Every part of a Texas holdem hand is important, but your pre
flop play sets the stage for the entire hand.
These two hands are by far the strongest hands possible, and have the best odds of beating any other hand. These are hands you should feel comfortable going ALL-IN on pre-flop, however that usually isn’t the best way to play them since the other players will be likely to fold, leaving you with just the blinds ($.75 at the tables I play). Preflop Poker Hands and Position. Position is everything in texas hold'em. It is definitely the most important aspect of the game. The importance of position in hold'em cannot be emphasized enough. You must play very tight poker in early position, but you should loosen way up as you get closer to the button.
When you make the correct decisions pre flop you show a long
term profit, but when you make poor decisions before the flop
you lose money in the long run.
The first thing most players think about when they hear pre
flop play is their starting hand. While your starting hand
selection is one of the most important decisions in every hand,
it’s not the only thing that happens before the flop.
Everything you do, including folding, calling, or raising,
are either profitable or not profitable in the long run.
It starts before you receive your first card.
Plan the Hand
Planning a hand starts with what you know about the other
players at the table, the limits of the current game, how deep
everyone’s stack is, your playing image with the other players,
who’s been on a streak, your position in relation to the blinds
and button, and anything else that can change the course of a
hand.
Texas Hold'em Best Hands To Play
You need to know every possibility of how you’re going to
handle every possible hand before the flop before you get your
cards.
At first you’ll have to think about how to handle certain
situations when they happen but the more you practice
visualizing and planning for every possibility the better your
skills will get.
Most decisions are fairly easy. You’re going to fold your
worst hands and raise with your best hands, but it’s not always
that simple.
- What happens with the decent but not great hands?
- How will you handle a raise if you have a medium pair?
- What about facing three limpers with A Q suited?
- What about 10 9 suited from late position with no one
else in the pot?
The point is the more you prepare the better your chances to
make the most profitable decision.
Starting Hands
You can find an entire page dedicated to Texas holdem
starting hands elsewhere in this section so this is an overview.
We recommend reading the starting hand page for more specific
information.
It’s impossible to make the best starting hand decisions
without understanding your position. The profitability potential
of any hand is directly tied to your position and your starting
hand selection.
Controlling the Pot Size
It doesn’t matter if you’re playing limit, pot limit, or no
limit Texas holdem, you need to learn how to control the size of
the pot.
When you have a strong hand you want to build the pot as much
as possible because the more money you get in when you’re a
favorite the more you’ll win in the long run.
Building the pot with a strong hand is like walking a fine
line. In no limit the way to get the greatest amount of your
money in the pot is moving all in, but the real goal is to get
as much of your opponent’s money in the pot as possible when
you’re a favorite to win.
When you move all in or make a bet that’s too large you often
force your opponent to fold. One of the keys when you have a
strong hand is figuring out how to bet as much as possible while
keeping your opponent in the hand.
This is an advanced skill and you still see professional
Texas holdem players make mistakes in this area from time to
time.
You need to learn how to put your opponents on a certain
range of hands and try to figure out what they think you have.
When you combine these two things you can usually determine what
size bet to make that maximizes the chances they’ll call while
not leaving any money on the table.
If the player will call a bet of $200 but fold to a bet of
$205 your goal is to figure it out and make the $200 wager.
Of course you’ll also be involved in hands where you want to
keep the pot as small as possible until you improve. Once you
complete your hand you instantly switch to building the pot.
Drawing hands like flush and straight draws when the pot is
giving you the correct odds to call and trap hands like medium
pairs or suited connectors are examples of hands where you want
to keep the pot small.
One of the big problems with these types of hands is if your
opponent can figure out when you complete your hand they might
stop giving you action. So you can’t always count on additional
bets going into the pot after you hit your hand.
Flushes are usually the easiest for your opponents to see and
many straights are more camouflaged.
Thinning the Field
If you’ve studied any of the popular poker books about Texas
holdem you’ve read that you need to raise before the flop with
the best hands like a pair of aces and a pair of kings.
Do you know why raising is the correct play?
One of the key reasons was discussed in the last section. You
need to build a bigger pot when you have a good hand.
But an equally important reason you need to raise before the
flop is to thin the field. You’re a big favorite against one or
two opponents with high pairs, but as more people see the flop
your chances of winning go down.
Even with pocket aces if five other players enter the pot you
aren’t a favorite to win.
Every time we read a statement like the one I just made
written by other authors we cringe. While true, it leaves a few
things out.
So here are a few other things you need to know.
Even though you aren’t a favorite to win the hand if five or
more other players are in the pot, it’s still wildly profitable
to play the hand.
You’re playing no limit Texas holdem and are on the button.
The under the gun player moves all in and four other players
call before it’s your turn to act. To simplify the example
everyone at the table started the hand with $1,000 and we’ll
ignore the blinds.
It costs you $1,000 to call and there’s $5,000 in the pot.
This means when you win the pot you win $6,000 total including
your call and when you lose you lose $1,000. Your chances of
winning the hand against five random starting hands are 49%.
So if you played this situation 100 times you’d win 49 times
and lose 51 times. A simple mathematical computation shows why
it’s so profitable that you have to call in this situation every
time.
It costs a total of $100,000 to make the call 100 times and
when you win the 49 times the total amount you get back is
$294,000.
Even though you aren’t the favorite to win the hand, your
expected profit is so high that it doesn’t matter.
So is raising really the correct play?
We realize that the previous example may make it seem like
you want as many people as possible in the hand with you when
you have pocket aces, but the truth is aces are so strong that
it’s almost impossible to lose money with them long term no
matter how you play them.
But remember the example we used is not very realistic and
there’s hundreds of possible variables in every hand. The
correct play with your best hands is still raising to thin the
field in most games. Hands like Q Q, J J, and A K don’t stand up
well to multiple opponents but are quite strong against one
other player.
The exception is when you play at the higher levels. Some
games are played in a way that every pot seems to be played with
no more than two or three players. You can limp with strong
hands occasionally in a game like this, but when you do the
level of competition is good enough that you still might not
have a well concealed hand.
Players at the top levels are able to think through things
quickly at the table and are wary of a player who limps from
early position. Your best chance at a concealed hand is calling
an early raise when you’re in late position with aces or kings.
This reinforces how important position is at every level of
Texas holdem.
Texas Holdem Best Hands Preflop
You still need to raise with aces or kings most of the time,
even in the situation just described.
What’s the range of hands in a high limit game that players
from early position will raise with?
In most games it’s fairly limited. Here’s the list of
possibilities.
- Pair of aces
- Pair of kings
- Pair of queens
- Ace king suited
- Ace king off-suit
- Ace queen suited
- Pair of jacks
The last two on the list, ace queen suited and a pair of
jacks, are not that strong and do get folded from early position
in some games.
Here’s why we showed you this list.
How many flops include at least one face card?
Over 55% of Texas holdem flops hold at least one face card.
The reason this is important is if you have a pair of aces
and call from late position, how do you know where you are in
the hand when a face card lands on the flop?
Any face card can make a set for the early raiser based on
the list of possible hands.
Texas Holdem Best Hands Preflop And Play
Are you a good enough player to lay down pocket aces when
your opponent hits a set?
When you re-raise the early raiser you have a chance to get
all in before the flop. You’re probably going to be forced to
play the hand aggressively after the flop if you want to win, so
why not play the hand aggressively before the flop?
We realize that this section may have wandered a bit, but the
important point to take from the discussion is you must raise to
thin the field with your top hands pre flop most of the time.
The only reason you don’t do it all of the time is so you
aren’t predictable to your opponents. At the lower levels you
should raise every time because your opponents don’t pay enough
attention to know if you have playing tendencies.
Call or Raise?
One other thing to consider and plan for is how what you do
before the flop changes or sets up how you’re going to play
after the flop.
You see this in many hands when the person who raised before
the flop fires a continuation bet after the flop.
If you raise before the flop are you going to make a
continuation bet no matter what on the flop? Are you willing to
make another bet on the turn if your hand doesn’t improve?
What about if you call with a drawing hand and hit the flop?
Are you going to let the other player lead or are you going to
become aggressive?
You need to have the answers to these questions before you
decide what to do pre flop.
Limit Play
Most of the discussion so far has been about no limit Texas
holdem, but you can use all of the things you’ve learned in any
set up including limit play.
Many players feel it’s to difficult to control the pot size
in limit play and complain that their raises don’t thin the
field enough.
These are just excuses used by players who aren’t willing to
learn how to be profitable at limit Texas holdem.
The way to build the pot is to bet and raise at every
possible opportunity and the way to keep the pot low is check
and call at every opportunity. It doesn’t get much simpler than
that.
When it comes to thinning the field, in limit play you raise
with your best hands because you increase your overall
profitability when you raise. You can’t generate enough leverage
in a limit game to force players to fold in many situations.
You have to show down the best hand more often in limit
holdem than no limit because players tend to call a single bet
on the river in most situations. This is something that covers
post flop play, but the way you play pre flop directly affects
what happens after the flop.
The root of the problem for most limit players is they don’t
do a good job of choosing which starting hands to play and how
to use their position at the table. Almost everything else they
have trouble with, assuming they understand and use pot odds, is
directly related to poor starting hand selections and poor use
of their position.
Summary
If you want to be the best Texas holdem player you can be
it’s important to work to improve every part of your game. It’s
easy to make an argument that your pre-flop play is the most
important area of your game because the way you play before the
flop determines a great deal of your potential profit for the
entire hand.
Make sure you plan the hand from the beginning, control the
pot, and thin the field with your best hands and you’ll start
seeing improved results right away in your pre flop Texas holdem
play and your overall profitability.
- Poker Guide
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Whether you’re playing a cash game or a tournament, prefer to play tight or loose, are gambling with some extra money or are on a tight budget, your pre-flop strategy in Texas Hold ‘em can vary dramatically. What makes this seemingly simple aspect of the game even more complex is that, just as you’ll have to evaluate several factors before you sit down to help develop a pre-flop strategy, you’ll consistently have to change up your strategy as the game goes along.
Cash Game Pre-Flop Play vs. Tournament Pre-Flop Play
In a cash game, you’ll want to be much more conservative with your pre-flop strategy than you would be in tournaments, where your goal is to knock other players out of the game. Sometimes that requires a willingness to gamble when you only have a small advantage, or even if you know it’s a coin flip situation. However, cash games are more of a grind, and with real money on the line with each decision, you’re often better served by taking a more conservative route before the flop, then playing the hand as it develops. Learn more about cash versus tournament strategy here.
Pre-Flop Play in Tournaments
In tournaments, people tend to play tighter before the flop than they do in cash games. One reason for that is because the pre-flop raises as a proportion of chip stack are usually much higher in tournaments – meaning players have to be more selective when deciding to come into a pot. There’s also a heightened awareness that one false move can mean the end of your tournament life, which tends to dampen people’s pre-flop enthusiasm.
To take advantage of that tendency among tournament players, especially in the later stages of play, you can get very aggressive pre-flop. Even when your opponents don’t believe you have the hand you’re representing, they will often fold knowing that if they’re wrong it could be the last play they make in that tournament.
Texas Hold ‘em is always a game that requires a player to abandon fear, and rarely is that more true than in pre-flop tournament situations. In tournaments, the onus is on you to put your opponents to a decision, and pre-flop they are less likely to take you up on that challenge than in any other scenario .
Pre-Flop Play in Cash Games
Cash games require quite a bit more finesse than tournaments in almost all areas, but especially before the flop. While you will certainly need to be aggressive in cash games, using that aggression pre-flop is more likely to get you in trouble than to help you build your stack.
Doyle Brunson, considered by many to be the greatest all-around poker player of all-time, wrote in the no-limit Texas Hold ‘em section of his classic 1979 book, Super System, that in a cash game you should almost never move all-in before the flop unless you have pocket aces or pocket kings. And while the game has changed considerably in the more than 30 years since the book was published, that is one rule that still holds true. For more information on Super System and other poker strategy books, see our Poker Books guide.
Playing Tight Before the Flop
Conservative pre-flop play is a good strategy for avoiding trouble. You rarely raise, only doing so with premium hands, which means you can make your decisions once more cards have been dealt and bets have been made, giving you more information from which to work.
However, playing tight before the flop also limits your options as the hand progresses. Rarely raising before the flop means you won’t establish strength that can be used after the flop or turn. That will keep you from being able to make small bluffs to pick up extra pots, or use other power poker techniques.
Tight pre-flop play also keeps you from being able to take control of specific hands, or the table in general. Consistent raising, in and of itself, serves as an intimidating factor, no matter when you use it. If you aren’t raising before the flop, opponents will be able to easily read your hand – knowing that you only raise with premium cards – making their decision-making process much simpler.
Aggressive Pre-Flop Play
On the other hand, playing more aggressively before the flop, while it exposes you to more risk, puts more chips in play and opens up the game for the whole table. Pre-flop raising builds pots, so that when you do have the best hand or decide to bluff there is already a decent, if not substantial, amount of money to be won.
Regular pre-flop raising also allows you to sneak up on your opponents. Deciding to raise in late position with a 9-7 suited, for instance, is one way to throw the table off balance. Many of the other players are likely to assume you’re raising with at least a couple of face cards, which means when a middle flop comes up – say, 9-6-5 – they will be less inclined to think you’ve hit your hand. Then, when you do bet out, you’ll have an even greater advantage because you’ve masked your hand.
Deciding to raise in late position with a 9-7 suited, for instance, is one way to throw the table off balance.
Raising aggressively before the flop is something many inexperienced players are afraid to do. It means you’ll be involved in more hands, are putting yourself at risk of being re-raised and could find yourself in situations where you feel compelled to make a follow-through bet on the flop no matter the situation.
Those are all valid concerns. But, as the saying goes, you have to give action to get action. Unless you are actively adding to the money in play, your opponents are only going to want to get involved with you if they feel they have an advantage, or the ability to sneak up on you with a good drawing hand. So, by playing too conservatively before the flop you may unwittingly be exposing yourself to a different kind of risk altogether.
In the end, you have to figure out which pre-flop style works best for your temperament and skill level. Many people begin their poker careers with a conservative strategy, then implement more aggressive tactics as they gain experience, which is something that is worth keeping in mind as you become more comfortable at the table.