Guidelines for Holdem Starting Hands
Texas holdem opening hand selection strategy is one of the two important decisions made of any deal.
Do you play or do you sit this one out? That choice is made with no information except from the action in front of you and what you gained from closely observing your opponents.
Actually, this is not very much to go on.
You need a round of betting to be able to clarify your relative strength.
Choosing starting Holdem hands, then, is a matter of predetermined strategy than it is a response to your opponents' action.
You must know going in what your range of hands you will play from any position will be, apply that range with enough deception to make the range seem something other than what it is and trust in your reads as the hand progresses.
There are as many approaches to hand selection as there are poker players.
There are charts that suggest hand selection from many perspectives, from tight through loose.
In this article I want to suggest an overall approach that doesn't require memorization of charts, rather, it relies on a more common sense approach to preflop play.
I consider action from the perspective of position relative to the button.
Early Position The general wisdom from early position is "tight is right" a sentiment to which I strongly adhere.
From early position I have the distinct disadvantage of having to act before other players must act.
They know what I did and I must guess at what they are going to do.
Not so good.
From early position, under the gun and under the gun plus one, I play only these cards: A-A, K-K, Q-Q, and if the table is really tight J-J.
I also will play the following drawing hands: A-K suited or offsuit, A-Q suited and again if the table is really tight A-J suited.
Unless I am mixing up my play for deception, these are the only hands I play from early position.
As a brief aside, when I enter the pot from any position as the first to act I always raise the same amount.
My standard raise is three times the big blind.
Whether I am raising from UTG or from the Button, my raise never varies.
The cards may vary in strength but my raise remains the same no matter what I hold.
There is another school of thought that suggests that you vary your raise when you are first to act.
A raise of around two times the big blind in early position, two and a half times from middle position and three times from late position.
I prefer the former but on occasion I play using the latter just to make things interesting.
Both choices have merit.
The real point here is that your raise should not indicate hand strength or weakness but be neutral.
You make the same raise with A-A as you would with 7-2.
Middle Position I begin to expand my range of hands from middle position by adding on some more speculative hands.
I will add pairs through 8-8 plus or minus one depending on how the table is playing.
I also add suited connectors down to 8-7 again going up or down a notch depending on the overall action at the table.
Additionally, I add any ace, suited or offsuit, that adds up to 20 (think blackjack here).
This means I am willing to play aces through A-9 without regard to suit.
If the table is very tight I will also play kings that add up to 20.
Now my range is expanded and as long as I keep 20 and 21 in my head I don't have to think about a chart.
Late Position In late position you have a clear edge, especially from the button where you are last to act on all subsequent betting rounds.
Now is the time to put that edge to work.
My range expands to any ace, any king through K-9, in fact any two card combination adding up to 18, any pair and any suited connector above 3-2.
Much of the time when I am first to act from late position the action goes raise and take it.
When I am called I will see a flop and then if I don't improve I am most likely going away but that depends on everything else I know about what is happening.
Do you play or do you sit this one out? That choice is made with no information except from the action in front of you and what you gained from closely observing your opponents.
Actually, this is not very much to go on.
You need a round of betting to be able to clarify your relative strength.
Choosing starting Holdem hands, then, is a matter of predetermined strategy than it is a response to your opponents' action.
You must know going in what your range of hands you will play from any position will be, apply that range with enough deception to make the range seem something other than what it is and trust in your reads as the hand progresses.
There are as many approaches to hand selection as there are poker players.
There are charts that suggest hand selection from many perspectives, from tight through loose.
In this article I want to suggest an overall approach that doesn't require memorization of charts, rather, it relies on a more common sense approach to preflop play.
I consider action from the perspective of position relative to the button.
Early Position The general wisdom from early position is "tight is right" a sentiment to which I strongly adhere.
From early position I have the distinct disadvantage of having to act before other players must act.
They know what I did and I must guess at what they are going to do.
Not so good.
From early position, under the gun and under the gun plus one, I play only these cards: A-A, K-K, Q-Q, and if the table is really tight J-J.
I also will play the following drawing hands: A-K suited or offsuit, A-Q suited and again if the table is really tight A-J suited.
Unless I am mixing up my play for deception, these are the only hands I play from early position.
As a brief aside, when I enter the pot from any position as the first to act I always raise the same amount.
My standard raise is three times the big blind.
Whether I am raising from UTG or from the Button, my raise never varies.
The cards may vary in strength but my raise remains the same no matter what I hold.
There is another school of thought that suggests that you vary your raise when you are first to act.
A raise of around two times the big blind in early position, two and a half times from middle position and three times from late position.
I prefer the former but on occasion I play using the latter just to make things interesting.
Both choices have merit.
The real point here is that your raise should not indicate hand strength or weakness but be neutral.
You make the same raise with A-A as you would with 7-2.
Middle Position I begin to expand my range of hands from middle position by adding on some more speculative hands.
I will add pairs through 8-8 plus or minus one depending on how the table is playing.
I also add suited connectors down to 8-7 again going up or down a notch depending on the overall action at the table.
Additionally, I add any ace, suited or offsuit, that adds up to 20 (think blackjack here).
This means I am willing to play aces through A-9 without regard to suit.
If the table is very tight I will also play kings that add up to 20.
Now my range is expanded and as long as I keep 20 and 21 in my head I don't have to think about a chart.
Late Position In late position you have a clear edge, especially from the button where you are last to act on all subsequent betting rounds.
Now is the time to put that edge to work.
My range expands to any ace, any king through K-9, in fact any two card combination adding up to 18, any pair and any suited connector above 3-2.
Much of the time when I am first to act from late position the action goes raise and take it.
When I am called I will see a flop and then if I don't improve I am most likely going away but that depends on everything else I know about what is happening.
Source...