Too Strict of Starting Hands?

I'm noticing I'm folding a lot, and I mean A LOT. I've generally only played about 10-15% of the hands I'm dealt when at a full table, I loosen up my chart a lot when playing at a shorter table (6 or less) but when I'm anything higher than that I stick to a very strict guideline.

Early Position:
Raise w/ = AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AKs
Call w/ = TT, 99, AKo, AQo

Middle Position:
Raise w/ = AA-88, AKs, AQs, AKo, AQo
Call w/ = 77-44, AJs, ATs, KQs, KJs, KQo

Late Position:
Raise w/ = AA-77, AKs, AQs, AJs, KQs, KJs, QJs, AKo, AQo, AJo, KQo, KJo, QJo
Call w/ = 66-22, Any two-suited connectors, JTo

I obviously will change these up depending on how I'm perceived at the table, how the table is playing, and my stack size in comparison to the blinds...but in a hypothetical situation where blinds weren't affecting players, the table is completely mixed, and I'm perceived as an unknown how is this for starting hands?

Is this too tight, too loose? I'd love some feedback as I've been getting some decent results but feel like I could defiantly be hitting more flops than I am at the moment.

welcome to forum this is one of the best posts by new person I have seen in awhile.

ok so starting hands huh? a lot depends on how many you have limping before you on what you should play. Usually if anyone limps in before you all pocket pairs are playable. This is even more true in low limit games because most of those players are not good enough to realize there is so much dead money and they can pick it up with a big raise so they will just come limping along with any old crappy hand. This is good for us because if we hit a set we get paid off better.

I raise any broadway cards in Late Position if the pot is not raised before me. AQ up and TT up I usually re-raise in late position, middle position it depends on my table. So many things are situational though on my table and who im sitting with. Now at higher levels I will raise a little lighter or raise a little tighter depending on my current table image.


as for suited connectors well I will limp with them like pocket pairs if Im getting a lot of limpers, if im 1st to open a pot your always raising. Actually come to think of it if a hand is good enough to run its good enough to raise with. Only thing im limping with most of the time is small pocket pairs if the pot is limped before me.

Thanks for the response but I have a one question concerning the suited connectors, as I am a frequent sucker to these post-flop just constantly folding.

You say to raise with these, isn't the idea to see a cheap flop allowing you to break-even or slightly above when you do hit your flush, or straight?
I can see raising to disguise a hand, and raising from early position to discourage a lot of limps, and inevitably a raise, but from middle / late position I can't imagine putting in a raise with connectors.
Are we talking a big raise or just a sorta sucker bet raise, 2xBB, 4xBB? I just want to have kind of mindset into what your thought process is behind the suited connectors everything else I can see and was helpful thank you.

I would have to say you are probably limping a little too much. I dont mind the limping with pocket pairs, but just limping in early position with AKo and AQs? I would definately be raising here. Once I hit middle position, I will raise any unopened pots with any 2 broadway cards. If there are limpers before it gets to me it depends on how the table is. I will usually raise hands like AQ, AJ, sometimes KQ. I usually dump A10, KJ, QJ, etc. In late position I raise all sorts of hands if the table is weak and limpy, as lots of times you will just pick up all the dead money in the pot. If the table is full of calling stations, then I stay tight and only raise good hands in late position. You should be raising 75% of the time when you are putting money into the pot. The general strategy I have outlined above is what I use in ring games. If we are talking about a S&G, I play very tight from all positions at the beginning and then loosen up as the blinds get bigger.

The reason you can raise suited connectors in late position is that you will have position over any opponent that calls your bet. You will be able to see what they do first, before you act. Since you have been the one to show aggression to begin with in the hand, you will most likely be able to c-bet the flop and take it down whether you hit your hand or not. You want to be raising around 3-4x BB +1 for every limper.

raising with suited connectors by stormswa


usually you are raising with suited connectors to take down the pot right at that moment. You are doing it because you see a lot of dead money in the pot and want to take advantage of weak players that are limiping. You are almost never ever re-raising someone with suited connectors unless you are like on the button and the guy in the cutoff raised because his range is very wide there and will fold often enough to make this raise +ev. Now if you get called that is not that bad of a thing because a lot of the time your hand is well concelead at this point. For instance.

say you have 3 limpers before you and you raise 4x big blind +3 for each limper lets assume its a $1/$2 game so you bump it up to around $15 or so with 6d7d and flop comes something like K77. Thats a great flop for you obviously and it hit him a lot of the times too so you fire out a bet. Your opponent can not and will not put you on that 7 so you will get paid off by any King and can maximixe your hand there because its soo well hidden. At a limit like 1/2 you can expect KQ to call your re-raise even though its a bad play they do it....go figure.

The biggest reasons to raise suited connectors are 1. you can take pot down right there or 2. you can hit a favorable flop, something even like 2J6 that you can take away from your opponent on the flop and even if they do try to float you, you still have outs.

A big leak I have been plugging up latley is limping with suited connectors in EP to MP and I fixed this leak from watching some cardrunners high stakes videos where they NEVER ever limped with suited connectors. Just dump them in EP to MP.

Thanks both of you, I played a small Sit-N-Go just to test it out and while I received a really bad beat on the bubble, (go figure when I was just playing 2$ game to test this out) the idea worked out a lot better than limping.

I would have never figured to do a play like that but the reasoning was great, and convinced me to want to try it. Thanks, I'll be sure to add these sort of "plays" into my book.

Np that is why this forum is here, just realize these plays are not going to work 100% of the time and a lot is based on who you are playing against and you cant just randomly do this. If you know your against a calling station it is crazy to raise like this because obviously he is going to call you down light. And dont take results as meaning it is the best play, the play might work but it might also be a bad time to make it. Know what I mean by that? just because the play works it might still be to risky to make at the current time, if a board is very cordinated then its nuts to C-bet with low suited connectors and even if it did work does not mean it was correct to make that play.

Plus you should be doing this same play with 6d7d on a A26 board as you would with AA on a A26 board. There are 2 ways to mix up your game you can either play the same hand different ways or play different hands the same way. I suggest you play different hands the same way because usually people get into habbits and will mean to play same hand different ways but because of habbit wont. If you just stick to same bet amounts over and over and over no one will be able to figure you out.

once you get more experienced you can begin to play hands different ways but also remember the players you are sitting with are bad! $2 STT they usually are so they are not paying attention to how you played last flop and if you just play the same way every flop they will be like I think that is same amount he bet last flop. and it will confuse them to the point they will just be like does he have it or not? I dont know he bet the same amount? A lot of the times they will go into calling station mode and you can extract tons of value because they dont want to be bluffed.