So make sure you think very carefully before every flop and build the foundations for a profitable hand by making the correct preflop strategy decision. Preflop starting hand selection. Choosing which hands to play and which hands to fold is fundamental to playing a winning poker game. The best hands to play in Texas Holdem are: Big pocket. However, knowing the odds of common pre-flop match-ups is a good starting point. Pick out and study what will help you. While it’s not essential that these statistics be committed to memory, it won’t hurt you if you do. Let’s start by looking at hand match-ups when holding a pair: Pair vs. The higher pair is an 80 percent favourite. Discussing pre-flop calling/3-bet/4-bet/limping ranges is something that we will get into in more depth in later sections of our strategy section. For now, as a general rule of thumb, make sure that you are calling with better hands than you are opening with. It is much better to open with a looser hand than it is to be calling a raise with it.
- What Is The Best Hand In Poker Pre Flop Poker
- Best Hands In Poker Preflop
- What Is The Best Hand In Poker Pre Flop Game
- What Is The Best Hand In Poker Pre Flop 2020
- What Is The Best Hand In Poker Pre Flop Ever
In short, your decisions in the pre-flop betting round should be based on three key factors:
- Your hand strength
- Your position at the table
- Your opponents’ action in front of you
What Is The Best Hand In Poker Pre Flop Poker
We now look more deeply at how to apply these basics in the specific environment of the cash-game tables.
Hand selection
Best Hands In Poker Preflop
As in all games of Texas Hold’em, be it tournament play or a cash game, you will need to categorise your starting hand. (Refresh your memory of what we mean by “monsters”, “very strong hands”, “speculative hands” and “trash” in the Poker Basics lesson.)
By and large, it is correct to raise with monsters and very strong hands; it is better to be more circumspect with speculative hands; and trash should be thrown away. As you get more experienced you will add other factors, but the core decision is based primarily on that list.
However in a cash game, you will have a bigger stack compared with the big blind, so you can tend to play more speculative hands. The reasons for this are twofold: firstly we are risking a much smaller proportion of our stack to enter a pot pre-flop. Secondly, if we hit, we will win a far bigger pot.
Therefore the risk/reward calculation changes with 100 BB stacks in a cash game. In some instances we should be happy to call pre-flop with a hand that we might ordinarily throw away. (The notion of “pot odds” is discussed in more depth later.) You can afford to call and miss with speculative hands like smaller pocket pairs and suited connectors against raises, knowing that you will fold if you miss.
The larger stack sizes also free you up to play slightly unorthodox poker at times. You might want to call with a very strong hand instead of re-raising. Or you might want to call a re-raise with a weaker speculative hand.
Your decision will need to take into account the effective stack size, as discussed in the last lesson.
For example: You are on the button with 3♣3♠ and a very tight player raises from early position. It is very likely that he holds a big pocket pair, so you will need to hit a set to win.
If your assumption is correct and the tight player has a big pair like A♥A♦ or K♠K♣ it will be tough for him to get away from his hand on a flop like 3♦Q♦10♠. You are very likely to be able to get the maximum amount of chips in the pot.
What Is The Best Hand In Poker Pre Flop Game
Therefore if the effective stack is 100 BB in this situation, you can certainly call the raise and hope to hit your set. The times you hit and win a big pot will make up for the times you miss and lose.
What Is The Best Hand In Poker Pre Flop 2020
But if the effective stack is only 20 BB, you cannot win enough. Your relatively small profit will not make up for the times you miss. You should fold 3♣3♠ if you or your opponent is short-stacked.
In later stages of tournaments, play like this this simply doesn’t work. You usually play with a shallow stack, where fancy moves can cost you your tournament life. That is not true in a cash game, where the small investment pre-flop can grow into a big one if you hit the right flop.
But always keep in mind that stack size is not the only factor in the decision whether you want to play a hand or not – always consider position, opponents and your table image.
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It seems lately I’ve had many discussion about the wisdom of going all in pre-flop. There are of-course time when it is the right thing to do… and obviously times when it’s absolutely the wrong thing to do. As with all things in poker, there are gray areas where “it depends” on a lot of different factors. My recent discussions center on my take that I think the use of the pre-flop all in is overused, and detrimental to your survival in a tournament.
What Is The Best Hand In Poker Pre Flop Ever
In general there is a lot of value to having the ability to make a decision after the flop. There’s an equal value in having the ability to put your opponent to a decision. Imagine you make a bet pre-flop, and your opponent just calls. The flop comes and you hit top pair, while he whiffs completely. You make another bet, he folds, and you win a pot. Now imagine you make a huge bet pre-flop (all in, or putting your opponent all-in), and your opponent calls with his AK because “why not, it’s a good hand”. The flop still hits you, and you’re ahead, but now you have no ability to push your opponent to a decision, and you *have* to see two more cards… which of course hit your opponent, and there go all those wonderful chips.
Let’s look at a few situations where some people might decide to go all in pre-flop.
1) Pocket aces/big pocket pairs. I’ve seen a lot of people simply push all in with pocket aces the first chance they get to bet. In my view it’s correct to do so if you are a short stack, or if there already have been raises and re-raises in front of you. In rare cases where you know you’ll get called by someone with a lesser holding simply because you pushed (they view you as on tilt), then go for it. For all other situations, you should read my opinion on playing pocket aces. The short version is that you should bet enough to get everyone but one person to fold. If that happens, you should be no worse than 60% to win, and are mostly like 80% or higher to win.
2) A big Ace (AK, AQ). It should be assumed that pushing with a decent hand holding when you are short stacked is usually the right thing to do. But what if there is a raise, re-raise and an all-in in front of you? How would you feel about those holdings now? I know I’d grumble as I folded, but mathematically speaking, it’s probably the right thing to do. Even if you luck out and hit the flop with top pair, you now have no more chips to use to make someone on a draw to fold. On the flip side, what if you have a big stack. Calling or pushing all in with a big ace is probably a coin-flip. If your opponent has a pair, then they are technically ahead, giving you that classic coin flip. Would you want to wager a large portion of your chips on a coin flip?
3) The flip side of that is having a small/medium pocket pair. You are almost always ahead pre-flop in this situation, but often you are going to get called by someone with two over-cards, and around a 50% chance to win. Whether you bet, or just call in these situations is a discussion for another time (and a decision I probably get wrong far too often), but pushing all in because you are “technically ahead” just invites someone who needs to to take advantage of a coin flip.
4) Other hands. Having a short stack obviously opens up your all-in hand range a lot… but otherwise, there aren’t many reasons to put all your chips in pre-flop without a pocket pair or a big hand. Of course if you know you can get someone to fold, because you’re a mind reader, then do what you gotta do.
…
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve pushed all in pre-flop with a big ace or a pocket pair and get called with someone with a hand that is a coin flip. Remember, that coin flip assumes you’ll see all five community cards. If only I had made a bet, got a call and then did a continuation bet (regardless of whether I hit the flop or not)… because if your opponent is not already holding a made hand (pocket pair), they will generally miss the flop completely 66% of the time (which means only 1 out of 3 times will they actually hit one of their cards). After that, your hand may be a lot more than 50% to win with only two more cards to go.
You may lose chips using these methods, but if you feel you can play a good game post flop (which can including proper reads), then you want to keep your options open post-flop. It’s better to lose some chips, than all of your chips.