I've read that you can become a breakeven Texas Hold'em player just by mastering preflop strategy. While your results depend on your skill and your luck, I know for a fact that you can't be profitable in Texas Hold'em unless your play during all the streets of the game are top notch.
Dec 14, 2020 Preflop GTO – Short Stack Texas Holdem Hand Chart In Holdem, when you have a very short stack of 10bb or less, your preflop strategy is basically limited to shoving or calling a shove. An optimal strategy will depend on your opponent's flaws, as exploiting their flaws will be the most profitable approach. In Texas Hold'em a hand where aces, kings and queens pair up preflop is very rare. At a 9 player table this scenario unfolds roughly every 17,000 hands. The odds are 1:16,830 and the probability is 0.006%.
Some of this advice applies to both limit and no limit Hold'em, while some of it only applies to one or the other. I'll include that information with each tip. Keep reading below to learn some useful tips to improve your strategy while playing Texas Hold'em online and offline.
1 – Raise or Fold
One thing I learned early in my career as a Texas Hold'em player is that you should raise or fold any time you're the first player in the pot.
If you have a lousy hand, fold it.
If you don't feel good betting or raising with the hand, it's not worth calling with.
Players who try to get lucky on the flop lose money fast, and they lose money consistently. If you have lousy cards preflop, even if you hit a flop, it might be inferior to someone else's hand which hit the flop.
And when you do have a good hand, by betting and raising with it, you simultaneously put pressure on your opponents to fold and build the size of the pot with a hand that has a good probability of winning that pot.
If you have strong enough hole cards, you can have the best hand on the flop even if you miss it completely.
2 – You Need an Even Bigger Hand If Someone Has Already Called
One of the reasons you raise with a big hand when you're the first person in the pot is that you get a chance to pick up the blinds immediately.
If someone has already called in front of you, then you have to convince one more person to fold to pick up those blinds.
When multiple people have called in front of you, you have even more people to convince to fold. This means, if you're going to raise here, you need a stronger hand.
Pay attention to the kinds of cards your opponents play.
If you pay close enough attention, you'll have a good idea of what your opponents' starting hand requirements are, and you'll be able to make decisions accordingly.
3 – You Need an Even Bigger Hand Still If Someone Has Raised
If it seems like I'm hammering the idea that you should raise or fold by suggesting that you need strong hands preflop, then you're paying attention.
Players don't get into trouble with hands that they fold preflop. They also don't get into trouble with hands they feel are good enough to re-raise with preflop.
They only get into trouble with hands they call raises with preflop because they have to figure out where they are on the flop.
Your opponent will miss the flop most of the time, too, but give him some credit for having a hand preflop if he raised with it.
This means sticking with premium hands like aces and kings if there's been a raise in front of you.
4 – Pay Attention to Your Position
You need stronger cards to play from early position than you need to play from later position.
The reason for this is simple.
Let's say you get a pair of sevens from early position, and you limp in with it which means, of course, that you weren't paying attention to my first three preflop Hold'em tips, by the way.
You get a raise from the player behind you, and the player behind him reraises, too. You don't have much choice at this point but to fold your pocket sevens, but you've lost a bet by doing so.
Texas Holdem Best Hands Preflop Play
After all, with a raise and a re-raise behind you, someone probably has a pair bigger than yours in the hole. And if not, they're at the least playing big cards like AK, AQ, or KQ.
Your only hope is that you hit a seven on the flop, but the odds of that are terrible because there are only 2 of those cards left in the deck.
4 – Pay Attention to Your Position
You need stronger cards to play from early position than you need to play from later position.
The reason for this is simple.
Let's say you get a pair of sevens from early position, and you limp in with it which means, of course, that you weren't paying attention to my first three preflop Hold'em tips, by the way.
You get a raise from the player behind you, and the player behind him reraises, too. You don't have much choice at this point but to fold your pocket sevens, but you've lost a bet by doing so.
Texas Holdem Best Hands Preflop Play
After all, with a raise and a re-raise behind you, someone probably has a pair bigger than yours in the hole. And if not, they're at the least playing big cards like AK, AQ, or KQ.
Your only hope is that you hit a seven on the flop, but the odds of that are terrible because there are only 2 of those cards left in the deck.
Also, you're going to be in early position on the flop, too, so you won't have any hints as to what your opponents might have after the flop, either.
Suppose the flop comes A-K-6. You're first to act. You can bet here, but if either of your opponents raise, your only smart move (again) is to fold. After all, they got into this hand with a raise and a re-raise preflop, so they showed strength.
They're likely to have hit an ace or a king, and they're also likely to have a big pair in the hole.
If you stick with premium cards from early position, you'll do a lot better.
5 – Completing the Blind When You're the Small Blind Makes Sense
Most of the time, the small blind is half the size of the big blind. This means that, if you have the chance to get in, it only costs you half as much to see the flop.
If it costs you half as much money to get into the pot, your pot odds double immediately. If you'd normally need a 10 to 1 probability of winning to make a call worthwhile, you only need a 5 to 1 probability of winning since you're putting in half as much money.
This doesn't mean you should play anything from the small blind. And it sure doesn't mean you should call a raise or a re-raise from the small blind.
Your job then is to fold if you miss the flop and play strong when you hit the flop hard.
Also, keep in mind that you'll be out of position for the rest of the hand, so you really do need to hit the flop hard to stay in it at this point.
6 – Ace-King Is One of the Only Preflop Hands Worth Cold Calling
A cold call is when you call a bet that's been raised but don't re-raise with it.
Cold calling is almost always a mistake. It is similar to taking insurance when playing real money blackjack.
Ace-king is an exception. The thing about 'big slick' is that it almost never wins unless it improves to a pair on the flop.
You don't want to commit a lot of your chips preflop on this hand, but you also don't want to give this one up without a fight.
It's too strong a hand to fold, but it's too weak to re-raise with. It's also easy to see where you're at when the flop hits.
Texas Holdem Best Hands Preflop Poker
Often, it's just as good a play to raise with it. Some of it depends on your opponents. And some of it just has to do with avoiding being predictable.
7 – Pay Attention to Your Opponents Even If You're Planning to Fold
Most of the time, your cards preflop won't be good enough to play. A lot of Hold'em players stop paying attention to the hand as soon as they realize they're going to fold. That's a big mistake.
You should pay close attention to every hand that gets played so that you can decide what your opponents' ranges are.
Some players might raise preflop with any pocket pair no matter how low. If that's the case, you should be able to pick up on that. Other players are so tight that they might fold 35 hands in a row.
But if you're not paying attention, you're flying blind when you don't have to.
Conclusion
Playing preflop Texas Hold'em is important. I'm not sure if it's true that you can break even just by mastering this one aspect of the game.
Best Preflop Hands Texas Holdem
The tips on this page should help you play better before the flop. And I hope these tips were better than the usual 'play tight preflop and here are the starting hands worth playing' type of advice.
