3. Folding Hands:

Open-fold all of the usual hands – 72o, 73o, 85o, 86o, A2-A9o,Q4, 8Jo, you get the idea.

Fold the following hands in EP, but not necessarily in LP with limpers: KTo, K9s, A9o, 89o, 9To, 78o, 56o, TJo, 9Jo, 9Q, and JQ.

Fold the following hands to a raise: KQ, KJ, TJo, AJ, AT. These are the types of hands people like to call raises with but these hands get them into trouble. Most of the time the flop will miss these hands, but even if you hit, that card is going to scare off weaker hands. Sometimes you can win big pots with these hands but its generally hard tell where you stand. I avoid the trouble and fold it. Remember – you’re going to have to fold the hand when you whiff the flop most of the time anyways.

 

4. Calling Raises:

Call raises from all positions with all pocket pairs 22-TT unless you’re stuck between a raiser and a re-raiser. Call raises when you are in LP with Axs with at least 2 others in the pot . These are weak hands by themselves, but in no-limit they have the potential to really break someone.

With suited connectors, I recommend calling raises when in LP if at least 2 other people are in the pot. Similar to Axs, these are surprise hands that will occasionally hit hard and break someone. If there is a preflop raise and it folds to you, consider folding your suited connector unless the preflop raiser either bluffs way too much or gets too attached to big pairs. Against good players, it's going to be hard to call a 4BB raise with suited connectors every time and show a profit. Against loose raisers it will also be hard to profit because they will not have a strong hand often enough to pay you off when you hit.

One note – if you’re playing out of position against a solid or loose preflop raiser, its not profitable to call raises with hands like pocket twos. For example, let’s say an aggressive button raises your blind after it’s been folded around. He could have anything from 75o to pocket aces. Your twos could very well be the best hand, but it’s too hard to play them post flop unless you hit a set. You’re only going to hit a set 1/8th of the time and when you do hit that set, the raiser will often have a trash hand and won’t pay you off. In the long run, this situation doesn’t add up to profits. I know its fun to hunt for sets, but if you’re acting out of position against these types of players, you’re not going to make money in the long run. The whole point of learning poker strategy is to make money and the payoff will make all of the discipline worth it.

If you want to get a persistent stealer off your back there are two things I recommend. The first is to play back at him - put in re-raises preflop and make big continuation bets. In small stakes games, the reraise don't have to be very big - it just needs to put you in control of the hand. If you put in a reraise with an iffy hand such as AT or something like 67s and get much action back to you, give it up. The other thing to do is cold call his raise with a solid hand and either lead into him on the flop, check raise him with air OR hit something on the flop and let him bluff his money away. Be careful slowplaying though, it can get you into trouble when you let someone draw to a strong hand for free.

I will also call raises with Axs and suited connectors 67-KQ in LP only if there are at least 3 others in the pot on a 4x bb raise. With these hands, you are not playing to flop a pair and play a guessing game with the opponents; you are looking to flop an easy-to-play monster.

5. Re-raising Hands:

Re-raising (or 3-betting) is a powerful play. It builds a big pot that will usually result in an all in situation on the flop if the players don’t fold. Playing in re-raised pots is a very important aspect of the good poker player’s game.

When dealt AA or KK, its best to make a 3-bet if someone ahead of you has already raised. The more money you can in with these hands preflop, the better. Do not ever fold KK preflop. It doesn’t matter if you suspect the opponent in question has AA or if you always seem to be up against AA – get as much money in the pot as possible. Its better yet if you can get yourself all in with either one of these hands before the flop has even been dealt. Big preflop pots with AA and KK equals profit in the long run. Additionally, the bigger a pot gets preflop, the easier it is to play post flop. If you get half your stack in the middle before the flop, it’s a no-brainer to get the rest of it in on the flop.

The next most powerful hand, QQ, is also a no-brainer reraise preflop. However, this is not a good hand to get all in preflop unless you are up against a loose opponent. But taking into consideration the fact that QQ is the 3rd best starting hand in hold ‘em, it’s an easy 3-bet against all opponents. You want to get the most value possible for this hand by getting as much money in the pot as possible while ahead. The only difference between QQ and AA/KK is that QQ requires a little more caution. Very often you will be behind if you find yourself all in with QQ preflop.

AK and AQ are also very strong hands and will usually be ahead of your opponents raising ranges. These are not hands to get all in preflop, though. The point of re-raising these hands is to get value against the weaker hands your opponents will be playing and also to keep your play somewhat mixed. What I mean is if you only re-raise AA-QQ then even weak players will eventually catch on to how tight you are and it will be harder to keep them guessing. By re-raising AK and AQ, you’re still getting value with strong hands, but you’re also increasing the number of times opponents see you re-raising and keeping them guessing.

Re-raising is also useful to get aggressive opponents off your back. If someone is attempting to steal your blinds too often, the occasional re-raise will help keep them in line. You don’t always need to have a powerhouse when doing this but you will always need to be very careful. When putting in a re-raise from the blinds against a loose raiser, you are setting up a big pot with the strong disadvantage of being out of position. Hopefully the stealer will just fold, but occasionally he will either call or put you all in. Both situations will require careful consideration in deciding on the right play. If you chose to 3-bet with a weak hand and the opponent shoves, its an easy fold. But if you 3-bet with AK and he shoves, you may want to consider a call if he regularly makes plays like this with weaker hands. Whichever option you choose, make sure you choose it based on logic and not emotion. Remember, there is going to be a new hand dealt in literally 2 seconds if you fold. Remember also that money you have already put in the pot is not your money any more, so don’t get attached.

6. Final Notes:

I want to say again that the above are just some general guidelines. Everything above is situation-dependent. Also the better your post flop play, the less your preflop play matters. 100BB games are fairly deep all things considered so spending 4bb’s on an iffy hand is OK if you can make it up by taking a huge pot once in a while and balancing your play with occasional post flop bluffs.