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Hypermegachi's 6-Max Texas Hold'em Limit Guide - Pre-Flop Play
Position is the single most important deciding factor of what hands to play, so I’m going to break it down by position.
UTG
Open raise or fold. You do not want to call here with anything. The only exception is if the table is unusually aggressive preflop, and you hold AA or KK, and you know there's an 80% chance there's a raise behind you, then you can consider limp-raising. UTG is the worst position preflop, limping can be very costly if someone raises after you. You must open raise to try and get as many people to fold after you, or try and induce mistakes by making them cold call.
As a side note now that I mentioned, cold calling is a HUGE leak in many people's games. This goes in full ring, and it applies in 6max. Do not cold call! Exceptions are if you're on the button and 2 people cold called already, and you hold a suited ace, expecting the blinds to call, etc.
UTG+1
Again the situation is very similar to UTG.
CO
This is when you start to get good position. The only time you should call is when UTG or UTG+1 limped ahead of you. Otherwise, if you're going to play the hand, raise. You want to buy the button by making them fold.
Button
Again, like CO, call only when there are limpers before you. If it's folded to you, raise with decent hands if you think there's a good chance the blinds will fold.
Now, I mentioned calling only against limpers. The decision to call vs. raise is often very close. For example, I call with KTo, but I’ll raise with KTs. Don’t get too stuck up on things like this, your decision preflop in situations like this account for a small percentage of your win rate over the long run. Postflop is where all the money is made.
SB
You have awesome odds here, so if no one has raised, call with anything suited, and connectors.
BB
If everyone folds to the button, who raises, don't be a chicken if you have a decent hand. Even A3o is worth calling to tell the button to screw off trying to steal your blind. Having the ace is important though, with K3o the decision is more dependent on your read on the player.
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Hands
Pocket pairs: These hands go up in value shorthanded. Fold the lowest pairs early position. Call with the lower pairs if there are limpers ahead of you in late position, raise the higher ones in all positions.
Suited connectors: There hands are junk shorthanded. Only play 98s or higher, and only in late position with limpers.
Suited aces and kings: Again like all speculative hands, they go way down in value shorthanded. Just like suited connectors, only late position with limpers.
High card hands: These hands go up in value. KTo, weak hand in full ring, strong hand shorthanded. You should not be afraid of open raising with this hand, from all positions.
Powerhouse hands. AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT, AK, AQ, AJ, KQ...these are all hands you should try to raise, reraise, and cap preflop, depending on what type of players your opponents are.
Just a side note, many players do not like raising and reraise with AK. They like to call, and see the flop cheaply, and when they hit their pair they'll bet aggressively, otherwise they will fold. This is TERRIBLE. You are holding AK, the 3rd or 4th best fricken hand! If you aren't going to raise with that what ARE you going to raise with? Limit is all about doing the thing that maximizes expectation. The chances of AK being the current best hand are VERY high. Raise for value.
Since I expect you to know what hands are good and what hands are crappy, the only change you need to make from full tables is you will be raising a lot more preflop. If it's folded to you, raise if you're going to play the hand. Call if callers ahead of you. Reraise and cap all your premium holdings.
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Facing a Raise
Like I’ve mentioned before, cold calling is a HUGE LEAK. Don’t do it. The only time you should even think about cold calling is if it was a hand you would have raised if no one else did. Getting reads are important, if a TP-P raises before you, you can probably safely muck your AQo, knowing you're probably up against AK, AA, or KK. Against a tight aggressive it's a coin flip. They could have AA, or they could have ATo. You should either reraise, or fold. I don't like cold calling. I don't like calling in general. For me I reraise AQ, and fold everything else. TT and higher pairs I reraise, medium pairs 77-99 depends on the opponent to reraise or call, and how many opponents will be in the hand. The only time I cold call is when there are multiple cold callers in front of me, and I have a lower pocket pair or suited connectors.
Basically the overall idea for cold calling, play AS A TIGHT AS A TIGHT ANIMALS ASS. Just to give you a general idea, in the last 1000 hands I’ve played, I’ve cold called 4 times. And that's probably too loose.
In summary; raise or fold. Call with hands too crappy to raise with, but too good to fold (but only after someone else called). Cold call only when necessary...i.e. almost never.
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Facing a Reraise After You Raised
If you raised first, and it gets 3bet and capped back to you, muck your hand unless you hold the goods. Treat this as if you were cold calling.
What if it's one bet back to you? In most situations I will call. You don't want to fold after you raise or people who notice will start throwing extra raises at you. However, if a loose passive reraises your raise, what else will they raise with? Give them credit and fold. If a tight aggressive raises, that's when you gotta decide whether to reraise, call, or fold. This depends on position as well. Being first to act or last to act for the rest of the round against a specific player will change what action you must take. Unfortunately I do not have enough experience in these situations to give any meaningful advice (mainly because I choose soft tables).
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