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OK.  I’ve been dancing around and cleverly avoiding the whole thorny issue of preflop play in Texas Hold’em.  For a reason.  It’s complicated, and I can’t hope to blog it all quickly.  Nor do I intend to or promise to blog the entirety of preflop strategy all at once, or even in a non-stop series.  Plus it’s sooooo different in limit, no-limit, ring games and tournaments that whole volumes could be written on it (and are written on it, virtually every decent poker book has a large preflop strategy section).

So in this primer, I’m going to discuss some of the things you should consider in preflop play for limit hold’em ring games.

First and foremost is that when you’re playing poker, there are different types of mistakes you can make.  Some have more dire consequences than others.  Folding the river for a single bet can be a complete mathematical and emotional catastrophe if you folded the winner.  I’ll probably blog that topic soon, mathematical catastrophe.  However, playing a hand preflop can lead to another type of mistake, a far more common one… where a small initial mistake leads to a number of follow-up mistakes that could have been avoided.

So when you’re choosing your hands preflop, you need to pick hands that aren’t likely to lead to multiple mistakes later in the hand.  Let’s look at an example of this principle:

Limit hold’em.  A strong, tight player raises under the gun (UTG), then a super-tight player, also in early position, reraises.   You look down and see AhQc and call.  The UTG caps it and three of you take the flop, which is A K 3 rainbow.  You play all the way to the end, enduring several more bets and raises, and get shown AsKs by UTG and KK by the tight player.  However, any reasonably experienced and knowledgeable player would have folded AQ in this situation, thus saving themselves a whole bunch of money.

AQ looks pretty, but in this situation, it’s JUNK.  In fact, AQ is worse than junk here; you’d have been far better off with 76s!  Not that you should be calling three bets cold with 76s either, but at least 76s is not likely to be completely dominated beyond belief if you play it here, and you can probably get away from it much easier than AQ.

However, AQ has considerable value in other situations, like this one:

You’re three off the button and everyone folds to you, you look down and see AhQc.   You open for a raise and only the big blind calls.  The flop comes down A K 3 rainbow.  BB bets and you raise it, BB calls.  The turn and river are irrelevant.  You bet both times after he checks.  At the showdown he turns up A7 and you take the pot with your queen kicker.

Note that in both situations, you held the exact same two cards, but in one situation you were miles ahead, and the other you were roadkill, baking in the hot Texas sun!  Preflop values of different hands in hold’em vary greatly, depending on the situation.

Let’s look at another example:

You have 76s in early position and limp in.  The player to your left raises, the cutoff reraises, and the button caps it.  Both blinds fold and it’s back to you.  You are now looking at calling three bets cold.  You really must fold here.  You’re wishing you simply hadn’t called the first bet at all.  However, you foolishly call and the flop comes down 7 K K.  Now you’re REALLY wishing you had folded, because you’re virtually guaranteed to have almost no chance of winning whatsoever.

Same two cards, different skituation…

You’re on the button with 76s.  Everyone limps in and you also limp.  The SB completes and the BB checks.  The flop comes down 7 K K.  It’s bet, raise, reraise when it gets to you.  Quite obviously, you leave a flaming trail of fire between your hand and the muck when you quickly toss in your cards.

What’s the difference here?  Preflop pot odds.  When you limp on the button with everyone in, you’re getting like 8:1 or 9:1 preflop.  The other situation didn’t even come close, and you were out of position as well.  Hands like 76s don’t hit the flop big very often, and thus they need a cheep price with large pot odds preflop to be profitable.  This won’t happen when you’re in early position very often.

These examples show just the tip of the iceburg on why certain hands are better than others preflop, and why you must be very careful in making your choices of what to see the flop with.

The best recommendation I can make for complete beginners, who haven’t read any books, is this:

If it doesn’t reach, and it doesn’t match, throw it away.

• 76 reaches (both cards can be used to make a straight)
• 39 doesn’t reach (there is no straight that contains both a three and a nine)
• KhQh matches (two hearts can be used to make a flush)
• 7h2d does not match (you can’t make a flush using both cards)
• 22 matches (pairs would count as a match)

These are just the very beginning of preflop playing principles, not the end-all of preflop advice!!

We’ll talk more about this later.  MUCH more.

PokerGuru

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