Pre-flop help for beginners at micro stakes
Occasionally I'll write a little something to help a friend who's just starting out at no-limit hold'em - I hope it might also be useful to newcomers to FTR who are just kicking off their poker adventure and want a bit of advice. I appreciate to most of us it's all obvious stuff, but if you've played a few hundred hands of play money and want to explore further, then it might be worth a read.
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Okay, here are some thoughts in no particular order about playing
no-limit cash game texas hold'em. There is no one true guide to the
game; as you get more into it, you discover more levels on which you
need to think, and tactical elements you need to consider. But what we
can do, by and large, is set you off with a few basic tenets which
will minimise potential noob mistakes and put you in the best position
to play good poker.
At higher stakes, with skillful players, the game is more about
playing the player rather than the cards, more about tells, betting
patterns and bluffs. It is vital for the beginner to realise that the
micro-stakes games are very different. There, there is almost never a
reason to play "tricky" poker. You should play solid, ABC poker as
much as possible - it should be extremely profitable simply because
your opponents will make so many mistakes.
(Quick tangent - one of these mistakes is that they call too much,
both when they should raise and when they should fold. This is good
for you when you have a good hand; less good for you if you're trying
to bluff. So, keep the bluffing to an absolute minimum - in reality
this means continuation bets (bets on the flop when you have raised
pre-flop, even if you don't hit) and picking up orphan pots - pots
where no-one is betting - when you have position. If you never make a
single bluff beyond these, you will minimise big losses against bad
players and make a good return from when you do have good hands).
Pre-flop, the most important single concept is that tight play - where
you play only the best hands - is without doubt the correct approach
for a beginner. Ironically, most beginners play far too many hands -
any two court cards, any two suited, any ace, any king - which means
they are a) putting too much money in the pot with weak hands and b)
they are risking a great deal more money post-flop by taking weak
hands too far. the perfect example of this is someone who calls a
raise with A7, flop is Axx, you are holding AQ and you bet, and get a
call, on each street. By the river they have lost half their stack
with a top pair hand with a weak kicker which they just can't lay down
- it's a pair of aces! It is these players who you should be milking -
don't be one of them.
How strong your cards have to be pre-flop depends on a number of
variables. First of all, how many people are playing? If it's a full
table of 10 players, you probably want to be playing about 13% of your
cards at most. In practice, this means AQ+, all pocket pairs, and
sometimes Axs and suited connectors (e.g. 67s) when position and the
actions of the other players allows. If there are 6 players, you can
edge a bit higher, say 17%, with AT, AJ, KQ becoming playable and more
opportunities for Axs and SC type hands to be played. I personally
wouldn't advise playing on tables of under 5 players, so I won't go
into that here.
The next pre-flop concept, and an absolutely vital one, is position. A
good understanding of position will give you a MASSIVE advantage over
most low-stakes players, and becomes all the more important as you
rise up stakes. In short, the dealer has the best position, as it
allows him to act after all other players post-flop - this means he
will therefore be able to make his move with the most information of
any player at the table. It is also the best position to take down
orphan pots because you know there is no-one to bet after you who
could spring a surprise (of course, you might be check raised by a
player before you, but at low stakes this is not a common move - cross
that bridge when you come to it). The next best position is to the
right of the dealer, the next best to his right, etc. The blinds have
the worst position on the table - it might be tempting to call bets in
the blinds because you've already put money in the pot, but you must
be very careful what you play here because lack of position is such a
big disadvantage post-flop.
The key thing about position pre-flop is that it changes the strength
of cards you should be willing to play. Basically, the worse your
position is, the stronger your hand has to be to justify paying it. In
a 6-handed game, I would fold AT, KQ, Axs and all suited connectors if
I were first to act pre-flop, whereas on the button, I am raising
pretty much all of the above (assuming no-one has raised before me).
This is because a) your positional advantage post-flop means it is
easier to play slightly less strong hands, and b) there are only 2
players to act after you pre-flop - the blinds - and they will need to
have very strong hands to play back at you because their post-flop
position is so bad. NB at micro limits, the cluelessness of lots of
players mean they are likely to play weaker hands in the blinds - you
need to be aware of this when stealing or raising marginal hands with
good position.
The next thing you need to think about pre-flop is whether to call or
raise (we are assuming you are folding all weak hands). If no-one has
raised before you, and you have a hand you want to play, it is almost
always right to raise rather than just limp (i.e. make the minimum
bet, also called calling). This is because: a) you may take down the
blinds unchallenged if no-one else has a hand - unless you have an
extremely strong hand pre-flop this is seldom a bad thing; b) by
raising you are taking control of the hand - this gives your post-flop
bets more credibility, and also it means that if you do get called, or
played back at, it's likely the villain does have a good hand and you
can minimise your losses if appropriate; c) raising pre-flop helps
build the pot, which is obviously on balance a good thing if you have
a strong hand; and d) the traditional strong hands in poker - high
aces, high pocket pairs - play better against only one or two
opponents. Isolating opponents, therefore, is vital - the last thing
you want is to bet too small and have 5 people seeing a flop, because
if you do make your top pair (say) there is a much bigger chance a
player with a drawing hand will be able to outdraw you, potentially
costing you a lot of money.
There are times when calling is fine, or better than raising. When you
hold a small-mid pocket pair in early position, for example, it's fine
to just limp and hope some other people limp after you - you can also
call raises (as long as both you and the raiser have decent sized
stacks. This is because small-mid pocket pairs have one massive weapon
- when they make a set (three of a kind) on the flop, it's an
extremely strong hand that's as hidden as a strong hand can get in
poker. For example, if you hold 33, a player raises you pre-flop with
AK, and the flop comes AK3, you should be able to take his whole stack
the majority of the time - it's a powerhouse of a hand, and probably
the biggest single earner in the game. On the flip side, of course, if
your 33 doesn't improve, you're unlikely to be ahead of your rival, so
you can easily fold to strength without worrying you're giving up
value.
It is for this reason that hands like suited connectors and Axs can
also be limped, though they will usually end up drawing on the flop
rather than immediately making a monster hand. As a result, position
is much more important - I will always fold SCs or Axs in early
position because they're much harder to play on the flop unless you
luck out and hit a monster (and indeed, hitting your 5-card flush on
the flop is a mixed blessing, because although you have a monster
hand, the board is obviously extremely dangerous to anyone not holding
that suit, so it's hard to make big $$$). So, I would only limp SCs
and Axs after at least a couple of other limpers - you can call raises
with them when you have position too, though in this case SCs are
better than Axs because they have more potential (they can make
straights as well as flushes) and are easier to fold if they don't hit
(as we've seen above, holding an ace low kicker can lead you into all
sorts of trouble when an ace comes on the flop).
The above caters for when you are the first person to raise in a pot.
Obviously, this won't always be the case, so you need to be bale to
figure out how your hand stands up to a raise. At the micro-limits,
it's almost always worth playing by the book here, despite that fact
that poor opponents most likely won't be - again, it comes down to you
making fewer mistakes than them, and it's a far smaller mistake to
fold AJ vs a maniac who shows 74o than it is to play it against a very
tight player who takes half your stack with AK.
If a player in early position raises, he *should* have a fairly strong
hand, as we've seen above So your hand has to be STRONGER than his
range. By range, I mean all the hands he is likely to have based on
position, number of players, your observations of his play etc. If he
is tight and raising in early position (EP), then he might have AQ+,
TT+. This means that to call or raise his bet, you want to have AK,
QQ+ (i.e. a stronger hand than his range pre-flop - in this case I
would probably re-raise here), or alternatively, you want to have a
hand that has the potential to beat him post-flop, such as a pocket
pair or suited connectors. Although you're almost certainly behind at
this point, you know that he is likely to be aggressive post-flop so
if you do hit two pair, a set, or a strong draw or even, say, a
straight, you will probably be able to take a decent amount of cash
from him.
As we've seen above, the better his position is, the less good his
starting hand needs to be, so you can adjust your starting
requirements accordingly. Where you need to be careful is when you're
in the blinds, and therefore you will have worse position post-flop
than any player who could raise pre-flop. So by and large, you want to
only call or raise an early position raiser with the very best hands -
AK, QQ+ again. However, things can change when the pre-flop raiser is
in late position (LP) - they may well be stealing the blinds, so there
are times when you can call or raise their bet with considerably less
good cards - calling their bluff, in a sense. I wouldn't advise a
beginner gets tricky here too often - sometimes they WILL have a hand,
and other times you will find yourself playing a tricky hand out of
position post-flop, which is not something you want to be doing if at
all possible. So by and large, if someone steals your blinds and you
don't have a strong hand, let them.
One of the advantages with playing tight is that you will find
yourself folding 80%+ of hands, so you can take this time to observe
your fellow players. It's extremely useful to take notes on their
betting habits - are they tight, loose, aggressive (bet and raise a
lot), passive (check and call a lot), do they make underbets (very
small bets compared to the pot), overbets (the opposite, do they bet
the flop every time, do they fold easily, do they seem to be taking
position into account, do they showdown only good hands, do they call
too much, do they chase draws with bad odds, etc. etc. It's all useful
stuff, and especially as you go up the limits it will make the
difference between breaking even and making good returns. At the micro
limits, it's useful for working out which of the players are actually
competent - the default level is pretty bad, but there are some
players who do play decent ABC poker and you very much want to be
aware of them because, although they'll make fewer mistakes, a)
they're easy to read as they always play "correctly", and b) you can
avoid playing difficult pots against them if they show strength.
Similarly, if you can identify the worst players - maniacs (players
who play far too many hands far too aggressively) and calling stations
(players who call bets of any size with marginal holdings, draws etc.)
- then you can ensure that the hands you play against them can be
milked for the most profit.
Re: Pre-flop help for beginners at micro stakes
Thanks for the nice post. I have a couple of questions regarding raise-calling ranges
Quote:
Originally Posted by biondino
If a player in early position raises, he *should* have a fairly strong hand, as we've seen above So your hand has to be STRONGER than his range. [...] If he is tight and raising in early position (EP), then he might have AQ+, TT+. This means that to call or raise his bet, you want to have AK, QQ+ (i.e. a stronger hand than his range pre-flop - in his case I would probably re-raise here)
1. How do you determine if a hand is stronger than a range? Is it something that only comes the experience of playing many hands and analyzing them?
2. At the micro-limits it is not unusual to see several players call a raise before it gets to you. What adjustments, if any, are required in these cases? For example in a 10-handed game utg raises; he's tight, so his range is AQ+, TT+. There are 2 callers. you are CO with AKs.
Re: Pre-flop help for beginners at micro stakes
Quote:
Originally Posted by miracleriver
Thanks for the nice post. I have a couple of questions regarding raise-calling ranges
Quote:
Originally Posted by biondino
If a player in early position raises, he *should* have a fairly strong hand, as we've seen above So your hand has to be STRONGER than his range. [...] If he is tight and raising in early position (EP), then he might have AQ+, TT+. This means that to call or raise his bet, you want to have AK, QQ+ (i.e. a stronger hand than his range pre-flop - in his case I would probably re-raise here)
1. How do you determine if a hand is stronger than a range? Is it something that only comes the experience of playing many hands and analyzing them?
2. At the micro-limits it is not unusual to see several players call a raise before it gets to you. What adjustments, if any, are required in these cases? For example in a 10-handed game utg raises; he's tight, so his range is AQ+, TT+. There are 2 callers. you are CO with AKs.
1. In simple terms, if your hand is ahead of most cards in a range, it is stronger than that range. Obviously this is not the whole story, most obviously because some weaker hands,such as SCs, play very well in position against a tight PF raiser. But if you know the guy won't be raising any ace below AJ, and you are holding AJ, then you already know that should the flop come Axx you will be in a very tricky position - even if he actually holds 55 he can choose to rep the ace (as pre-flop raiser he should be doing so) and you're suddenly facing at best risking a lot of chips to get a fold and at worst pot committing yourself vs AK.
2. First of all it's been over a year since I played any 10-handed poker apart from tourneys. But let's consider the hand. UTG is obviously strong; his two callers, probably less so (micro players DO limp/call with AA, we know this, but as a general assumption we will consider ourself ahead of their ranges). If he does only hold TT+ and AQ+, how many hands can he have that we beat? 12 x AQ and that's it. We're level with AK and effectively level with TT-QQ, so we can discount them; we're behind KK (3 possible combos) and AA (3 possible combos). So actually, we're ahead of more hands that he could be holding than we're behind. Plus, of course, we have position. So my action here is to re-raise - say 5 times his bet, which will put enormous pressure on UTG and will almost certainly fold the callers if they have low PPs, Ax or any other combo. We can't call because then we're seeing a flop in a swollen pot with 3 villains and reverse implied odds. Not fun.
Re: Pre-flop help for beginners at micro stakes
Quote:
... let's consider the hand. UTG is obviously strong; his two callers, probably less so (micro players DO limp/call with AA, we know this, but as a general assumption we will consider ourself ahead of their ranges). If he does only hold TT+ and AQ+, how many hands can he have that we beat? 12 x AQ and that's it. We're level with AK and effectively level with TT-QQ, so we can discount them; we're behind KK (3 possible combos) and AA (3 possible combos). So actually, we're ahead of more hands that he could be holding than we're behind. Plus, of course, we have position. So my action here is to re-raise - say 5 times his bet, which will put enormous pressure on UTG and will almost certainly fold the callers if they have low PPs, Ax or any other combo. We can't call because then we're seeing a flop in a swollen pot with 3 villains and reverse implied odds. Not fun.
I’m a beginner here trying to make sense +EV and this example piqued my interest. I understand your analysis of what hands we beat / what hands are we behind. It makes sense to me if we were HU with the UTG raiser. I’m thinking about the two weak callers, at least one of them could be playing Ax, doesn’t that weaken our draws against TT-QQ? I’m thinking we’re behind TT-QQ. Does that change the way to play the hand?
