Thoughts behind preflop play

Profit in poker comes in putting yourself in +EV spots, both preflop, and postflop. When you start playing "good" poker, your preflop play will generally follow rigid guidelines. Raise AJs from EP, but not A10s, raise KJs from MP, but not K10s. The reason for this is simple; if you didn't, then where would you stop? If K10s, then why not K9s? If K9s, then what about Q9s? Are the hands that different?

But A10s does show a profit and Q9s doesn't (usually). So the players that survive (profit wise) stick to their rigid guidelines, and the players that don't lose.

In all truth, K10s is pretty much just like A10s. Being able to understand preflop play and more than that having in your head a sort of interactive formula for when to play certain hands is very important. Many winning players (often those that despise book play) do this by feel, but it is an ability that can be learnt.

One thing that does not change is your opening standards first in. This is dependent upon game conditions and your position, nothing more. This is a perfect rigid chart. Figure out what type of game you're in (or seek out only one type of game) and select the right chart. When players enter the pot this all changes.

You are undoubtably familiar with the principal of tightening up when faced with an early raiser. Hands like A10 and KJ and 44 that might have been profitable before are not anymore. Against more rockish raisers, hands like AQ and KQ and 77 are not good. This is one of the things that many players focus on and a good discussion can be found on that already. What is missing is a clear discussion on how limpers affect your preflop play. Many weak players in low limit games regularily limp AQ and AK. Against these players you can treat their limps just like a raise, in terms of one pair type hands (A8, K9, A10). These are hands you are normally glad to limp in or raise on the button, but when they are likely dominated they should be mucked. Still it is imporant to realize that speculative hands (22, 67s) still treat these limps as ordinary limps.

More than that, when specific players limp in, players that play almost any two, but more than that bleed post flop calling with hands that have almost no chance of winning, you can radically drop your preflop standards. You can actually play hands that you WOULDN'T PLAY if these players had not limped into the pot. Hands like K4s, Q6s, 109o can all become playable in certain spots against certain opponents. And the joy you get from showing these hands down (and the possible tilt effect on your opponents) is great.

As your postflop play improves, your preflop play expands. Certain hands are not profitable IF you do not have a certain level of postflop expertise. Three betting hands like A8o is going to cost you money even if your opponents medium hand range is K4o if you are not playing at least as well as them postflop. As your postflop expectancy increases, hands that are -.08BB/hr can increase to +.02BB/hr (or something like that) simply because you play better postflop. Of the thousands of different combinations that occur after the flop you make more on the ones where you are ahead and get out quicker or cheaper on the ones where you are behind. Mostly this is not folding when you are ahead without a pair and folding when you are behind without a pair. Not easy to do, but that's poker.

Like all things worth doing in life, designing preflop matrixes on the fly isn't easy, but it's worthwhile.