ChuckT's Starting hands

Just read ChuckT's 10K post.. very good!!

Was wondering if the starting hands he advises would be the starting hands to use in a limit game? I see that chuck plays NL and wondered if the starting hands would difffer between the two.


from chuckt's 10k post

I have been playing a LOT of limit lately. From most of the books I have read those hands are fairly close. At a loose/passive table you can even add medium suited connectors to limp in with from early/middle position and any suited ace.

In the small blind with limpers you are correct in calling with any two suited cards.

Remember, in a tight/aggressive game with many raises preflop the suited connectors and small/medium pairs lose value from early/middle position.

FPaulsson would be the person to ask around here. Maybe he will pop in this thread.

Thanks dakotaxx. im new to this site. Whos FPaulson? Im assuming he's a limit holdem player.

Yea - he is one of our best.

There are some differences in which hands you'd play in NL versus LHE. Specifically you play a lot more speculative hands in no-limit (small pocket pairs, suited connectors) whereas you can be a bit more aggressive with high cards in limit hold 'em.

Generally speaking, I never open-limp when I play limit. If I had to construct a starting hands chart out of the blue for 6-max when you're the first one in, I'd say:

UTG: 22+, A8s+, ATo+, KJs+, KQo+, QJs, JTs
HJ: 22+, A5s+, A8o+, K8s+, KTo+, QTs+, QJo+, JTs+
CO: 22+, AXs+, A5o+, K4s+, K8o+, Q7s+, Q9o+, J8s+, J9o+, T8s+, T9o+
Button: 22+, AX, KX, QXs, Q4o+, J5s+, J7o+, T6s+, T7o+, 76s+, 87o+,

... checking now in Stove, it seems that the rough percentages for each position are:

UTG: ~13%
HJ: ~20%
CO: ~30%
Button: ~60%

Of course, this is only in the case where no one else has raised first in. If someone else has raised and/or limped, you're in a different seat. But that's a bit more complicated. And don't even get me started on playing from the blinds, heh. My best advice is really to invest in a book, preferably Ed Miller's "Small Stakes Hold 'em."

Oh, and rake matters a lot. If you play $1/$2-$3/$6, steal less than 60% on the button. I'd guess more like 45%. Rake eats all the profit that you could get from the extra 15 percentage points of hands.

Thanks

I am actually reading SSH right now.

In fact thats the reason for tthis post. Way more hands are reconmended than ppl on this site seem to advocate.

I have never seen a table where 6-9 on average play the flop so am using the tight ranges given there. Even so the range seems bigger than whats suggested here.

Pre flop I stick to the rules in the book.

One question though is if I raise and am reraised do I treat that as playing against a raise or a reraise? (as far as the pre flop rules given in the book)

I guess where my game is the weakest is post flop.. there is a lot to consider. Right now I seem to raise alomst anything I play .. or fold if I donty think its worth playing.

If you raise and someone else 3-bets you, you can never fold because of the huge pot odds you're getting. How tight you should be about four-betting (capping, usually) depends on who raised you, of course.

Limit is almost entirely a game of equity; a combination of fold- and showdown equity. I might 3-bet pocket deuces on the button both because I think my equity is good, but also because it increases my fold equity postflop. This differs a lot from NL.

In Limit you're unlikely to be all in pre-flop and still gain some value from your position. No Limit, being aggressive pre-flop with deuces could mean ending up in a coin flip for all your chips and wasting the advantage of position. After the rake that all-in coin flip may be a loser even if you're ahead.