PreFlop Play and Pot Odds

I've been playing a tight strategy preflop and its been working to a degree but I feel like I should be playing more hands against small raises with my more marginal holdings. Obviously there is no question when holding a top tier hand (AA KK QQ AK) but when I hold something less (KQ QT J9) my usual action would be to fold to a raise in front of me giving credit for Ax.

However now that I have a good number of hand records I can see how often each holding wins. Just for illustration lets say 99 wins 40% of the time its played preflop. Can I assume that its a playable hand even if there is a raise in front of me as long as I'm getting at least 2.5 / 1 pot odds? Or am I not seeing something else here?

Common advice is to limp in to a pot if there are a lot of limpers because you have good odds even with hands that you wouldn't normally play, I think that my strategy would be along the same lines. It would be influenced by position because without a strong hand I wouldn't have odds to enter the pot since there would be little there when UTG or first to enter. Obviously, it has to be tempered with other strategy when there are fewer people in the pot.

Any comments or suggestions would be welcome.

your strategy sounds very solid. When i play i like to play hands like (KQ QT J9) but i play them mostly for straight and flush value, if i make a pair i will play it carfully but not commit to much.

im not sure about this myself. i think people put too much emphasis on value sometimes (eg. there are 6 limpers so i might as well limp cuz the pot odds are good if i hit the right flop). i was looking through my stats the other day and noticed a large leak was me calling the BB in the SB with any 2 cards when there were a decent number of limpers. in the long run i dont think its a profitable strategy

You're thinking along the right lines, but preflop you should be more concerned about implied odds than pot odds.

To take a trivial example: If you're playing $100NL against someone who will raise to $3 preflop and always shove for his remaining $97 no matter what the flop comes, you're correct to call his raise with any two cards. Even 72o will hit two pairs or better often enough to warrant seeing a flop.

So no, pot odds are not the main concern preflop.

teksmith said:

I've been playing a tight strategy preflop and its been working to a degree but I feel like I should be playing more hands against small raises with my more marginal holdings. Obviously there is no question when holding a top tier hand (AA KK QQ AK) but when I hold something less (KQ QT J9) my usual action would be to fold to a raise in front of me giving credit for Ax.

Any comments or suggestions would be welcome.

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Cold calling pre-flop raises w/ marginal holdings is a huge leak. It becomes an even bigger leak if your intentions are to check/fold the flop when you miss.

Double-A said:

Cold calling pre-flop raises w/ marginal holdings is a huge leak. It becomes an even bigger leak if your intentions are to check/fold the flop when you miss.

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I guess my point/question here is that when I face a raise in front of me and I'm holding a hand that I can see wins 40% of the time and my pot odds are better than 2.5 /1, I feel that I'm justified in calling. Obviously if I'm holding a Group 1 hand I'm going to be raising but I see way to many raises from opponents to be accounted for by hands that justify raising preflop. Statistically only about 4% would qualify for a preflop raise, so the value of their raise become less valuable each time they do it. And some strategies advocate raising 2-3 BB instead of limping in order to hide the strength of your hand.

Maybe if its a tight player I would give more credence to the raise but when I'm faced with 4-5 people that are playing 50-70% of the hands and raising 40% of the time post flop, I feel that I have to give more emphasis to the pot odds over hand strength. Otherwise I'm just laying down and letting them roll over me.

Now, mind you I'm not advocating playing weak hands against a raise, but if the pot odds are such that if I hit I'm going get get a good payoff. The hand would have to have some merit (Ax-Qx,flush or straight possibilities) to justify going forward. Not just hitting a pair.

teksmith said:

I guess my point/question here is that when I face a raise in front of me and I'm holding a hand that I can see wins 40% of the time and my pot odds are better than 2.5 /1, I feel that I'm justified in calling.

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Hands don't win x% of the time that you play them. You shouldn't think like that anyway. Instead, consider your hands equity against your opponents range.

If you're getting 2.5/1 on a call then you're going to be playing a multi-way pot. Some hands do well in those situations (pairs and SC's) and some don't. Hands like KQ, QT, and J9 don't.

teksmith said:

Maybe if its a tight player I would give more credence to the raise but when I'm faced with 4-5 people that are playing 50-70% of the hands and raising 40% of the time post flop, I feel that I have to give more emphasis to the pot odds over hand strength. Otherwise I'm just laying down and letting them roll over me.

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I'm a total donk but I'm just as likely to get dealt AA as the next guy.

Pot odds aren't enough to justify calling raises with hands like QT. You won't hit very often and when you do it'll be hard to get paid off.

teksmith said:

Now, mind you I'm not advocating playing weak hands against a raise, but if the pot odds are such that if I hit I'm going get get a good payoff. The hand would have to have some merit (Ax-Qx,flush or straight possibilities) to justify going forward. Not just hitting a pair.

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You're playing Qx in raised pots for flush potential???