Quote Originally Posted by bigspenda73
I'd open AJs and KJs Pf in these games from UTG
Productive? Only if it gets people thinking.

It is profitable for YOU to have AJs and KJs in your PF opening range from UTG in those games. That doesn't mean it's profitable for me or for OP.

I think what Spenda is trying to say here is that you should open whatever hands in whatever positions provided you think it will generally be profitable to do so. Whether it is profitable for YOU depends on whether you know how to play different types of flops profitably.

In terms of flops, there will be flops where you think you are just outflopped and you want to fold. There may be flops where you think your opponent whiffed often enough that your cards don't matter and you can make a play. And there are flops that you hit softly and flops you hit hard. An ability to play the second kind of flop will let you play simply a wider range of hands - because often enough your cards don't matter. But let's ignore that for now.

The important flops are the ones you hit softly or hard. The very MINIMUM requirement for you to be playing any hand in any position is an idea how you are going to play a flop that you hit whether you end up in position or out of position. The critical part here is not that you get lost post-flop - it's that you pretty much get lost ON THE FLOP. A core requirement for playing the hand preflop is to have a solid plan for at the very least the flop and an idea how much money you are willing to see go in depending on how the streets develop and how aggressively your opponent plays.

If you do not have a solid plan for how to play KJs when you hit a pretty sweet flop like this one - you should not be playing KJs UTG or in any other position for that matter. In poker, what you don't know DOES hurt you. I think the take-away message is not "do not play KJs UTG" because that's a prescriptive way of playing poker that doesn't help you grow - it is more "play hands where you can see how they can become profitable" and apply that principle to considering the hand in front of you.

Did I really get all that out of what Spenda said? Yes, I did. Why didn't you?