Another Preflop Strategy?

[Geoff Lightning]

One highly advocated PF strategy is to raise based on your position: raise a little in early position, and raise more as you get into better and better position. The reasoning for this is so that you play for more in position.

The fallacy of this strategy is referred to in the anthology. I suggest that another possibility PF is to do the very opposite. Raise more OOP, since you'll have a much stronger hand and you'll want to have a better chance of not playing the hand. Position is so strong that you usually want to play the hand.

One thing I can think of that isn't perfect about this strategy is: you may get called more often trying to steal the blinds..but it may balance out since you'll be risking less money on those steals.

Let me know what you think about this strategy. Is it a good idea, is it a work in progress, or am I missing some point that would make this unprofitable? Thanks.

[themobfather]

I dislike both preflop strategies. The problem with your strategy is you'd be playing bigger pots OOP which is generally not a good idea.

[SuperUberBob]

Both suck.

Incremental raises (EP low raises, LP high raises) makes you play in massive, multiway pots out of position and just allows you to take down very small pots when in position.

The other way around forces you to play for big pots OOP.

I use this rule of thumb with raising in the early stages of tournaments

3x + yx

X is the size of the BB and y are the number of limpers in front of me. So if I have two limpers in front of me, I make a 5x BB raise with my hand.

I modify this as I get further into the tournaments due to the blinds being much larger relative to my stack size.

[FortunaMaximus]

If it's a hand you wouldn't feel comfortable opening 3BB with in ANY position, that tells you you either shouldn't play the hand or don't have the capability yet to play it profitably postflop.

Bob's correct about the 3 plus limpers bit, and it's a fairly standard textbook strategy. Textbooks are good stuff anyway.

As for my personal style... <shrugs> It varies, and I have been playing a [censored] of deepstacked poker lately, so I'm limpcalling knowing an aggro player's gonna pop for a standard raise in LP, more and more, but not very often. And there are days when I make 60/25 maniacs look like nuns.

The table dictates my play, and I don't play a set style, just what I have, and edges postflop, especially with sustained aggression.

Opening lighter early, higher late, over the long term, effectively nullifies the purpose of such an adjustment because in the long term, this should average out to 3BB anyway.

And there's almost no point in minraising from any position PF, regardless of stack size. If you can't play it for 3BB or are too short to open for 3BB without being committed, [censored], just shove it and take your chances.

Get used to rote raising, not with a rote range, but making the same raise each time you open. Live, deepstacked, ratio to stacks, you can vary it a bit, go higher, do all sorts of kinky stuff. But generally, no, online, it never gets that deep.

As for post-ante play, dip it under 3BB, the median should be 2.67BB, sometimes more on a pure steal in LP. But even then, again, you have to be very accurate and consistent with your betting patterns. And sometimes it ends up on frequency you're making a larger than usual "steal" with QQ+.

Most of the thinking in tournament poker occurs postflop, and that's where the massive equity edges are found. And the faster you turn your PF play into a standard set of moves, the easier it will become to play postflop because you almost don't have to think about PF play.