Bryce's Pre-Flop Bible

[The Bryce]

What was with the lack of response to that theory of learning post? That post was awesome. You guys suck.

Anyways, this is another "article" from a friend's site (in case you're wondering about the crazy tone). Origionally I thought this would be a kind of sucky thing to post, but then I realized this is just another really simple idea with really complex applications, which is fine by me.


This will be more like a blog entry than an article. I’m bored and I thought I’d write something about poker. I’m sure that you, dear reader, can take comfort knowing that your poker career is my afterthought.

(Snarky!)

So what I want to talk about is limit hold’em pre-flop. I’m not going to give you an up-to-date list or chart of what hand goes where with what action etc, because I think that would be stupid. I’m going to lay out some things that are rattling around in my brain until I feel I’ve explained them to my satisfaction. At that point you may power up your own brain and learn whatever you like, at your discretion.

I think I’m actually going to be able to be pretty concise with this.

There are only two ways that you can make money playing hold’em. Way one is to have all of your opponents fold after you bet or raise. Way two is having the best hand at showdown. Shocking stuff, obviously, but you might be also interested to know that you don’t make a dime for putting money in with the best hand pre-flop.

Heresy! Take him to the stake!

(I cast Issac’s greater missile storm, all angry peasants are obliterated.)

Unconventional thinking, sure, but something which is obviously true (incidentally, it’s not my fault if this sounds weird, I blame the conventions). Unless you’re playing Wednesdays on WSEX, no one has every walked up and handed you a massive refund for having your aces cracked after you correctly capped a four way pot pre-flop. Getting money in with the best hand pre-flop can often be a pretty good idea, but in the end you either have the best hand at showdown, everyone else folds, or you lose your chips. That’s it.

So what does this mean to you, the conservatively handsome reader? Quite a bit, actually. Picture, in your head, a big hill made of all the possible hole-cards, with all the really scummy stuff at the bottom and your premiums at the top. Where, in your mind, do the ace-rag hands go? Somewhere just below the crest? There are some situations where this is the case, and many where it is not. What separates these situations? What you expect to occur in post-flop play dictates these situations.

Post-flop dictates pre-flop.

That was so important that it deserved its own line. When you make a decision on street one you should be thinking just as hard about streets two through four (and you should also be thinking about how you will impact the streaming set of data called the meta-game, but for brevity’s sake, I’m not going to talk about that). You should be considering how your play on this street will affect your expectation for the entire hand. One more time: there are no shiny consolation trophies for putting money in with the best hand on just one street.

Think of pre-flop as the dirty handshake in a nut-kicking contest. Having a world class-dirty handshake is nice, but it’s not worth a damn if doesn’t get your foot between this particular opponent’s legs right freaking now.

So pay attention to what your opponents are doing!

A few examples and then I’m done.

Let’s say you’re against a tight and somewhat weak player who opens from one of the last two positions and you are in the SB. A hand like A4o should go in the muck. A hand like QJo should probably be three-bet. The showdown value of the ace is worth very little, if anything. If the weak player forces a showdown you will likely lose with either an unimproved ace or a pair of fours. As the attacking player, you will win in this situation when you either, one, make a hand, or two, your opponent misses the flop and folds. You will be putting money in with more live outs with the QJ hand when your opponent does make a pair and you miss, and you will make more money on average with pairs of Js and Qs post-flop than As and 4s.

In another example you are in the small blind with a small pocket pair or small ace against a player in the big who plays very aggressively post-flop and almost never folds his blind. You should often open-complete, leading any flop if he checks his option. If you raise pre-flop and become the attacking player you will have little recourse if he chooses to take a shot at a dry looking flop. If the opponent has quite loose peeling standards you will often have to bet two streets to find out whether or not he would like to give up, and you will have entered a reverse implied situation on one of the big streets in a small pot. Very rarely will you be able to bet a small pair or unimproved ace for value on the fourth street. So once again, should you choose to become the attacking player out of position, you will win the hand by either forcing your opponent to fold, or by making a better hand.

By open completing in this example one of two things will usually happen. He will check and you can bet the flop under the conditions of the out of position attacking player, but in a pot small enough that it will be much harder for him to peel or bluff. You can also call a raise pre-flop and then become the defending player, collecting bets post-flop by either calling his continuation bets on two streets, or attacking the flops you like at your discretion.

Last example. You open with AK from two or three positions off the button, and a solid player three-bets out of the blinds. You should call. If you cap and bet when checked to post flop, one of two things will likely happen: your opponent will fold, or peel and fold with a hand you had dominated, or your opponent will check-raise you with a better hand on the flop (which you will usually have outs to pass), as well as some semi-bluffs. If you call your opponent will usually bet twice with his entire range. You will see the most streets for the least amount of money against the hands which you are drawing against, and will win the most from the hands which are drawing against you.

So can you see why? Concise explanation indeed.

The better you get at answering the question: “What will my opponent do if…” the better you become at poker, and this skill counts for each street even street one. I hope you have founds this helpful. Some last minute ramblings:

You can often make just as much money overall by check-raising or raising the flops you like in multi-way pots as you could by jamming pre-flop. Do you really want to isolate that guy with jack high? Trying to beat some opponents unimproved is stupid. Yes, you really can open-limp on the button. If you complete a poor hand in the small-blind, will the open limper bet with anything when the flop’s checked to him? Beating some opponents unimproved will pay the rent. If you open raise with this hand from an early position, how well does it perform under a three bet? Figure out where you want to be relative to the raiser. Will the player in the small blind bet the flop if you check your option? People usually don’t walk into the same trap twice unless you give them incentive. I talked way too much about ace-rag in this article, which is now, in fact, over.

-Bryce Paradis

* Ammendum: I don't really talk about it much in the origional, but your most important decision pre-flop is how often you will win the blinds. Other things like how often you will be 3 bet with what sort of hands, how often players will call two bets with position on you, etc, are obviously important as well.

[T-REX]

mods delete this babble already posted in small stakes

[gaming_mouse]

Bryce,

Very good post, but I am totally confused about who wrote it?.... You or your friend? And where is the other thread referred to in the italicized intro, the one people were ignoring???

[The Bryce]

[ QUOTE ]
Bryce,

Very good post, but I am totally confused about who wrote it?.... You or your friend? And where is the other thread referred to in the italicized intro, the one people were ignoring???

[/ QUOTE ]

No no, it's mine (it's signed by a Bryce, after all, and there aren't that many of us). The other article is this one here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...rue#Post6878576

[luckyharr]

Bryce: I thought the other article was good but was more of a statement and didn't really need discussion.

This one's good, too. An opponent's postflop play should dictate the number of hands we play against them. Also, postflop edges are much larger than preflop edges.

[donger]

[ QUOTE ]
Way two is having the best hand at showdown. Shocking stuff, obviously, but you might be also interested to know that you don’t make a dime for putting money in with the best hand pre-flop.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is stupid. You make money by increasing the size of the pots you win.

[The Bryce]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Way two is having the best hand at showdown. Shocking stuff, obviously, but you might be also interested to know that you don’t make a dime for putting money in with the best hand pre-flop.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is stupid. You make money by increasing the size of the pots you win.

[/ QUOTE ]

Here's an example from NL that might clear this up for you: a good player limps UTG, a few people limp behind, and you raise with AA in the blinds or something (if my example is off forgive me, I basically have never played a hand of NL, the terms of the example are arbitrary). UTG re-raises and the limpers fold. You think UTG has some other big PP, and you think he'll push on the flop if you just call, but might fold if you push now. Should you push pre-flop with your edge or just call?

The point of the article is that we're not out to win streets, we're out to do whatever's going to make us the most money on average over the course of the entire hand.

[MATT111]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Way two is having the best hand at showdown. Shocking stuff, obviously, but you might be also interested to know that you don’t make a dime for putting money in with the best hand pre-flop.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is stupid. You make money by increasing the size of the pots you win.

[/ QUOTE ]

Here's an example from NL that might clear this up for you: a good player limps UTG, a few people limp behind, and you raise with AA in the blinds or something (if my example is off forgive me, I basically have never played a hand of NL, the terms of the example are arbitrary). UTG re-raises and the limpers fold. You think UTG has some other big PP, and you think he'll push on the flop if you just call, but might fold if you push now. Should you push pre-flop with your edge or just call?

The point of the article is that we're not out to win streets, we're out to do whatever's going to make us the most money on average over the course of the entire hand.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not that I disagree with this.
Generally speaking it is just much harder to make up for the value we give up preflop on postflop streets in FL compared to NL.

[HighStakesPro]

Actually, the value of putting in as many/few bets as possible with the best/worst hand preflop is not as important as one would think. If you can conceal the strength (or weakness) of your hand preflop, your opponent(s) is likely to play incorrectly against you on all of the other streets, especially the expensive ones. This is why Ax hands are so weak: they have horrible negative implied odds, often make second best hands, and don't get paid off as well when they do hit, because hitting usually means paring the ace.

[surfdoc]

Solid stuff man. You should submit for the magazine.