Loosening hand requirements in LP

[DeadLily]

In regards to NLHE: I get the idea that when you're in LP preflop, and the betting is coming around to you, the choices the other players are making help determine the value of your hand. Where I'm getting hung up on is the degree that a weaker hand can be used.

After it was pointed out to me that Q7o is statistically the barest "median" hand, I plugged it into PokerStove against 2 random hands, and sure enough, it came up with a 51% edge. So does this mean that if I'm on the button with Q7o or better, and everyone folds to me, that I should raise or at least call because I'm odds on favorite to beat the blinds? Or is calling simply wrong and I should only raise?

Should I be considering a scale from AA to Q7o when I'm playing the button, and adjusting based on the limpers/raisers betting ahead of me?

[DeadLily]

I guess what I'm driving at is not so much the "what should I do" but the "why I should do it" and "how far should I go with it".

[pzhon]

[ QUOTE ]

After it was pointed out to me that Q7o is statistically the barest "median" hand,


[/ QUOTE ]
That is in the hypothetical game go-to-showdown, where there is no more betting, and you deal out the community cards and see who wins. In poker, you do not always go to showdown, and there is betting on later streets. These differences can either help or hurt you, but they mean the analysis is not as simple as in go-to-showdown.

[ QUOTE ]
I plugged it into PokerStove against 2 random hands, and sure enough, it came up with a 51% edge. So does this mean that if I'm on the button with Q7o or better, and everyone folds to me, that I should raise or at least call because I'm odds on favorite to beat the blinds?

[/ QUOTE ]
It doesn't logically imply that, but I open-raise with Q7o and worse hands on the button. The reason is that I expect to get more than the amount of my raise back. Much of the time, the blinds will simply fold. When I am called, I expect to get a lot back from the pot anyway because I have position, and my opponents don't know I only have Q7, and some of the time, the flop will hit me hard.

[ QUOTE ]
Or is calling simply wrong and I should only raise?

[/ QUOTE ]
Calling applies little pressure to the blinds. Maybe it is better than folding, as you do have position. However, I don't think it is as profitable as making a normal raise.

Raising will not knock out anyone with AA. Raising may get players to fold hands like Q9 which you don't want to see a queen-high flop with you.

[ QUOTE ]

Should I be considering a scale from AA to Q7o when I'm playing the button, and adjusting based on the limpers/raisers betting ahead of me?

[/ QUOTE ]
That's an interesting idea. However, again, you may want to raise with hands you do not expect would have an advantage when playing go-to-showdown, since you are paying poker instead and have the advantage of position. Also, some hands do better in multi-way pots.

[Rorona]

being 51% favorite against 2 random hands is not enough of a reason to raise Q7o. Actually it depends a lot of the behavior of the blinds. Are they nit who fold often to your raise? are they calling stations?
If you want to loosen up you want hands that are more playable and more likely to win pots. For ex 65s is a much more strong holding than Q7o because your hand is disguised, you can make big hands like straight or flush, and it's quite easy to play:your hand fits the flop or it doesn't. However when you play a hand like K5o, or Q7o you get in trouble and you don't win big pots until you hit 2 pairs ( which even doesn't guarantee to win a big pot). When you play those garbage hands, you're actually in situations when you're way ahead or way behind and it is sometimes kind tricky to play them. So if you want to loosen up, don't look at the numbers of preflop equity, that's not the way to approach poker. Look at the playability postflop and muck trash like Qx,Jx if you're not very good postflop and play suited connectors or unsuited connectors, hands who are way more easy and profitable to play in position.