Pre-flop play
A subject that seems to baffle a lot of new players is which hands should be raised pre- flop, but you also have to consider that in no-limit poker the ability to know which hands to play and which hands to fold is the single most important factor when first leaning to play profitable poker.
You may only be making decisions on the flop, turn and river maybe once or twice during a round of play but pre flop decisions have to be made on every single hand, It is here where you make or “save” valuable bets. Saving money from not betting on marginal hands is just as good as earning money in the long run.
As for pre flop raising you should be looking to raise your big opening pocket pairs and get some money into the pot as slow-playing these hands can get you into trouble post flop.
You should also be looking to raise with your “Premium Hands” such as A-K, A-Q, A-J, K-Q etc purely because these are better than most other starting hands. You should also be looking to raise more hands form a later “position” or the button as you become a favourite with both the hand and position on your side.
On the other hand if you encounter a player who has raised in front of you, you need to be looking at tightening up your play greatly as you could be seeing yourself dominated by hands. Such as A-J, A-10 where you could hit top pair on the flop and find yourself funding a pot, loosing big to see if your aces are good enough. Under a raise I would consider playing only pocket pairs and the top end of the “premium card range” it can however be a benefit to some times add some speculative hands.
I will now go through the steps required to make a logical and informed decision on your pre flop plays.
The first stage is being able to play position correctly a player in late position has the ability to influence the pot size more substantially than players in earlier positions, this is especially true pre-flop the dealer is obviously in the best position as they get to see how all players have acted before making a decision on there own hand meaning players in late positions can play weaker hands with less fear or opportunity of loss. Where as players in early positions must be more selective about there hands, as they do not have the advantage of seeing the play from the hands before; like they would in a later position
The second stage is being able to identify the “worthwhile” hands that you should play. I will run down the category of hands that are worth while playing
At the top would be big pocket pairs such as AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT these hands should always be raised from what ever position you are playing from you should also expect to win these types of hands at a show down without the hand improving, a good percentage of the time
The next sets of hands are “Premium hands” such as A-k, A-Q, A-J, K-Q. These are strong hands and like big pocket pairs these types of hands should be brought in for a raise pre flop, these are good because once the flop comes down they often throw up top pairs for these hands and with a strong kicker.
You then get to strong speculative hands such as A-J suited, Q-J suited, 10-9s, 8-9s, and pocket pairs from 99 downwards. These hands can potentially turn out to be very profitable lending themselves to flushes, Straights and sets allowing the chance of big pots to come about if they get hit.
These hands are best to limp in from middle position and beyond, making them a good hand to see a cheap flop with, against multiple opponents.
Finally you come across weak speculative hands the likes of which include 5-6s, 6-7s, 10-9s, k-Xs, Q-J off suit. These hands should only be played when you are in position and when you have few limpers in front of you, flops can be dangerous because even though they can generate big hands you have to be aware that you could still be second best, you should not try to play these hands from early or middle positions. Hands that have not been mentioned in this such as the likes of 7-2, 8-3, 9-4 these types of hands should be avoided at all costs as they do not give for big pairs or straights and even if hands like this are suited and you do hit a flush the chances are that you are still beat.
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