Playable hands utg early stages.

One of my trouble hands is qq early utg. People love to play ace rag so when one spikes on the flop it's hard to know what your villain has when your oop.

I treat jacks and tens the same and will often just try a standard raise, hope I hit a set with it and fold them to serious action without risking too much.

Really though it completely depends on what you know about your opponents and the table but you probably know this already.

It depends. When i play the 180man turbos on stars (multitabling, buy-in $2.20) and lets say the blinds are 10/20, then i fold even AQ under the gun. Its not worth it, low blinds, low pots - you only get into trouble spots out of position. I am very tight and i like easy decisions, esp. if i multitable...

If we are talking low buy in tournaments where people are insane at the lower levels I tend to wait for AK or QQ+. And then I'll raise maybe 4.5 or 5x the BB to discourage action. People seem to think that at the 10/20 level since 60 isn't a lot they will call with A rag or some other garbage.

Depends on a lot of factors.

Stack size.... Rep at the table... Type of players at the table... Stage of the tournament... etc... Also another big factor is you STYLE of play...

But really you should be looking at playing the top Premium hands in this position.

I would def play 10 10 utg if ur table is not really crazy meaning that if u raise a bit they would re raise u all in. as sharkyo01 said it depends on so many things. Maybe if u have been playing tight for a while later can change ur play and raise a few hands that u woudln't normally do. I think u have to think how would u play after the flop and if u feel that u can't pull out stick to premium hands.

TT+ AK+ is nitty enough. 88+ AQ+ is an ok starting hand range pending on the table. I'd still maybe limp 22-99 trying to set mine if the table is somewhat tight. Folding 22-66 is fine in EP and just setmining w/77-99 is fine as long as you sometime limp/raise w/KK-AA. But folding TT utg is too nitty you should show profit opening this. What stakes are you playing because players play a lot differently at different stakes in general terms. At the $1-$2 games I'd never try to open limp low PPs as it's never not getting raised ever. Come join our SNG thread you might get some good feedback on these type questions there.

https://www.cardschat.com/forum/tournament-poker-59/

didnt full tilt do a video on this a few yrs ago?

I would say all hands in group 1 and 2 are playable UTG

thanks for the advise guys.

I normally play 3.40 sit n go's on pokerstars. I find myself reluctant to raise with 10 10,9 9 and other similar starting hands utg. because of how loose the play is. My raise at this level is 5 or 6x because of the loose play. And so it means your risking a big reraise when you get 3 bet.

Someone has made a good point. They said that it's not worth playing something like AQ UTG early on because the blinds are low and the pot will rarely get to a substantial size. Whilst I agree with this, it can also go the other way.

If you make a standard raise UTG with TT to 60 (on a 10/20 table) then you're not risking a great deal of your stack with a very god hand. If you get re-raised then maybe you can fold without too much damage. Same if you get an undesirable flop, you can throw it away without much damage. The problems obviously come if you get a little attached to the hand or your opponent outplays you, but if you're going to be scared of situations like that, then I don't think the game will ever be too profitbale.

More important than your cards selection IMHO, is the EARLY STAGES, and your position.

By definition you aren't going to know anything about your villains. So UTG will have the full potential compliment of 8 villains possibly being overly agro or actually having a hand, or worse, willing to gamble with ATC.

You won't have any ideas in the early stages (first 2-3 orbits). So why risk things with info that at that stage is so nebulous.

In the middle and late stages you could probably raise 72o UTG and stand a fairly good shot at no action, but early stages might be the key comment in your question.

you've hit the money there dj. Thats exactly why i don't like raising aq utg early stages, because i don't know how the players will react. plus 30 in blinds is not worth it. I'll probably fold to a 3 bet so am i just looking for a 30 increase??

I amk ok with playing AQ for a a raise UTG and here is why. If I make a standard 3x raise to 60 in the first stage of the tourney I can easily fold this if someone plays back at me. If we get a few callers than the pot is growing and we see how the flop turns out. If the re raise is big I can get away from this only losing 60 chips

I would rather lose the 60 chips trying to find out though.

I understand that i wont know where I stand when the flop hits since it is early in the game but I also understand that if I just muck em pre flop then I have no chance of winning the hand./

kmixer said:

I amk ok with playing AQ for a a raise UTG and here is why. If I make a standard 3x raise to 60 in the first stage of the tourney I can easily fold this if someone plays back at me. If we get a few callers than the pot is growing and we see how the flop turns out. If the re raise is big I can get away from this only losing 60 chips

I would rather lose the 60 chips trying to find out though.

I understand that i wont know where I stand when the flop hits since it is early in the game but I also understand that if I just muck em pre flop then I have no chance of winning the hand./

Click to expand...

Agreed! I learned to bet when I have a PP and I am a better ,more profitable, player. You can't keep thinking your opponent always has the better hand. You just have to be able to let the hand go if it doesn't go your way

starky2009 said:

thanks for the advise guys.

I normally play 3.40 sit n go's on pokerstars. I find myself reluctant to raise with 10 10,9 9 and other similar starting hands utg. because of how loose the play is. My raise at this level is 5 or 6x because of the loose play. And so it means your risking a big reraise when you get 3 bet.

Click to expand...

imo you should stick to the standard size raise. your going to have a stronger hand range and will want action for the most part. the problem of raising so much preflop esp w/99 and TT is you'll never really like most flops and the pot will be out of control if you take a stab at it. play small pot in the early stages and use your advantage to outplay the villians after the flop. btw i'm showing a profit opening TT in early position at blind level 15/30(1st level at fulltilt).

LBroadbent said:

Someone has made a good point. They said that it's not worth playing something like AQ UTG early on because the blinds are low and the pot will rarely get to a substantial size.

Click to expand...

i dont agree with this at all players at the micros are more than willing to stack off with total junk post flop. and because there so loose opening AQ should show a profit. again i try to keep the pot small in early game and will often take a check/then call a smallish bet line with good but not great hands when OOP.

cardplayer52 said:

i dont agree with this at all players at the micros are more than willing to stack off with total junk post flop. and because there so loose opening AQ should show a profit. again i try to keep the pot small in early game and will often take a check/then call a smallish bet line with good but not great hands when OOP.

Click to expand...

I was assuming that the standard of play at the SNG's in question was a decent standard. Perhaps I shouldn't have assumed that, but I did. So, my bad.

Obviously, you're correct. However, if a poor player is playing junk early on bets massive into a small pot after the flop then there's not much you can do. Clearly playing AQ in such circumstances should yield a profit in the long run, but I think it certainly pays to bet with caution, somewhat like the OP is suggesting.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/47161639@N02/4969957342/" title="chart2 by krodma77, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4087/4969957342_f99fb5a950.jpg" width="500" height="256" alt="chart2" /></a>

Oops. Tried to post a chart I used when I 1st started playing.

chart2 by krodma77, on Flickr

This suggests raising with 77 +, A 10s + , AJos +. Frankly, I have since tightened my UTG hands quite a bit, but we all have to start somewhere.

Rodma said:

This suggests raising with 77 +, A 10s + , AJos +. Frankly, I have since tightened my UTG hands quite a bit, but we all have to start somewhere.

Click to expand...

Lol, was just going to say that you include way to many hands UTG. 77, AJo and ATs are not worth playing.

i raise UTG hands with 10 10s ,AK,AQ,KK only but I think we can be little
liberal seeing the players in the middle of game

Haven't read anything here really, but 10's are probably an open UTG, but your opening range really kind of depends on how well you play postflop. Either way, we're just looking to stay out of trouble in the early game, so i don't really think it's being "nitty" to fold 10's UTG. Especially if you don't have much experience. As long as you understand to really open your ranges once the early game is over, it's not a big deal.

here's my two cents: Limp with TT, your right you cant raise with them, but your opp might notice you playing tight, and think you just woke up with AA. I do this a lot and usually someone makes a doubler to see if i have the AA, i just smooth call, then JT4 flops and they will go broke with AJ(low $ sitgos). Playing tight is correct strategy and sometimes you just fall into fold or raise strategy, and forget you can limp(not IN HIGH BLIND situations), with some specualative hands.

Was it stuck.

Rodma said:

This suggests raising with 77 +, A 10s + , AJos +. Frankly, I have since tightened my UTG hands quite a bit, but we all have to start somewhere.

Click to expand...

Just curious... Did you put in on a "post a note" and was it stuck onto your computer?