No Limit, Basic Starting Hands

One of the biggest mistakes that beginner players make (other than bad bankroll management) is to over-value starting hands.  Even though a hand like KJs under the gun (first to act pre flop) make look pretty, there are other factors that matter just as much, if not more, than your cards, with one of the key factors being your position at the table in relation to the blinds/button.

In NL, in particular, being the last to act during a betting round gives you a tremendous advantage over other players, as you are able to analyse their actions each round before deciding what to do. Most of the time, when someone checks to you or bets small relative to the pot, they are showing weakness and you can take advantage of this weakness with position. Other times, you may decide to slow-play a monster hand or call with nothing and hope to bluff a later street.

All this gives you more information each round to incorporate into your decision-making process before deciding on an action.

As a result of positional advantage, you are able to play a wider range of hands when you will be last to act on each successive betting round, since you can use your positional advantage and added information to make more profitable plays against your opponents.

This principle works the same if you are in the blinds or early position. Therefore, you should be playing a tighter range of starting hands since your opponents have positional advantage on you.

So, what is the best way to take advantage of position?

Under the Gun (UTG)

You should be folding all but the most ‘premium of hands’ in this position, as you will be the first to act on all betting rounds, putting you at a significant disadvantage by:

It is not profitable to play marginal hands such as Queen-Jack off-suit or King-Ten suited or even Ace-Ten suited. It is too easy to get into difficult situations and remember that you are playing for stacks so by avoiding trouble hands you may save yourself from getting stacked. It is too easy to flop top pair and be out-kicked and have to make a tough decision for a lot of money.

It is also recommended that you should be raising when you are entering a pot, as limping under the gun is unprofitable, as you will likely get raised by someone behind you and then you may be forced to call with a marginal hand out of position.

Hands that I would always play would be AA-88, AKo-AQo, AK-AJs and KQs. Anything worse, is generally good enough. If the table is tight it is OK to start including 66-77, KJs, ATs but only on special circumstances. Once in a blue moon you can decide to raise utg with complete junk just to throw your opponents off.

Middle Position (MP)

MP is one to the left of UTG, You should still be playing tight, playing similar hands that you would UTG with a raise.  You may want to throw in a few additional hands such as 77-66, AJo, and KQo.  But continue to play tight, as you have 2 opponents behind you that would force you to play out of position.

Cut-off (CO)

CO is one to the right of the button and you should start opening up your range.  As always, if you’re entering a pot, make sure you are raising, and not limping, unless there are limpers from UTG or CO and you have medium strength hands like suited connectors and small pocket pairs (which should be raised sometimes anyhow). You can start to throw in a wider range of hands such as AT-A8o, Axs (meaning all Ace-suited hands), KJo-KTo, KJs-K9s, QJo-QTo, QJs-Q9s and any suited connectors (ie. 87s) and possible suited one-gappers (ie. T8s).  If you can force the button to fold, then you will have a positional advantage throughout the hand, so you can use this positional advantage to make up for a weaker range of starting hands.

Button

Once you’re on the button, you can open up a wide range of hands. If the blinds are tight, it is profitable to raise pretty much any two cards and fold to any resistance. Continue to throw away trash, but mix in any connectors (ie. 87o) and one-gappers.  Play the hand aggressively on the flop if you are up against one opponent.  Continuation-betting should be done in roughly 60-75% of flops. I will go into more details on post flop in another article.

Note that while it is highly profitable to open up your hand range when you are in late position, it is important to be aware that your thinking opponents will also know that you are opening up your hand range, so they will be less likely to give you credit for a strong hand.

Keep this in mind if you have been raising a lot, and scale it back with marginal hands if you thinNote that while it is highly profitable to open up your hand range when you are in late position, it is important to be aware that your thinking opponents will also know that you are opening up your hand range, so they will be less likely to give you credit for a strong hand.

Keep this in mind if you have been raising a lot, and scale it back with marginal hands if you think your opponents will think that you’re getting out of line and start to three-bet you more from button/blinds.