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Preflop Basics – No limit hold’em hand selection

The basic goal of a poker player is, or should be, to always make decisions with a positive expected value. In other words, to minimize the amount of money one puts into pots while “behind”, and to maximize value from pots in which one is “ahead”. Many beginning micro stakes grinders find this concept elusive. The main objection being, that most players at the lowest limits are so bad, no amount of strategy can ever prevent opponents from getting lucky and winning.

This sort of thinking is not only illogical, it is dangerous. By virtue of the fact that your opponents need to get lucky to win, their play must be horrible. This means that you can win, all the time, no matter how ‘lucky’ others get, simply by making +EV moves.

A lot of players get sucked into the trap of sinking down to a level of bad play- the rationale being that since it works for their opponents, it might work for them.

In reality, the fact that most micro stakes players do not think about expected value at all is a huge source of profit for those with the patience and skill required to stick to a +EV strategy. It’s true. At a limit where strategy seems completely absent, the players are horrible gamblers, and outcomes seem random, it might seem like a daunting task to come up with a strategy that can be consistently profitable. But such a strategy exists, and it’s much simpler than most will have you believe…

…Tight Is Right!

Tight is right. All you need to do to beat the incredibly soft low limit games is exercise some preflop restraint. Barely any of your opponents will know much about preflop hand selection, much less postflop play, so it follows that your biggest edge at the start of your career will come from the good cards you play preflop.

A common objection to the tight is right strategy is this: “But I read on some popular poker forum that the games are all much more complex than that now! It’s not the same as it was in 2003!”

This is false. The players still suck. Although microstakes players may be slightly more educated about the game of poker than they were in times past, very few know how to properly apply the information they read about strategy. Among the rare few that do know how to apply the learned concepts, fewer still have the patience required to play optimal strategy for more than 50 hands.

It follows then, that since most of your opponents will suck, you can play a basic strategy and win. This is true. There is however, a second reason why tight is right at the microstakes…

Because you suck too.

That’s right. You’re just starting out though, so it’s okay. The fact of the matter is that you most likely have nowhere near the post-flop experience you need to make sound, +EV decisions. You will not be able to outplay your opponents after the flop is dealt, because you don’t yet know how. Luckily, you don’t need to know how.

At this point, your goal shouldn’t be to play optimally according to the most advanced strategies out there. That’s unrealistic. Your goal should be to suck less than your opponents. The way you can accomplish this is by playing good preflop poker.

If it helps, remember the following mantra: My goal in poker is to minimize the mistakes I make, while exploiting the huge amount of mistakes my opponents will make. I will obtain my edge by making good preflop decisions, since the starting cards I choose to play will be better than my opponents’ starting cards.

Simplicity works at the micro stakes- don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.

How should I play my hands preflop?

In general, you want to be raising any hand you want to play preflop in an unopened pot. If nobody raises ahead of you, the pot is considered unopened. If you have a good hand, you need to raise. The reasoning here is that since you will be following good preflop hand selection, your cards will most likely better than your opponent’s cards. As such, you want to get as much money as you can into the pot while your expectation is positive. Force your opponents to make mistakes early on.

If the pot is raised ahead of you, it is generally a bad idea to cold call a bet. You should always re-raise your very strong hands, and fold hands that are not as strong. Calling is rarely a good option. The reasoning behind playing a tight preflop game is to avoid making mistakes postflop- when you call a raise, you are saying to your opponent, “okay, I want to play you post flop.” This can be disastrous for beginning players. Therefore, it is a fairly sound rule to raise, or fold preflop. Save calling for when you move up in stakes, and require a more advanced strategy.

A standard raise is 3 times the big blind, plus one big blind per limper ahead of you. For instance, say you hold AKs in late position. The blinds post, and two players limp ahead of you. In this situation you should raise 5 big blinds. You should be happy with stealing the bets on the table at this point. That is your goal. You should also be happy when an opponent calls your bet with a weaker hand, because you will have maximized the value you got from your strong hand preflop by betting a large amount. Do not be afraid of ‘pushing’ players out of a pot. This is nonsense.

What hands should I play?

Down to the nitty gritty. Follow the following hand selection guide, and start your career off by laughing to the bank!

Early Position (tightest): 66+, ATs-AKs, KJs-KQs, QJs, JTs, AQo-AKo, KQo.

Middle Position (normal): 22+, ATs-AKs, KTs-KQs, QTs-QJs, JTs, AQo-AKo, KQo.

Late Position (loose): 22+, A5s-AKs, KTs-KQs, QTs-QJs, J9s-JTs, 67s+, AQo-AKo, KJo-KQo.

Remember the mantra…

When you feel as if your opponents are suckout kings, and that the poker gods are on anyone’s side but yours, just remember the mantra…

Happy profits!