and bet a K62 flop, the villain has you on a K or a premium or something, not 86s, so a turn 6 is gonna get you paid really well if the villain gets sticky with his king or under pair or whatever, because he thinks that 6 was a brick.
That's pretty much as wide as my range gets, so it's reserved for spots where the table is as tight as I can ever expect to see.
Just remember that preflop there are three factors to consider in setting your EP raising range:
1. Stacks
2. Bet size
3. Table conditions
Some explanation for my default range composition:
This is some of the best poker advice I ever got. Years ago, I did a training video on Deuces Cracked in which an excellent player called Tuba Steve, and the near-legendary Baluga Whale evaluated my play at NL $100 online.
In the course of the video, I folded KJs UTG. Baluga said I should have raised, and TS said it looked like a standard fold. Baluga said: "look; when people call an UTG raise, they are looking to crack pocket aces. So when I add hands to my UTG range, I add hands that can crack hands that are looking to crack pocket aces, lol."
That two sentences is more or less the reason for all of the suited connectors in my range--because they make straights and flushes that beat the sets that people are looking to flop against your perceived premium pocket pair.
It doesn't happen very often. But in the meantime, they are missing 7.5 out of 8.5 times they set mine, and they'll fold to a c-bet most of those times.
In live play, people who call in position are pair mining and flush mining as often as they are set mining; I see zillions of raises called by hands like K7 and K8 and A7 and A8. That's not that bad for the suited connectors, because now you're in a cool semi-bluffing situation. If you raise UTG with T9s, and get called by Kx, it's hard for you to have missed a flop that he also hits. So when looking at a board that you missed and that hit a pair miner's top pair range, you c-bet only those boards on which you have some decent equity or backdoor equity. So if the flop is K
7
6
and I have J
T
, I have enough back door equity to fire a c-bet.
If you bink your gut shot, there's a good chance he has two pair, and he thinks he is getting it in good against AK or AA. If you pick up equity you can barrel again or check, depending on whether he is a pot controller or not (check or bet respectively, imo, though I expect that to be a controversial statement).
The other thing about the middle suited connectors is it's actually really hard to completely miss a flop, and it's pretty easy to pick up equity on the turn. So say we raise T9s, and the flop comes down 752r. That's maybe one of the worst flops you can see, and you're not really in bad shape. You can still rep an overpair, and you have overs to a range that'll call you. The overs give you a 12% chance of binking a turn. If start looking at all the cards that will improve our equity, it is a 6 an 8 or a second card of our suit. That's 15 cards that'll give us equity with which to barrel what is most likely a very weak hand calling a very strong perceived range. Combine those together and roughly 40% of the time, we'll improve and have a good double barrel spot. If you add A, K or Q as general scare cards, then we are up to something like 55-60% of the time we'll have a good double spot on a board it looked like we pretty much bricked off on.
That's why I think these middle suited connectors are such cool hands to have in your EP range--because they will win you lots of 0 and 1 street of post flop money pots, and every now and again you'll crack a set that thinks it cracked your AA.
Even though cracking sets will end up being a major contributor to your win rate, it's very, very rare. I think I have only cracked somebody once so far in live games playing ~100% of these hands in my EP range. Playing the smaller spots and identifying your back door equity situation correctly is equally important from a win rate perspective, and more of a day to day activity.
More or less random thoughts.