Preflop Play Cash Game Theory

By Icemonkey9 - Visit his blog here.

When you start out playing cash games at the micro stakes (10nl, 25nl, 50nl) you will notice there are really just two types of players preflop. Lets take a look at two generalizations of players and then take a pop quiz using our replayer. The first type is the type of player that's in at least or more than half the hands that get dealt. They often limp in at first and if someone makes a raise they call and see the flop. The second type of player is very tight, very selective, and usually only gets into the pot as the raiser or limps in with a pocket pair.

The first type of player is classified as a fish! Yes, as you see that's definitely not a good thing. These are the players that get into too many pots, and at the flop give up because they don't hit anything. Every hand they are giving away between 1 and 4 big blinds until their stack reaches a point where they just go in with a terrible hand, they lose, and you never see them again.

The second type of player is a tight player, and sometimes if they play too tight called a nit. There's nothing wrong with being a nit and it should definitely be your preference to play this way as you start your cash game career as opposed to playing like a fish! You want to be the one dictating the action, with position on your opponents, with seemingly the best preflop hand every time you see a flop.

So what should your card ranges be? Naturally that is all dependent on your position. Lets take a look at these groupings:

SB - The small blind. You are 2nd to last to act preflop but have the worst position post-flop. BB - The big blind. You are last to act preflop (strong), but have horrible position post-flop.

EP1 - Early position 1 aka UTG (Under The Gun). Just an ugly place to play anything except for premium hands. EP2 - Early position 2. Again, not a good place to be playing marginal hands ever.

MP1 - Mid Position 1. Now things are looking a little bit better position wise but marginal and trouble hands should just be folded preflop. MP2 - Mid Position 2. This is where you can start looking at the HJ-BTN seats and if these guys are super nittish you can start playing some of those marginal hands, but otherwise it's best to stick to the premium hands.

HJ - High Jack seat. You are 2 seats away from the button and this is the beginning of the "good" spots to play hands from. If the CO and BTN are tight you can even steal with marginal hands from this seat and other hands like decent suited connectors are played from here.

CO - Cutoff seat. You are 1 seat off from the button and if the button is super tight then consider yourself the button. Steal and steal often in that scenario. Your premium hands and marginal hands are all played (and raised) from here if there is no action so far.

BTN - Button seat (aka dealer). You are the master of the table and at this seat your range of played hands should be the widest at any other point. Pay attention to the blinds, if they don't ever defend them steal with any two cards. Definitely look to 3bet (raise a raiser) with good hands or better.

The natural question now is range of hands that you should be playing. Let's generalize this but look to create your own list of hands on your own, and just use this as a general guideline. As you gain more and more experience you will find yourself able to widen your range since you will have the experience of what to do in post-flop situations.

Premium Hands - AA, KK, QQ, AK Good Hands - AQ, JJ, AJ Marginal Hands - Suited Connectors (89 of spades for example) Trouble Hands - KQ, KJ, QJ, AT, JT (please see the 'Trouble Hands' article for more in depth information) Crap Hands That I see Played Like Good Hands: KT, QT, J9, T8, Q9, K9, 23

Also take a look at the article I wrote about playing pocket pairs, I've somewhat omitted them from this list because of the article I've already written really goes into the proper depth on the theory to play those hands.

So lets take our quiz and I'll provide some commentary... Hand 1 - AQ offsuit in the Small Blind

This is a tough situation to deal with, you have a good hand in bad position. So what do you do - fold, call, or raise? Recommended Action: RAISE! This is a no-doubt-about-it raise. The guy on the button has not shown strength and is limping the button only hoping to see a cheap flop. With your good hand, it's time to make them pay for their stupidity. A raise to $2.50 or even $3 is recommended here. Hand 2 - A8 offsuit in EP2

You have Ace-8 offsuit. Do you fold, call, or raise? Recommended Action: FOLD! This is a hand that at a live 1/2 game in vegas would be played like KK (yes, players in Vegas are horrible). A8 does not even qualify as a marginal hand in this position and this is a clear cut fold 100% of the time. Now, if we were on the button and everyone had folded to us, this is a great stealing hand and you would raise to $2. But as it is here, we fold. Hand 3 - KT Suited on the Button

You have King Ten suited of hearts and the UTG (aka EP1) player makes a standard preflop raise. You have position and two suited broadway cards. Do you raise, call, or fold?

Recommended Action: FOLD! This is a perfect example of a hand that I would see a beginner play incorrectly. I imagine a lot of beginner players would call this. They recognize their hand isn't good enough to raise (and by calling you tell our opponent that information) but just juicy enough to call. The problem is that this is a weak hand against a player showing tremendous strength (a raise from UTG is never a pure bluff and usually a good to great hand at the minimum). Even if you hit top pair (a King) you still might be outkicked by AK, KQ, or KJ. Your straight possibilities are bad because you have a two-gapper, and your flush still isn't the nut flush so if your opponent had the Ace of hearts he could still possibly beat you. Just fold and wait for a better spot and then raise!

This should give you a nice solid idea of how to develop a tight game to abide by during your first month or two at the tables. Keep playing tight and aggressive and you'll definitely end up being a winner in the long run.