One of the things that helped my win rate recently was the fact that i stopped playing trashy hands. But as i study more and more it seems that we should actually be playing rather loose from the cutoff and button. I'm currently reading Mastering Small Stakes by Jonathan Little and i recently finished Modern Small Stakes by Nathan Williams. They both give ranges for opening a pot (first to raise). For open raising on the button these authors have included hands such as Q4s J8o J7s. I don't see how this can be a winning play, but at the same time the authors probably know what they're talking about? Given that EP and MP's range mostly has such hands crushed, and the fact that we'll miss the flop so often it just seems like the best way to set money on fire.
i've heard things like "you should generally only play 30 percent of the hands you're dealt". That seems incompatible with the idea that our range should be super wide whenever we're In Position.
The fact is that at micro-mid stakes players are unbalanced: they call more than they should and they fold more than they should. Both cases are good for increasing the range of CO and BU to something between 45-55% at maximum, IMO, and still be profitable. It all depends on the players sitting ahead and their overall tendencies: if we are in CO we shouldn't be opening so wide, I think that 30% is a pretty good amount of range for any table situation.
From the BU our
equity will realize most of times and we have only two players to speak ahead. We know for statistics and experience and for millions of HUD hands played for professionals that players in the SB are folding at least 70% of times, some are folding 90% of the SB, some are only 3-betting for the SB, so realistically we have only the Big Blind player to speak.
Considering this fact, we also have information that even the most wild and insane players aren't 3-betting more than 30% of times versus BU openings so it becomes automatically profitable to open a wider range from BU.
As a rule of thumb always consider the players who are sitting ahead and what are their tendencies. There are times that it's definitely not profitable to open many hands from BU, so we must ask our common sense before taking any decision based on charts or big time shots poker player, respectable of course, such as Jonathan Little, Nathan Williams or anyone else.
Personally I use many different ranges depending on the table general profile: if the table is easy I open more hands, even from UTG, if the table is medium I reduce my range a bit and if the table is hard I become the so called general NIT, playing only premium hands from UTG and opening only hands with huge playability postflop even from BU, in other words, I will only open hands that can call a 3-bet or even 4-bet (
bluff).
Now I would recommend you to watch this beautiful lecture of this very sincere and awesome former poker player which is Liv Boeree. Pay close attention to everything she says, it's very insightful.
Best regards;