Pre-Flop Strategy

Pre-Flop Strategy:

I am beginning to think I may need to work on my pre-flop play.

What kinds of hands does everyone play? I am mostly looking at what is the low end to be played, as I think I may be playing too tight.

Then again, I am playing freerolls at the moment, so that may have something to do with it.

That is hard, anything goes in freerolls, i had prepped myself to play tight and on first call one night someone all inned, i had aa so i called and got beat by j7o. My advise is play way tight first hour which all the maniacs out themselves then play as usual.

It depends on position and how many people are already in the pot.

If you are the first to act after the big blind, I wouldn't play anything but AQ, AK, and pocket pairs of 88+.

If I'm on the button and it's folded to me, then I'll raise with just about anything outside of two tiny cards.

There's a whole range in between, but that should give you an idea of not how much to expand your range, but *when*, which is more important.

Alright, perhaps I haven't been clear exactly with what I was looking for, so I revise my question:
At the beginning of a 9 handed tournament, what are the worst hands you will raise/call on in the following positions:

UTG, On the Button, and roughly in between those two.

UTG, AQ or better and high pocket pairs


On the button, it depends on how many people are in. If none, then you can raise almost anything until people stop letting you steal their blinds.

Don't you hate the "it depends" advice? But... it does

When I began, I stuck to strict preflop charts, but as you gain more experience... All you gotta do is simply play better hands than your opponents.

That means: If 'X' is opening K10o, you should (theoretically) be re-popping KJo. In other situations, where his opening standards are stronger, AJ needs to be mucked.

You'll never completely figure it out, and there are no perfect answers... there's only the process of TRYING to figure it out!

Have fun w/ that process.

-Dayne

I will play almost all pocket pairs ; though I don't like playing 2s and 3s but i will play them from the button. I will play AKo to A9; KQo to K9 and QJo. I play suited connectors as I approach late position but I generally won't go below 5-6 suited. I will play them also with one gap also such as 7-9 suited. I will play A-x suited looking for a nut flush draw and also sometimes K-x suited, also mostly from late position. If I pair an ace or king and my kicker is weak -- I will proceed very cautiously. As tables shorten and blinds increase and there are less people calling in a hand, I play correspondingly less of the drawing hands. I hope that helps.