Early Position Starting Hands
 

At almost every table I play I am one of the tightest if the not the tightest player, but I’m not sure if I really play tight enough. I’ve read many starting hand charts and it seems to be pretty accepted that pairs of 77 and higher, AKo, AKs, AQo, AQs, AJs and KQs are playable in early position.

What do you think of playing the following hands in early position? Some books say yes and some say no. In this example use a typical 8-16 or 10-20 limit hold ‘em game. Here are the gray area hands:

A10s, KJs, K10s, QJs, Q10s, J10s, AJo and KQo

Re: Early Position Starting Hands
 

You are way too tight. All your gray area hands are profitable in any of the games you play in and I open raise every one of them and many of them that are not suited.

Re: Early Position Starting Hands
 

your starting hand reqs from all positions will vary greatly with the table conditions you are at...give us more info...

Re: Early Position Starting Hands
 

OK, how about at a loose 8-16 table, with 4-5 people seeing most of the flops.

Re: Early Position Starting Hands
 

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OK, how about at a loose 8-16 table, with 4-5 people seeing most of the flops.

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For that table, play them all.

Re: Early Position Starting Hands
 

Play loose win big

Re: Early Position Starting Hands
 

In a loose 8-16 with 4-5/flop, you should play all of those gray area hands along with small pairs and suited connectors if you can expect to get in for 1 bet.

Tighter games with more raising makes the gray area hands easy to fold in early position. You don't want to play weak hands like those from out of position.

Re: Early Position Starting Hands
 

UTG = all pairs, T9s+, AJo+,Axs (varies how low you are willing to go here), KTs+ (possibly 9, for some reason i remember clark saying he plays K9s), QTs+, JTs...personally i don't play KJo or ATo utg, but i know of some that do...might be some i missed...

Re: Early Position Starting Hands
 

i'll open for a raise with all of those hands you listed

except QJs i'll limp and QTs, i'll limp. however i've been known to raise those also, i just personally dont like them as much.

i'll limp raise JTs. cause everyone says its the best drawing hand.

Re: Early Position Starting Hands
 

What if there is one maniac who loves to raise and re-raise with bad hands and usually goes to the river no matter what?

Re: Early Position Starting Hands
 

whenever there is considerable preflop aggressin you have to tighten up when you act before the aggressor (mostly this means while in EP)...

no offense, but these questions might be more suitable for micro or ss...welcome to the forums...

Re: Early Position Starting Hands
 

I never claimed to be a poker expert or even a decent player. I'm just learning. I think this is a great forum and I want to hear from people who know what they are talking about. Learning from books only goes so far and I don't have any poker playing friends. I appreciate your input.

Re: Early Position Starting Hands
 

[ QUOTE ]
I never claimed to be a poker expert or even a decent player. I'm just learning. I think this is a great forum and I want to hear from people who know what they are talking about. Learning from books only goes so far and I don't have any poker playing friends. I appreciate your input.

[/ QUOTE ]

It depends on the game lineup & how the other players are playing at any particular time. You're going to find that the advice often given in this forum is WAY to loose pf for games that are either very aggressive or loose aggressive. There is no real hard rule about which hands are playable preflop, and some of it will depend on your skill level as well. In very aggro games pf, I'll dump most every thing except 1010-AA and AK UTG, and open up only a little more UTG +1. In a loose passive game with 3-4 players to every flop and relatively little raising, I will play a lot more aggressively pf UTG or UTG+1, raising A10s or better, AJo or better, KQo, QJs and better, 77 or better pf. At a very lose passive table with 5-8 players to every flop and relatively little pf raising I will call with a huge range of hands in EP including any pp, any Axs, J10o, QJo, KQo, and raise a lot of hands including most of the hands you listed and also hands like 910s. I'll also limp with reasonable suited one and two gappers. Something like J9s.

In games with maniacs, EP is a problem because you have to worry not only about the maniac, but also how the other players are going to react to him. In this situation, I would play very tight before the flop, but also very aggressive postflop in an effort to isolate the maniac when I do have a hand that will have a reasonable chance to win at showdown. A very strong hand pf here makes it very easy to define where you stand postflop in comparison to the maniac.

Re: Early Position Starting Hands
 

You're starting hands from EP have very little impact on how tight you are overall. If you're talking about VPIP, yours is probably too low due to stealing too little from LP and not defending your blinds enough.

Re: Early Position Starting Hands
 

What is VPIP and LP? If I'm first into a pot I always raise from any position in an attempt to steal the blinds. If someone is in steal position I do consider that when I'm defending.

Re: Early Position Starting Hands
 

VPIP = voluntarily put money into the pot
LP = late position

in the game you describe with 4/5 players to the flop that is passive like most games you are missing profitable limping situations or making unprofitable raises in early if you are never limping first in...at a more aggro table or a table with a maniac you have to become much tighter and open limping is likely wrong...

in a loose/passive game im normally open limping UTG w/ all pairs, JTs, QTs, QJs, maybe A9s...

Re: Early Position Starting Hands
 

RBower- please buy, and read, and study, and read again Small Stakes Hold Em book by Ed Miller. It should be your bible for the games you're describing.

Re: Early Position Starting Hands
 

I do remember one hand at the 8-16 table, not the day of my big loss, but the day before when I was winning. The table had gotten very passive so I limped in with pocket 2s UTG. I flopped a set and won a huge pot, because no one saw it coming. That's good advice about not always raising early. I think I was doing that too much considering the table I was at. Your comments make a lot of sense.