Early Position

As we saw, you want to play only the best hands from early position (three first seats to act). They need to be able to stand some heat, and their being profitable should not depend on specific circumstances, like, a six-way pot, since you don’t know what is going to happen after you. What hand do qualify?

• AA, KK, QQ
• AK
• play with caution: JJ, TT
• play with caution: AQ, preferably suited
• only if you have good control of the game: AJs, KQs, 99, ATs

Yes, this is not many hands, but we said we should play only the best, remember? Hands like KK or AK can stand raises and reraises, so you don’t end up scratching your head when you are re-raised to guess if your hand is good after all.

Hands like JJ or AQ are dangerous, and should be treated with caution, since they don’t stand heavy pression very well. If there are two raises back to you, JJ may be a 4:1 dog against a bigger pair, and AQ a 3:1 dog against AK, or worse against a big pair. For the same reasons, AJ, AT, KQ and 99 are even more dangerous, so don’t play them if your opponents are good and can outplay you. We saw that it is best to avoid some battles, and going uphill with a good but not great hand against good opponents is asking for trouble.

We advise you to raise 90% of the time with these hands. At this stage, “raise or fold” or “pump it or dump it” are good mottos. Make an occasional call for deception purposes. You can call with the bottom part of our selection (ATs, KQs) though, since the “absolute” strength of these hands does not require a raise.

If there is a limper before you, raise, unless you know for sure that you are up against M.Tricky who only limps with aces or kings.

If there is a raiser, re-raise with aces, kings, and queens, just call with AQ, jacks and tens, and fold the other hands unless you know that the raiser has very loose standards. This is not so uncommon, so be alert, but by all means don’t call or re-raise against just anybody with hands like AT.

Reciprocally, some tight players play in an extremely straightforward way, and their early raises mean a big pair of queens or better, or AK. Calling with AQ is obviously no good against such a player, so adapt accordingly. There are fewer very tight players than loose ones, but there certainly are some, so beware.

Middle Position

Middle position covers the fourth to sixth seat to act. You have between four to six players left to act behind you, so you must remain very prudent.

Basically, you should play the same hands as in early position (dangerous hands included), in addition to:

• 88, 77
• high suited connectors: KJs, KTs, QTs, TJs
• suite aces: A7s or better

If everyone folded to you, raise with all the “early position” hands, plus the 88 and the 77. Limp with the big suited connectors and the mid suited aces.

If someone raised, revert to the early position standards. Stay prudent if you can’t be aggressive!

If there are several limpers, the hand looks like it’s going to develop into a multiway pot; in this case, small pairs and suited connectors can take a cheap flop, if the risk of being raised is low. If you are raised on a regular basis in these situations, you lose money, so be disciplined.

Late Position

Two seats are in late position the seventh and eighth players to act, called the cuttof and the button. In this position, the standards loosen up significantly.

This is because you will have an excellent position until the end of the hand, and if nobody entered the pot yet, you have a good chance of being able to steal the blinds. Since you are playing against three random hands at most, it is pretty likely that nobody got something strong, so you can try to push them off their hand to win the blinds.

If there is no limper up to you, all previous hands mentionned above are raising hands. You are essentially playing like in a short-handed game, so the same standards apply: prefer high cards: aces, kings, queens, or pairs. The drawing hands like suited connectors are not good short-handed hands, since you don’t need to make a straight or a flush to win, and the pot won’t be big enough to justify drawing. Play for a high pair, and try to show a decent kicker. Playing Q5, for instance, is not recommanded, but QJ or KT is fine.

If you are not comfortable playing these average hands, keep in mind that you are playing against random hands, so you may well be ahead, and you want them to pay to draw on you.

On the contrary, if there are many limpers before you, play the “multiway hands”, like suited connectors, suited aces and small pairs. They give you a good price to try and hit you hand, and if you do you will be strong enough to win against several opponents.

Against a raise, as usual you should respect the early raisers, but the later they are, the more inclined you should be to play, since the raise does not necessarily indicates a strong hand - especially if he was the first to enter the pot. If the player to your right (or two seats to your right on the button) entered the pot with a raise, he may well be on a steal (much like you could have done in his place), so you should adjust your requirements, and call if you have a decent hand, or even re-raise if you have a good hand and you want to isolate him.

The Blinds

The small blind has a poor position, and will keep it throughout the hand, but he has already put half a bet in the pot. Thus, you don’t need a strong hand to put the other half. This does not mean you should call with just anything: 83 cannot be profitable, even at this price, so save the money for a better occasion. However, a connector, even with a gap (eg. 79), a suited low ace, a decent king (eg. K8), are all worth a call on the small blind.

The big blind has a free flop if nobody raised; you should usually take it, but you can also raise for deception from time to time if your cards can build a good hand.

Against a raise from late position, again you could be up against a steal, so you should call if your hand has some potential. With something like AT or KQ, you could re-raise to try to take the initiative, often with the best hand.