Limit O8. How to defend against sheer aggression?

[cero_z]

Hi Sham,

If you choose to build the pot prefop, it should be with hands that have an excellent chance of flopping decent. So, an excellent high hand like AKQJds wouldn't be ideal, because you'll often want to c/f the flop, and making the absolute nuts isn't as important vs. players who'll go off with the 5th nuts. Well-coordinated low hands have a lot more value, so most hands with 4 lows in them are good AS LONG AS IT'S VERY SHORTHANDED. If they're capping random [censored], you aren't at much risk to be dominated with 2356. But, if the game is 5-handed, and a reasonable player is coming along too, you have to tighten up. The best hands are Ace-wheel-broadway-something else that works with the rest (another wheel or broadway card, or a pair).

It also works well to keep the pot small preflop. Your hand is concealed, since you only call or fold pre, and post-flop non-folding mistakes are magnified in smaller pots. I'm on the fence, though, as to which method has more value: capping it with hands that are "way ahead" pre, or always keeping the pre-flop pot as small as possible. There is significant equity to be gained preflop when your opponents are playing absolutely everything, so I'm not sure.