Winning Poker Strategy Starts Before the Flop is Dealt
If you regularly find yourself in tricky spots in poker games – the root cause could be the way you are approaching the game before the flop. This guide focuses on the details of a solid, winning pre-flop poker strategy. Picking the right cards to play is essential, though there is a lot more to pre-flop poker to this. Players make mistakes with position, odds, putting opponents on ranges and stack sizes.
Aug 10, 2016 The first skill in Ed Miller’s The Course — and really, the first skill any poker player needs to master — is having a good pre-flop range. Many poker books for beginners advocate a set range from each position, and their suggestions are usually quite conservative to keep new players out of trouble. Dec 23, 2016 To reiterate, it is important to make sure that your pre-flop game is free from mistakes, as having a solid strategy at the beginning of the hand will set you up for more favorable opportunities post-flop. Below is a quick reminder of all 12 pre-flop mistakes we just discussed and how to resolve them: Limping– Avoid open-limping and raise.
Here is what you will find in this detailed guide to pre-flop poker mistakes:
- Pre-Flop Hand Selection: What cards to play, and which ones to avoid
- Position: Where you will act in the betting (both in order of play and in relation to the pre-flop raiser) is a vital concept.
- Bet Sizing: Some common mistakes which novice players make with their bet sizing before the flop.
- Putting Opponents on a Range: How does your hand do against the kind of hands specific opponents raise?
- Pre-Flop Mistakes in Poker Tournaments: Specific advice during different stages of multi-table tournaments
- Wrap Up: Bringing the different factors together
Selecting the Right Hands Pre-Flop
The single biggest mistake new players make in pre-flop poker is to play too many hands. At the lower buy-ins, you will often find multi-way flops, where 4 or 5 players are seeing the community cards each time. Not only does this waste money when you fail to connect, it creates situations where you are unsure of what hands your opponents might hold.
A better strategy is to select a range of hands which are ahead of the average holdings your opponent’s choose – and to be selectively aggressive when you play them. As you will see in the section below, your position at the table will have a big influence on the types of hands you should play.
While you gain experience, it is important not to play hands which can put you in tricky spots after the flop. The concept of domination is important. If you play hands like Ace-Eight for example, you can be up against a pair higher than the eight when you flop this card. You can also find opponents with an ace and higher side-card when you flop the ace. This leads to tough decisions. Unless you flop 2-pair or better, you will be left guessing – and when the pot gets big, you are more often than not going to be behind.
It is important not to play hands which can put you in tricky spots after the flop.
Risky Hands Pre-Flop
Here are some of the risky types of hand that you should cut out of your range:
- Unsuited Broadway Cards: Hands like King-10 off-suit are risky, especially from early position or in multi-way pots.
- Ace-X Hands: With a kicker above 10, you can play these hands (much better for a raise), with a kicker lower than this, you take on significant risk. Fold unsuited ace-x hands to a raise and avoid them from early position.
- Suited Hands: Many novice players enter a pot with any two suited cards. This is suicidal over the long-run. Even if you make that rare flush or unlikely 2-pair, you will never know if you are ahead or behind.
- Small Pairs: These can be played for their set possibility. It is often a mistake to play them from early position – especially when the table is active, and you might not even get to see a flop.
Solid Pre-Flop Hand Selection
A better selection of hands which will avoid major mistakes includes the hands listed below. Again, keep in mind that you need a stronger range of hands from early position. If you are on the button and everyone has folded, you can use some riskier hands to steal the blinds.
- Premium Pairs: This is aces, kings and queens. They can be played aggressively from any position at the table. In lower buy-in games, don’t try to get tricky with them, if you can build a big pot before the flop, then go right ahead.
- Ace King / Ace-Queen: These high card hands are among the best poker hands when they are suited. Even when off-suit they have a lot of high-card strength. In games where opponents play a lot of aces with small kickers, they are even more valuable.
- Mid-Pairs: Nines through to Jacks can win pots unimproved, they can be played aggressively from position, though are not ideal for 3-betting with as they can’t stand a 4th raise easily.
- Small Pairs: Play pairs under Eight either to steal or for set value. If you hit a 3rd card on the flop, you will often have a hidden monster which can win a very big pot.
- Suited Aces: Any ace-x hand which is suited can be played for implied odds value. The ones with higher kickers can also win pots with high-card strength. Aces with 2-3-4-5 side-cards can also make small straights. If you enjoy playing ace-x hands, make sure you have some flush potential – folding the unsuited ones.
- Suited Connectors: These hands go from 4-5 suited to K-Q suited. The strength of these hands is that they can make both straights and flushes, which will be disguised. This type of hand is ideal when you can see a flop cheaply. Like the suited aces, they rely on implied odds to be profitable.
Position and Pre-Flop Poker Mistakes
Once you have a solid starting hand range, you can start to factor in your position in the betting. When you are one of the first players to act, you have little information about what your opponents hold (and whether they will raise). You also act first in the betting on the flop, turn and river.
This makes a big difference to how many hands you can profitably play.
For example, small pairs rely on hitting a set to be profitable. If you are in later position (the dealer button is ideal), and see a raise and a call, you can play this type of hand profitably. If you are one of the first players to act. You need to bet – and might get raised in one or more spots. This means you don’t have the correct odds to try and hit your set – and the hand needs to be folded. The same logic applies to suited aces and suited connectors.
You can adjust for position by playing a narrow range of hands (higher pairs, ace-king and ace-queen suited) and then add in hands for each spot closer to the dealer button. If you are one of the last few players to act, a wide range of hands can be used as a steal.
Position in relation to the pre-flop aggressor also needs to be factored in. Say two loose players from early position limp, and someone in middle position raises. You are on the button with a good (though not premium hand). Here you can expect at least one of the limpers to call. When they check to the raiser on the flop, this player will likely bet. Now you need to act before you know what the early position players will do. While you are ‘last’ in the betting, your position relative to the raiser is bad. If you call, and then face a re-raise from another player – you have found yourself in a tricky spot. You can avoid this pre-flop poker mistake by playing a tighter hand range when you see this type of situation occurring.
Pre-Flop Poker Mistakes: Bet Sizing Mistakes
How much someone bets is one of the best online poker tells. Many novice players vary their raise size depending on how strong their hands are. For example, someone might bet 3x the big blind with mid-strength hands, and 4x when they have a premium holding.
To avoid this error, I recommend you pick a raise size and stick with it – playing all of your opening range the same way.
Here are some other bet sizing pre-flop poker mistakes to look out for:
- Limping Aces / Kings: Many players like to trap with their strongest pre-flop holdings by limping and then re-raising if someone tries to take the pot. This can work, though has some risks. You might find five calls behind you and no raises, forcing you to guess how your opponents hit the board on many flops. You also give away the strength of your hand, especially if you raise when entering the pot with other hands. If you raise, observant opponents will know that you don’t have aces or kings – valuable information which could win them a big pot.
- Limping Too Many Hands: Some players limp a lot of their (loose) pre-flop range, and then call bets with them. This leads to situations where you have a lot of factors against you. Your range is capped (since you would have 4-bet with strong hands), you are out of position and your opponent has indicated that they like their hand.
- Calling Bets Without the Odds:Calling with too many hands is not a pre-flop poker winning strategy. Most players continuation bet, and unless you hit the flop hard, you will never know where you stand. You also cap your range by calling, again you’d be re-raising with strong hands. If you are hoping to hit a set or straight / flush draws, then you need to ensure that the stacks are deep enough to make this play profitable. You should not call more than bets without 12x the chips behind with pairs, and 25x the bet behind with suited aces or suited connectors.
Bet sizing errors made before the flop can easily snowball after the community cards are dealt. This leads to situation where you find yourself facing a big bet on the river – with no real idea of where you stand!
Bet sizing errors made before the flop can easily snowball after the community cards are dealt.
Pre Flop Poker Strategy
Putting Your Opponents on a Range Pre-FlopTight
A big mistake many players make before the flop is to focus only on their own cards. Even with a solid starting hand strategy, awareness of position and taking odds into account – you’ll need to think about what kind of hands different opponents are playing.
This can get complex, and as you move up the stakes you’ll need to construct ranges for specific opponents. At a basic level, you can decide whether an opponent is tight or loose, and how tricky they play – and use this to assess their likely holdings.
Tight Players: Tight players are waiting for premium hands. This type might call with small pairs or suited connectors (when it is cheap to do so), though when they raise you can put them on a narrow range of the best hands. When a tight player re-raises before the flop, they may well only have queens, kings, aces or ace-king. When you are deciding which hands to profitably play, ask yourself how you do against this range.
Loose Players: Now you will see a huge range of hands played, this can be as wide as 50% of all starting hands, including any suited cards or unsuited high cards. Many small stakes players divide their range pre-flop. They limp with a wide range, raise with a smaller one, and re-raise with the types of hands that you might only call with. Flop betting is more important here, though you can certainly widen your own re-raising range to ‘isolate’ the worst offenders. Some of the loosest players will fold to a big bet pre-flop, though most will not. When you do isolate them, make sure you have a hand that is likely to be the best by showdown.
Tricky Players: Some opponents will play ‘backwards’, mistaking this for being deceptive. If someone raises a lot, then limps in later position with aces or kings, they are making a huge mistake. You can call with a wide range of high implied odds hands here and hope to out-flop them. Remember when these tricky players do raise, they will likely have hands that can’t stand too much pressure.
Pre-Flop Poker Mistakes in Tournaments
So far, the discussion assumed we were in a cash game with relatively deep stacks. If you are playing in a high-stakes poker tournament, there are some other factors to keep in mind. The most important of these is to keep stack-depth in mind – and adjust how you play accordingly.
In the later stages of a tournament, stacks can vary in size. Some opponents will only have 10x the big blind, while others have more than 100x. This leads to spots where ‘restealing’ pre-flop becomes a profitable play.
For example, it is folded to player A in the small blind, who opens for a raise. Player B in the big blind only has 8x the size of the big blind in her stack. This player then shoves all-in, putting player A to a decision.
Let’s use round numbers to look at the math.
If the blinds are 500 / 1000 and player B has 7000 chips left after posting the big blind. The pot is now 1000 (bb) + 500 (sb) + 500 (antes) + 1500 (raise from player A) = 3500 chips. Player B raised for 7k more, putting 10,500 chips out there. Player A needs to call 5,500 chips to play (almost 2/1 odds).
Almost every legitimate raising hand has plenty good enough odds to make this call. However, player A will expect to lose the majority of the time.
The mistake was the initial raise. If player A had gone all-in instead, the player in the big blind would not have had the opportunity to re-steal, and those extra chips would have gone to the aggressor.
Poker tournaments stack sizes determine pre-flop play in other ways too. When the bubble approaches, mid-sized and small stacks will tighten up – looking to reach the money before taking any risks. If you have a big stack, failing to raise a wide range of hands to put pressure on these stacks would be a mistake – you are leaving money on the table. A similar situation occurs just before the final table.
Wrapping Up: Components of a Solid Pre-Flop Strategy
Working on your pre-flop poker game will make a big difference to your profits. You will rarely win a big pot before the flop – though you can easily set up situations where you can lose them. A solid starting hand selection, which varies depending on your position at the table is the best place to get started. You need to take into account odds, plus your read on what the bet sizes of opponents mean.
Once you have mastered the basics, you’ll be able to adjust your pre-flop poker strategy for different situations. At this point, you’ll be ahead of most novice players, able to exploit their pre-flop poker mistakes to your advantage!
What is an unopened preflop raise?
Unopened Preflop Raise (UOPFR) tracks the percentage of hands in which a player raises preflop when the action folds to him. This allows you to understand a player's tendencies at a deeper level than the VPIP/PFR poker statistic does. VPIP/PFR gives you a general idea of the player type of your opponent. UOPFR gives you detailed information on the range of hands your opponent is playing from each position.
What is a hand range?
A hand range is the possible hand combinations with which a player opens from each position. Understanding your opponent's range of hands from each position is key to developing your preflop cold-calling range, your blind defense ranges, and your 3-bet ranges, all of which will be discussed later. This guide introduces you to preflop hand ranges and calling raises in position. This knowledge is the foundation of your poker strategy and is essential to thinking about the game at a deeper level.
The images included in this poker guide are taken from a free program called Equilab. Most online poker sites do not allow you to run Equilab while playing, as it gives you an advantage they deem unfair. However, it is a useful tool for study and review.
What is a good UOPFR for beginners from each position?
Playing winning poker starts with raising the correct range of hands from each position. These images show beginner hand ranges for six-max tables. For full ring tables, the first positions must play even tighter.
As a beginner, we recommend that you never open limp. 'Open limping' means that instead of raising as the first player into the pot, you merely call the big blind. But it is almost always better to raise preflop. It makes your decisions and actions much clearer both preflop and postflop.
You need to start with a selective range of hands. These hands are picked to flop strong holdings and powerful draws to make your postflop decisions easier and more profitable. As you grow stronger in your poker strategy, you will be able to widen these ranges by roughly 20%.
How to use Equilab hand charts
Each image below shows the percentage of hands that you can open with profitably according to your position. These hands are marked in blue. Consider keeping this guide open as you play, and refer to it for each position until you are familiar with the hand ranges.
Under the gun (UTG) – 12%
The first position is “under the gun,” which is three seats before the dealer button. This position is first to act preflop. Because you have so many players acting after you, and you are forced to play pots out of position when any player other than the blinds calls, you need to have a range advantage against your opponents. You win money from this position by playing strong hands.
Middle position (MP) – 14%
Middle position, which can also be called the “hijack” (HG), is two seats before the dealer button. You are opening almost as tight as UTG for the same reasons of positional disadvantage. You win money from this position primarily by playing strong hands.
Cut-off (CO) – 24%
The “cut-off” is the seat right before the button. This position is where you start playing a wider range of hands. You win money in this position not only by playing strong hands, but also by picking up the blinds preflop. You have positional advantage against all players except the button. This position will win you the second most money of all the positions over the long term.
Poker When To Raise Preflop Chart
Button (BTN) – 45%
The button is the best seat in the house. This position has postflop advantage against all players, as it is seated to the right of the blinds and is therefore the last to act. You win most of your money by stealing blinds and by playing in position against the blinds. Winning players can open as much as 65% from the button against certain opponents, but beginners should start with a tighter range.
The button is where you can “steal the blinds,” a concept that is explained in depth in the blind stealing section of our poker statistics guide.
What about the small and big blinds?
Defending and raising from the blinds is dependent on the players at your table. Using a hand chart for this would be doing a disservice to your long-term strategy. For more information on the blinds, please consult our guide to blind stealing.
When can you widen your UOPFR range?
If you are a new player, or a recreational player who is breaking even or losing at the low stakes, we recommend that you start with these hand ranges for at least 1,000 to 10,000 hands. After 1,000 hands and using our guide to identifying player types using VPIP/PFR, you should be skilled enough to start widening these ranges by roughly 20% when you notice weaker players at the table. For example, if you have a very tight player in the big blind who is folding to 75% of button raises, you can start widening your range considerably.
The main reason for widening your range is that you have a skill advantage on your opponents and no longer require as much of a range advantage.
If you are at a passive table where players are calling too much, the value of pocket pairs goes up dramatically. At a table like this, even 22 can be an open from the first position, because if you do hit your set and players are calling too much, then you can win a massive pot. This is using a concept called “implied odds,” which we explain further below.
Flat calling using UOPFR
A flat call occurs when one player raises and a player in a later position then calls behind. For example, the UTG player raises preflop and the BTN player calls in position.
Unless you are in the big or small blinds, you will have positional advantage over your opponent. But you will also have the disadvantage of having a range of hands that does not include your strongest holdings, because with those you will be 3-betting (that is, re-raising the initial raise) for value.
You flat call a hand because it is ahead of their opening range, but behind the range of hands that they will call against a 3-bet. Let’s go through an example hand.
Your opponent has an UOPFR of 10% UTG, and a 'fold to 3-bet' of 50%. You are in MP with JJ facing an UTG raise. Here is a visual representation of a 10% range. Use this to narrow your opponent down to a range of hands.
Now, let's use a second feature of Equilab. This feature analyzes how a specific hand is doing against a range of hands. PokerStove runs simulations of hundreds of thousands of hands in order to calculate the percentage of times that one hand beats a range of hands in an all-in situation. This percentage is known as “equity.”
As you can see, JJ is a favorite against your opponent. This hand has great equity against their range. It is a clear call.
However, what happens if you 3-bet? Since your opponent is calling only 50% of the time, his 3-bet calling range is now roughly 5% of hands. Let’s get a visual representation of this range.
How is our JJ faring against this range?
Our JJ as a 3-bet is a slight underdog against our opponent. Even worse, they may 4-bet (re-raising the 3-bet) with hands such as AQ or AK that we have good equity against. If we are folding to a 4-bet, then we lose value when our opponent decides to 4-bet with AK and AQ. But if we call the 4-bet, we are now playing a massive pot against hands that include QQ, KK, and AA. Most players are not bluffing very often when they 4-bet, especially at the low stakes. This makes JJ very difficult to navigate against a 4-bet. Flat calling versus such a tight range is generally the better play.
Flat calling with implied odds
“Implied odds” means the money you expect to win when you hit your hand. A pocket pair hits a set on the flop roughly 12% of the time. That means that if you are against a very tight player and you call an open that is 2.5 times the big blind (2.5bb) with a hand like 77, you can win a huge pot when you hit your set because you are against a tight range of hands.
A set occurs when you have a hand like 77 and the flop comes AK7. As you can see, if your opponent has a range that is tight and therefore weighted towards hands like AQ, AK, AJ, or KQ, they are going to lose a very big pot against you on this sort of board when they hit the flop. Implied odds rely on the stack size of your opponent. If your opponent has a standard 100bb stack and calls too much postflop, hands like pocket pairs go up in value because you can win a very large pot when you hit your hand. If your opponent only has a 20bb stack, your implied odds are much lower. You only hit your set 12% of the time, and when you do you can only win up to 20bb.
Active players to your left reduce your implied odds
If you have active 3-betters to your left or players who like to squeeze (that is, who is like to make a large raise after there has already been a raise and a call), your implied odds of calling preflop is lowered. This is because you will often face a squeeze bet which forces you out of the pot, stopping you from realizing your equity against the original raiser. Tighten up both your UOPFR range and flat calling range when you have a strong, active player to your left! For more information on this, please read Chapter 8: Squeeze Bets.
The ideal situation for calling hands like suited aces and low pocket pairs that have good implied odds is to be at a very passive table. Flat calling with hands with implied odds is an intermediate play that should be done only when you have a strong understanding of the game.