Continuing the discussion about starting hands in limit holdem found in part one of this series, in part two we are discussing pre-flop strategies. There are three interrelated areas, what hands to raise with, what hands to call a raise with and controlling the number of players in the pot, that must be considered.
As you gain experience as a poker player, you will start using your pre-flop betting to control, to some degree, the number of opponents in the pot with you. This is very important as some starting hands work better against one opponent while others work better against many. The most prominent example of this is AK, whether suited or not. AK plays best against one or two opponents. Your desire is to hit either an Ace or King on the flop to have top pair/top kicker and get paid off by an opponent with a worse kicker. For this reason, it is important to raise before the flop to hopefully thin the field. If you are playing AK against three or four other players, it is likely that the flop will hit at least one of them. The worst that happens is you hit your Ace but someone else with an Ace also hits his or her kicker for two pair. In addition, AK will win some pots without improving against one opponent. On the other hand, hands like JTs are drawing hands. When you have a drawing hand, you want as many players in the pot as possible because you won’t hit your hand very often, but when you do you want to be paid off well. You want to limp in with drawing hands to encourage others to enter the pot. This also increases your pot odds after the flop to often make it correct to call a bet to see the turn on a good draw.
Another reason to consider raising pre-flop is to “steal the button.” If you are in late or middle position and think a raise may get everyone to fold between you and the blinds, you should almost always raise. This effectively gives you the button and an advantage on later rounds.
Here is a list of hands I recommend raising with pre-flop with a percentage, which designates what percentage of the time you should raise. Notice that nothing is 100% or 0%. This is because it is important to vary your play to keep your opponents guessing.
95% AA KK QQ JJ AKs AK
75% AQs AQ AJs
50% AJ ATs KQs
25% TT AT KQ KJs
5% Everything else.
Use your own judgment with this list. So much of correct play at the poker table is recognizing situations and taking advantage of them. If you find yourself in a game with only two players taking most flops, you may be more inclined to limp in with KK or QQ to try inducing a raise behind you. Almost every decision will be based on the current situation.
The last discussion is about what hands to call a raise with or re-raise. If the player who raised has been raising many pots with less than superior cards, you should probably follow normal starting hand requirements. However, if the raise is from a player who hasn’t played a pot for an hour, only call with your very best hands. I would even throw away hands as good as AJ in certain situations. The reason for this is, what are you going to do if there is an Ace on the flop and the pre-flop raiser bets into you. If you have AJ then you must re-raise to try to figure out where you are in the hand, but a good player will just re-raise you, even with only a pair of Queens or something similar and you still won’t know where you are. In addition, what if the pre-flop raiser has AQ or AK. You stand to lose a lot of money.
Author:Wesley R. Young
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