A post about the first two cards

[Greg J]

I’ve noticed that a lot of newer posters are posting hands where huge preflop mistakes are being made. I wanted to try and address some of this. This may or may not result from a notion that “postflop play is more important.” A lot of the more experienced posters seem to put forth this attitude, and while not completely meritless, it is misleading for some newer people. I want to state this explicitly: good preflop play is essential to being a winning poker player. It is a necessary but not sufficient condition to winning consistently. Furthermore, preflop and postflop play go together, as the decisions you make early in a hand go on to affect the ones you make later.

Some thoughts on the first two cards:

First, limping with small pocket pairs and A2s is fine in most micro limit games in any position. Sometimes you will find yourself at a game where you have to muck these hands. That is okay, just be cognizant that you are at such a table (and while you are at it, it might be a good idea to uncheck the “autopost blinds” box and make that your last orbit). I don’t want to get too preachy about table selection though, but just bear in mind that in most circumstances, limping here is good. (I personally like playing on a tighter than average table sometimes, especially when I can bully the blinds. Poker is not only about making money, but to it’s about having fun too. I feel this makes up for having to fold a hand like 44 UTG+1 when I can use the same hand to take down the blinds later… but I will get to that below.)

Second, a sure sign of a poker player who does not totally know what he is doing is when he open limps from the button, CO, or two off the button. When I see a player do this, I make a note of it. If you are the first in, and are limping with A9s from MP2, I’m sorry, but you are a lost little lamb. Stop doing that. There is a sliding scale of what you should do that I will sum up as follows: when you are first in, the later you act the more prone you should be to raise. I’m not sure I’ve ever read this anywhere, but at this point it’s totally intuitive to me. It’s folded to me on the CO with 44. Easy raise. Even if the blinds are loose, your positional advantage the rest of the hand will make you money. NEVER open limp from LP. When you are in the last 3 positions, and it is folded to you, you have two options: raise or fold. If your hand it worth playing, raise. If the blinds are weak, feel free to take them down with a hand like A5o.

Relatedly, there is a technique I use a lot, and a lot of others too obviously, where you raise to isolate a loose and poor player – like a 60 vpip and <1 aggression person. This is usually called an isolation play – I like to call it a semi-blind steal. Criteria: you are in LP, a weak and loose player has limped before you, and you thinking you can get the blinds to fold to a raise. Raise some hands you might not otherwise raise, like A8o, K9s, or 55. This can take out the blinds, who might be more prone to respect your raise given the fact that there was already a limper, and you will hopefully be HU with a weak player, with a good chance of having the best hand and a positional advantage, in a pot inflated with dead money: a win-win-win-win situation!!!

Third: cold calling. Do it rarely. It would not be a huge error if you never cold called preflop, but sometimes it’s worth it. E.g. you have 99 on the button and several players have already cold called an EP raise. Hell, if there are 4 or more cold callers, it’s probably okay to add any pocket pair just hoping to hit a set. But if it’s folded to you after an open raise, fold your 33 or your 77. If you don’t, reraise (if you have a read to do that), but for the love of God, don’t call!

Hopefully this post will help some of you newer guys who have been struggling with preflop play (and there have been a lot of you lately). [preaching]Guys, we need to remember preflop play is important – VERY important. The attitude that “postflop is where you win the money” is true to a point, but if you play like crap preflop then this limits what you can do on later streets. I think we should perhaps look at the game of limit hold em more holistically – all streets go together. We should stop compartmentalizing so much. The decisions you make regarding the first two cards affect the decisions you make regarding the next five. Preflop play is inextricably linked to postflop play – we should treat the game as such. [/preaching]

[Isura]

Excellent post.

[ QUOTE ]
good preflop play is essential to being a winning poker player. It is a necessary but not sufficient condition to winning consistently.

[/ QUOTE ]

As a math guy, I couldn't have said this better myself. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I think the pitfalls of cold-calling cannot be de-emphazied.
I'm generally even more tight than the SSH recommendations for cold-calling. For example, I have no problem folding AQs in MP1 vs an UTG raiser. If I think he's a LAG, I reraise, neveer cold-call in this situation.
I remember when I first started poker, I followed WLLHE's preflop advice and it saved me a lot of money while learning the game. This point cannot be overlooked. Most of the money you make as a beginner in low-limit games is from avoiding costly errors. It's okay to win at 1.5BB/100 for your first 10K hands of .5/1 while learning the game. You can add marginal hands and play more aggressive once you have that experience. I don't want to hijack a good thread, so I'll stop now. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[LuckyStrike]

Nice post, Greg, and thanks.

[Aaron W.]

[ QUOTE ]
Relatedly, there is a technique I use a lot, and a lot of others too obviously, where you raise to isolate a loose and poor player – like a 60 vpip and <1 aggression person. This is usually called an isolation play – I like to call it a semi-blind steal. Criteria: you are in LP, a weak and loose player has limped before you, and you thinking you can get the blinds to fold to a raise. Raise some hands you might not otherwise raise, like A8o, K9s, or 55. This can take out the blinds, who might be more prone to respect your raise given the fact that there was already a limper, and you will hopefully be HU with a weak player, with a good chance of having the best hand and a positional advantage, in a pot inflated with dead money: a win-win-win-win situation!!!


[/ QUOTE ]

If you have a PFR of 7 and you're wondering how people manage to get up to 10-12, this is a significant chunk of the answer. Position raises preflop are good all around plays.

Here's another benefit: If you end up showing down a hand like A8o, it will make you seem like a LAG to those who are paying attention, but aren't *enough* attention. This is one of those plays that looks ridiculous if you don't know what's going on and you can get more action as a result. (Note: Do this for solid strategic reasons *ONLY*! Don't make this into an image play!)

[bottomset]

besides playing 22/12 is sooo much more fun than 17/8

[Bradyams]

Nice post, I've been trying to do this more lately, and I have a quick question:

How does this change if you're at a tight table? Let's say you're a t a typical loose .50/1 table, and it's actually folded to you in the CO, and you have 5[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]5[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], from what I understand is that you would want to raise here.

What if you're at a tight table with some solid aggressive players? And one of those solid players is in the BB? (I'm currently clearing a bonus at Absolute, and this is what the tables are like during the day. Table selection sucks there.)

[Greg J]

The raise or fold theorum still applies to this scenario. I would tend to raise it, and use my position to my advantage the rest of the hand. Many times I will go with a line like bet/raise the flop, bet/fold the turn, check through UI on the river. It all depends on my read, and assuming I miss my set.

[johnc]

Great post! Thanks for the insight from experience! Question: At what level do you think your pf advice becomes less valuable ie: 1/2?, 2/4?, 3/6?,...? Also, how applicable could your advice be for low limit live play? Thanks in advance!

[UncleSalty]

[ QUOTE ]
Great post! Thanks for the insight from experience! Question: At what level do you think your pf advice becomes less valuable ie: 1/2?, 2/4?, 3/6?,...? Also, how applicable could your advice be for low limit live play? Thanks in advance!

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm guessing that advice about how to best use advantageous position can only become more valuable as the limit goes up.

[Greg J]

I think it's prudent to not think necessarily in terms of the limit as much as how people play. That being said, knowing this stuff becomes more important as the players get better, not only so you can apply it, but so you can defend against it.