Poker Strategy Before The Flop

Even if you are a neophyte to the game of poker, there are some basic tenets that you have before you even pick up a stack of chips to bet. One, when you get pocket Aces, you pound your opposition with a pre-flop raise otherwise everyone and their brother gets to play the hand and potentially crack your bullets. Two, you don’t need to play “special” hands like a 7-2, universally recognized as the worst hand in poker. Finally, there isn’t a such thing as “funsies,” 99% of the time you’re playing poker for a reason – normally to make some money.

  1. Poker Strategy Before The Flop Rule
  2. Poker Strategy Before The Flop Game
  3. Poker Strategy Before The Flop End

Lead Instructor Evan from Gripsed.com walks you through the questions you should ask yourself when deciding to play or not to play your hand. What hands to play pre-flop The Starting Hands Chart Choosing the right starting hand is half the battle in poker. If you enter the game with the right cards, you will not only avoid difficult situations in the later betting rounds, you can also be reasonably sure that you are indeed holding the best hand. All in Before the Flop at Cash Games If an opponent is going all in preflop with a wide range, like MP3 in the picture, then we are fine stacking off with JJ+ and AQ+. Generally, cash games play deeper, and opponents are correctly tighter when it comes to going all in preflop. Before the flop is where it all starts, where you are forced to make your first important decision depending on all of the variables involved with the hand. It is important to make good, solid decisions before the flop, as it will form the foundations for how the rest of the hand will be played out. Nov 14, 2017 But here’s what they don’t tell you: Your poker strategy before the flop is far more important. The decisions you make with your starting hands are like seeds planted in the ground; do it right, and you’ll reap a rich harvest. Do it wrong, and your bankroll could wither.

Beyond that, the education of a poker player gets a bit grey. Here’s a basic thought on some hands that new players will play simply because “someone told them it was worthwhile” or “but (insert professional player here) always plays this hand” or even “I had a feeling.” If you can put these into your repertoire of hands you need to fold pre-flop, you’ll potentially find that your sessions are more profitable.

Jack-10 (Suited or unsuited)

At first glance, J-10 is a pretty sweet looking hand. It holds the potential to make four nut straights, the only two card combination to be able to do that, and it can let you float a bet on the flop if they are suited and two of that suit hit the felt. The problem with J-10 is that it doesn’t play well after the flop.

If you get a flop that contains a Jack, then you have issues with the kicker that, in most cases, is going to be dominated by an opponent playing Q-J, K-J, or A-J. If you pair the ten, then the same situation is in play with a similar number of options that beat you – A-10, K-10 and Q-10. If they are suited and the two matching suit cards that come on the flop are under the ten, then there is a chance (a slim one, about 1-in-592) that an A-K, A-Q, or K-Q is out there to clip you. And let’s not even get into the potential for straights (K-Q, Q-9, 9-8) should you flop two pair.

There are two options here: hit perfectly and hope someone ignores the straight potential of the board, calling your bets all the way, or missing and having to let the hand go. If you get a flop like K-Q-x, about the only people who might come with you are pocket pairs (King, Queen or “x”) or those that have you beaten (A-K, A-Q, K-Q, any King or Queen combination and the pairer for the “x”). If the flop comes empty – say A-7-4, for example – then you’re left with air to bluff with; most wouldn’t consider chasing it any further with this dismal holding.

Baby pairs

Everyone loves to potentially crack a big pair by playing a small one – between deuces and fives – and set mining their way into the lead. But what happens when you’ve completely missed with your little ones? It gets pretty ugly in this case.

In pre-flop action, the baby pairs don’t hold up well if there is a great deal of action in front of you. Say you’re sitting on deuces on the button when someone fires a bet out of middle position, the hijack calls and the cutoff three-bets the situation. Your pocket deuces don’t look so good now, do they? There’s nothing wrong with sending the hand to the muck here and, in fact, it is the proper play with the flurry of activity ahead of you.

The baby pairs don’t hold up well if the cards on the flop are all higher cards, at best giving you the fourth-best hand after the flop. They also don’t work well as a straight filler. For example, if you have pocket treys and fill out a 2-4-5 flop to make it an open ended straight draw, there are other potential players that crush your baby pair or could best you in a straight situation.

Extremely Gapped Suited Cards

If you were to get dealt two extremely gapped cards – say a K-2 or a Q-3, for example – there would, for most players, be little hesitation in putting those in the muck. Why then, if there is the same symbol in the corner for each card, does it make a difference? While their suited nature does open the potential for a flush, it isn’t going to do much in any other circumstance.

If that flush draw comes, then you’re committing with weak holdings – sneaky for the flush potential, yes, but weak otherwise. If you flop a King, then you have kicker issues that come up and the same works if you hit the kicker – your top card might not be enough to win at showdown unless you make trips with the kicker.

Summary

We sometimes have to play hands we’d rather not play on certain occasions. But if you can control when you voluntarily put chips in play to hands, making sure they have strong potential (not always, mind you, but more often than not) instead of weaker holdings, you should find more success on the tables. And isn’t winning hands – and the chips that go along with those hands – why we sit down at the table?

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    • If you ever triedplay money games online, you know that players just love to gamble and put allof their chips in middle preflop. This is simply the case because they don’trisk anything. The story in real money games is a bit different. Well, maybenot at nl2, but higher it is. While you will still find crazy players that wantto gamble and just shove preflop, it is by far more common that players willwant to play postflop.

    Even thoughpostflop is where the majority of the action happens, this is not always thecase.

    You can go all inbefore the flop, but should you? If there is enough money already in thepot, then going all in preflop with what you believe is a better hand than theopponents, then you should definitely go all in. How much money needs to be inthe middle depends on the type of the game you are playing and your stack topot ratio.

    It is crucial to differentiate different types of poker and how much different ranges are for going all in. Cash games play differently as the stacks are deeper. On the other hand, in tournaments, especially the ones with faster blind increase structure, you are often short stacked.

    At pot limit games and limit games, it is not possible to go all in preflop, at least the majority of the time. On the other hand, you could, of course, shove all in every hand at no limit games even if the pot is small and you are deep. Just because you are allowed to, that is not the approach that would make you money.

    Table of Contents

    Allin Before the Flop at Cash Games

    Generally, cash games play deeper, and opponents are correctly tighter when it comes to going all in preflop. However, games can become quite crazy if there is a maniac or two on the table that are 3 betting every single hand. Then the whole table will adapt and start going all in lighter.

    Poker Strategy Before The Flop Rule

    There is not a set range of hands you would always want to go all in with. It depends a lot on who you are against and if going al in maximizes how much money you would make in the hand.

    If an opponent is willing to stack off with Ace Jack andpocket sevens and better, then you will do fine by stacking off AQs and JJ+against him. Contrary to this, if the opponent is tight and opens only 10% whenin early position and doesn’t 4bet often. And now he happens to 4bet you, thenyou can easily fold your AQ and QQ.

    Poker Strategy Before The Flop Game

    Nevertheless, the ranges with what you should be going all infirstly depends if you play deep-stacked, with standard stacks or shortstacked.

    Going all in with normal stacks and deep stacked

    This is the most common scenario in cash games. You and other players will have around 100 big blinds to play with and often even deeper. For online games, where you can quickly leave the table when deep, maybe playing deep is not so common. But for live games where you are either forced to paly deep or call it a day, games can get really deep.

    Flop

    As a rule of thumb, remember these notes:

    • Deeper you are, better hand you need to stack off preflop
    • It depends a lot from which position you opened or opponents position
    • If games are passive, then you need to tighten your stacking offpreflop range
    • If games are aggressive and loose preflop with a lot of 3bets and4bets, then you will make decent money with stacking off preflop lighter

    If an opponent opened in early position, then naturally, we need to be tighter with our 3bet, and his 4bet will be very strong often. So our 5bet needs to be only the top of our range (often AA and KK). If opponent folds to some of your 5bets, then you can start calling his 4bets and maybe bluff 5bet all in with some blockers to his hands. Like Kx or Ax (we reduce the chance KK or AA by the opponent).

    Also, I am yet to see people folding to a 5bet after 4 betting in live cash games. Some players go as far as even only 3bet only pocket aces. A leak we can exploit for sure.

    Going all in at short stacks

    Maybe you like to short stack on a normal table, or you just play in short stack games. With 50 big blinds or less, you should be willing to go all in with the majority of the hands you are 3betting with. You stack to pot ratio preflop is so low that now often you are committed preflop. This means you invested so much already that what is left to call will make you more money (or lose less) than what you would by giving up on your hand.

    Playing as a short stacker is hugely beneficial if you play against other opponents that are deep stacked themselves. They will often call someones raise or 3bet themselves and then you have even easier decision to shove. Compared to your stack, there is already so much money in the middle, that either being called or if everyone folds to your shove will be beneficial to you.

    Poker Strategy Before The Flop End

    It is harder to make money by going all in preflop if everyone else is short stacked also. I would avoid playing short stacked games. But when I would sit in as a short stacker on a regular table, I know it would be very beneficial for me.

    This is simply because every time there is some money in thepot and another opponent folds, we gain the part of his folded equity.

    Quick example. We have AQs on the big blind. The loose cutoff player opens, and regular on button 3bets him. This is an excellent spot for us to shove all in preflop with 40 big blinds stack. The button in this scenario most likely 3bets around 15% of hands. So our AQs have an equity advantage over his range. We are happy with any situation. A loose player will most often fold, then if button calls us, we are fine, we will either win around 12 big blinds if button folds, Or be a slight underdog those times that button has a real hand.

    It is easy, but also a quite dull way to make money as a short stacker.

    Allin Before the Flop at Tournaments

    The approach for tournaments is different. You should play tight until the blinds increase, and you are short stacked. The majority of your opponents will also be short stacked at that point. Once you drop below 20 big blinds, you will often be in push all in or fold preflop mode. This simply means you will either go all in or fold. You don’t need to have a strong hand necessarily.

    Here are some of the most common scenarios in tournaments to go all-in at:

    • If you are a big stack and only low stacks are behind you, then you should shove. They will be afraid to call your shove as they don’t want to bust. This is especially effective just before the bubble
    • If opponents behind you are tight, then you should go all-in more
    • If a loose player opens in front of you. You should attack his loose opens and shove with a decent hand. Do not bluff as you can get called light and risk your tournament life with 60% to win.
    • If you are down to 10 big blinds and on the button, you can shove the majority of the hands

    This are just some of the common scenarios that happen at tournaments. In the majority of tournaments, there are antes in play. This makes the pot bigger by roughly one big blind before there is any action. So by going all in with 15 big blind stacks and everyone folding, you win more than 15% of your chips. This is a great result.

    With what hand you should go all-in with, it all comes down to math. Luckily for you, all you need to learn is to follow some preflop charts that tell you exactly what to do with a specific hand. Let me repeat this. All you need to do is to learn which hand to shove all in with and which not when you have below 15 or 20 big blinds, and you will be making money. One software where you can practice this is ICMizer. There are others that do the same thing.

    A few years back, I was primarily an SNG and tournament poker player for a brief period, and I practiced every day. Most likely, you can become winning SNG player, especially the turbo and hyper-turbo format, in the fastest time compared to cash games, where you need to learn how to play deeper also.

    Although not a very fulfilling type of game, you should consider SNGs if you want to get consistent, easy money in poker fast.

    CanYou Go All In Before the Flop?

    Like I wrote above. You can go all-in before the flop everytime in no-limit poker games. It is far from the most optimal play if the potin the middle is not big enough yet, and you don’t hold a strong hand yourself.At pot-limit games, you can only raise for pot before the flop, so it dependson what the action was in front of you. For limit games, it is very unusual tobe all in, unless you only had like two big blinds left.