Preflop hand selection

[Aaron W.]

[ QUOTE ]
In a run of no good hole cards, I'm starting to get bored and question my pf hand selection. It's wrong to play A5s or A10o UTG at an 8 man table, right? It's getting real boring playing nothing but the blinds. I've been told there's a point when a table is shorthanded enough that a suited Ace can be profitable to play. Is this option ok? Everyone else seems to limp any hand with a face card or suited, and I'm pretty confident these hands are ahead of most the field.

[/ QUOTE ]

Let me guess... your VPIP is 16.

[KingOtter]

What's wrong with ATo UTG? I raise that sometimes, and hope the 50vpip'ers are the only ones who call.

[Bowlboy]

*grunch*
I think this falls under wanting to play against weak players. Suited A's are great limping hands in unraised multiway pots because 1) In an unraised pot it is less likely that you are dominated 2) An unraised pot can still become huge with 6 limpers. 3) When you do make a flush it's most likely the nuts 4) There is also the slim possibility of making that nut straight or wheel or making 2pair to beat somebody's stronger ace.

Whatever happens, if you limp and miss you can always get out but when you hit, the bad players pay you off.

[Bilgefisher]

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What's wrong with ATo UTG? I raise that sometimes, and hope the 50vpip'ers are the only ones who call.

[/ QUOTE ]

That super tight AP tables I play at, I raise ATo utg. I find it amazing how I win the blnds more from an UTG raise then a late position raise.

[ericyp]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
In a run of no good hole cards, I'm starting to get bored and question my pf hand selection. It's wrong to play A5s or A10o UTG at an 8 man table, right? It's getting real boring playing nothing but the blinds. I've been told there's a point when a table is shorthanded enough that a suited Ace can be profitable to play. Is this option ok? Everyone else seems to limp any hand with a face card or suited, and I'm pretty confident these hands are ahead of most the field.

[/ QUOTE ]

Let me guess... your VPIP is 16.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I guess right around there. I play about 1 out of 8 or so hands + the blinds. Too tight?

[Christian_Peters]

**GRUNCH**

At an 8 handed table, any face card becomes profitable. But only raise with Q-rag and higher from UTG. Just limp with J-rag UTG through middle position, but definately raise J-rag suited from LP. If the table gets even shorter, you can start playing suited 3 gappers as low as 63s.






Serriously, until you have sat at a table with 25 BB and been blinded away from being card dead, I don't think you really know when to start expanding your range. The last live session I played, there was a two hour period where I played 3 hands outside of the blinds. If all you are being dealt is garbage, it is still correct to fold garbage. Some people will probably argue that because the table perceives you as uber-tight, you can expand your starting range. But I wouldn't take this idea very far. You don't start folding ATs and KJs when you are running hot do you?

[GrandmaStabone]

[ QUOTE ]
**GRUNCH**

At an 8 handed table, any face card becomes profitable. But only raise with Q-rag and higher from UTG.

[/ QUOTE ]

no. just no.

[Christian_Peters]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
**GRUNCH**

At an 8 handed table, any face card becomes profitable. But only raise with Q-rag and higher from UTG.

[/ QUOTE ]

no. just no.

[/ QUOTE ]


I thought the sarcasm was sufficiently obvious, especially considering my comments at the bottom of the post.

Sorry for the confusion, I was not being serious when I wrote the top part.

[GrandmaStabone]

oh, ok. lol. thank god.

[Poker Plan]

Small Stakes Holdem: Pre flop play section.

Read, re-read, and read again.

It explains the concepts that allow you to determine what cards to play, under which conditions. At some point you will need to know this for yourself, so get stuck in!

Ian