Welcome to my first strategy column. I'll be covering all of the topics that I think are important while playing medium-stakes cash games. I will concentrate on six-max tables, as they are the most popular and profitable at the moment, but most of the points are applicable to both ninehanded tables and tournaments. I won't be advocating any particular style over another, as it's important that players play to their own strengths. The idea is to provide a solid framework upon which players may base their game. I'll start with what happens at the beginning of each hand - namely, starting-hand selection. This probably will appear too basic for most experienced players, but it's something that very few people get right.
Starting-Hand Selection
Playing well after the flop is very important, but the key to cash games in which the average stack is 100 big blinds or less is what happens preflop. When playing in a game with deeper stacks, preflop play becomes a less important consideration. The reason for this is that the mistakes made by bad players on the later streets make up for the loss of equity that good players may give up preflop. This is often referred to as implied odds. Similarly, the smaller the stacks get, the more preflop play is important, as your implied odds are reduced. This column will concentrate on when the stacks are around 100 big blinds.
Before we go any further, a key consideration should be deception. Many players make the mistake of playing very predictably. At the lower stakes, where players are terrible, this isn't much of a consideration. What many players don't realise is that preflop, the appearance of being deceptive is more important than playing deceptively. I'll explain in real terms. Raising with a hand like 6-4 offsuit from under the gun (UTG) is not going to be profitable in the long term. However, doing so very occasionally (assuming it gets shown down) will confuse your opponents and force them to assess your hand range inaccurately. So, the following shouldn't be followed dogmatically; remember, it is important to seem unpredictable. And also remember that changing game conditions will sometimes mean a different strategy is required. If there's an extremely bad player in the blinds, it pays to try to ignore your position and try to get into hands with him with reasonable hands.
A good VPIP (VPIP stands for Voluntarily Put Into Pot, and is the percentage of hands that a player plays preflop) for six-max tables is somewhere between 15 percent and 25 percent of hands. Very good players will sometimes be able to play up to 30 percent (or in some very rare cases, 40 percent) and still see a profit on those hands, but you need to be extraordinarily good after the flop to make a profit rather than a loss with marginal hands and bad position. If you play less than 15 percent of the hands, you are missing out on a lot of profitable situations, and also will become easier to read by good players because your range will be so tight.
Position is very important in poker, sometimes more so than the cards you are dealt. A hand like K-J offsuit is unprofitable to play from UTG and should be folded. In the cutoff, if it's folded to you, raising will be a profitable situation. The ideal poker player will play very tight when UTG, and then a little looser from every position until the button. He should play roughly twice the number of hands from the button than from UTG.
A good rule of thumb for deciding whether to play a hand or not (assuming that no one has entered the pot yet) is to ask yourself: Am I comfortable with raising these cards here? If not, you should fold. Never open-limp in six-max! (We will come to why later.)
Different players naturally are looser or tighter, and different game conditions can mean that you want to play more or fewer hands. What is important to note, though, is that your preflop range should look something like the graph on this page.
As you can see, your preflop range should increase steadily as you get closer to the button. So, when UTG, you should be very tight, and on the button, you should be relatively loose.
A hand like K-Q offsuit or A-10 offsuit usually should be folded preflop from early position. This is because hands like this, which most often flop vulnerable and obvious top-pair hands, are difficult and unprofitable to play when out of position. And the earlier position you are in preflop, the more likely it is that you will be forced to play the hand out of position.
A standard opening strategy would be the following:
UTG: Play around 11 percent to 13 percent of hands. Play all pairs, any suited ace higher than A-9, and any unsuited ace higher than A-J.
UTG + 1: Add a few hands, so you are opening with K-Q suited or better, and A-J offsuit or better.
Cutoff: Widen your range to A-8 offsuit or better, any suited ace, good suited connectors, connected Broadway cards.
Button: Any decent hand from 10-9 offsuit upward.
When playing sixhanded, the goal always should be to play in as profitable and efficient a manner as possible. This means picking up small pots when possible, very rarely calling raises, never open-limping, and being aggressive preflop in position. The aim is to be the one doing the raising preflop and the one who is constantly betting rather than reacting to someone else.
The preflop raiser has the initiative and will win the majority of the time. To call a raise preflop, your hand should be much stronger on average than your opponents' (A-K or a pair), your opponent should be awful, or the preflop raise should be very small compared to the money you can win.
So, when you are in the blinds and someone else has raised, the most profitable way to play unpaired, unsuited Broadway cards (A-J offsuit, K-Q offsuit, and so on) against normal opposition is to either reraise or fold (be more inclined to reraise a late-position raiser than someone raising from under the gun, as he is much more likely to fold). The nature of these cards is to make your hand very obvious should you hit it, so it's more profitable to semibluff with them. The opposite is true with middle pairs, as their strength is concealed. Even a tight opponent can lose a lot of chips if he raises with A-10 and hits a 10, and you have jacks, an overpair, or 7-7 for a set.
When you do reraise when out of position, you should bet about two-thirds of the pot no matter what the strength of your hand, representing an overpair. To make this profitable, you need to be very disciplined when your bet is called on the flop. The other player has called a reraise preflop, and then a bet on the flop. In theory, he always should be able to beat aces or kings. Continue only if you have a specific read that he is weak, there is something you can represent, or you have a strong hand yourself. Finally, it should be obvious, but don't attempt this against loose opposition.
So, to sum up:
1. Always raise if you are the first into a pot.
2. The better your position, the more hands you can play profitably.
3. Try not to call raises, especially with offsuit Broadway cards that can be easily dominated.
