Preflop: Starting Hands - Expert Theory
Introduction
In this article
- The equity principle
- The open raising chart
The key factor in determining how to play your hand profitably is the so-called pot equity. The pot equity of your hand is a percentage representing your chance of winning the pot relative to your opponent's hands - provided that all players remain in the hand until the showdown. For example, if you have AQo against two random hands, you have a pot equity of 46%.
Equity
Assume you raise preflop and the players in the SB and the BB call with their random hands ('random' means they could have any hand). So, 6 small bets go into the pot. Of these 6 small bets, 46%, or 2.76 small bets, "belong" to you. As you only invested 2 small bets yourself, you have technically made a "profit" of 0.76 small bets.
These are only theoretical numbers, of course. The hand doesn't end after the preflop round and a lot can still happen. If you continue to play your AQo unwisely and your opponents play their random hands perfectly, your profit of 0.76 small bets will diminish in the course of the hand.
However, big data bases and simulations are able to show that a preflop equity edge will also lead to an expected value advantage if you play appropriately. A raise will increase this expected value advantage even further.
That's why you should use and maximise every equity edge as early as possible by raising preflop, no matter how small it might be. You have an equity edge when the equity of your own hand is higher than the average equity, which is calculated based on the number of players already in the hand - including you.
However, the blinds are not included in this calculation. If there are n players, the average equity is (1/n)*100%. If, for example, exactly one player entered the hand before you, the average equity is 50%. If two players entered, it is 33%. If three players entered, it is 25%...
Downloads
The Open Raising Chart as PDF file
How do you apply the equity principle?
How do you specifically apply the equity principle to your preflop play? You have to consider 2 factors here.
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A: What, on average, happens behind me? How many players are still to act behind me? How likely is it that someone behind me has a strong hand?
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B: What happened before me? What did the opponents who entered the pot before me do? What type of players are they, i.e. which hands do they usually play? Do I have an equity edge against the hands before me?
Factor A is relatively stable. As the opponents behind you haven't acted yet, you simply can't know which hands they might have. However, based on the number of opponents that are still to act after you, you can estimate the risk of running into stronger hands behind you.
Factor B varies from case to case. The actions of your opponents and their playing style provide you with valuable information that you have to take into account when making further decisions.
Factor A is almost entirely covered by a specific chart, as will be shown in the next section. If opponents have entered the pot already, you can still use the chart as a starting ground and modify it with regard to what happened before you.
The Open Raising Chart ORC
Based on these ideas, the so called Open Raising Chart forms the basis of preflop strategy. This chart lists the minumum hands you have to raise if no one has entered the pot before you. It is arranged by pairs, suited and offsuit hands. Obviously, you also need to raise all hands that are better. If the chart lists AT, for example, you also raise with AJ, AQ and AK.
If you play by this chart, you will raise all those hands that, on average, guarantee a profit against the opponents behind you, even if they are reasonable players that fold their weak hands and 3-bet their strong hands.
This chart is universal for all table sizes, with the exception of heads-up. If there are fewer than 10 players at the table, treat the situation as if the first players had already folded their hands. This means that if you are at a 6 max table, the section starting at MP2 is the one relevant to you.
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The Open Raising Chart
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When should you deviate from the ORC?
The Open Raising Chart specifically tells you what to do only if no opponents have entered the pot before you. If other players have already entered the pot, the so called equity principle takes effect. In this case, you have to consider two things:
- A: Does your hand, on average, have an equity edge against the players behind you?
- B: Does your hand, on average, have an equity edge against the players before you?
The answer to the first question is quite simple. Your hand always has an equity edge against the opponents behind you if it is listed in the Open Raising Chart.
The answer to question B is more complex. It very much depends on which player types carried out which actions before you. Depending on the player type and their actions (call, raise, 3-bet, etc.), you can make estimations about their possible hands and specify their hand range, i.e. the spectrum of hands they might be holding.
Once you have made your estimation, you can use the Equilator to check if your hand does or does not have an equity edge against the hand ranges of the opponents before you.
Remember, this is not about estimating your equity against a random hand. It is about estimating your equity against the specific hand ranges of your opponents, which you manually entered in the Equilator.
If you think you have an equity edge against the players both before and behind you, you need to raise or reraise, respectively. If you only see an equity edge in one of the two situations, you will have to fold in most cases. In exceptions, calling can make sense as well. We will take a closer look at these exceptions later.
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According to this theory, your preflop play is strictly based on the principle "raise or fold". However, there are cases, in which calls are appropriate. Also, there are cases in which you would raise or 3-bet hands that would actually be too weak for the respective action if you strictly followed the theory.
An open limp is a call that you make when you are the first player to enter the hand. Open limping is usually only an option in early position. You open limp with hands that are not listed in the open raising chart and have good implied odds. What you hope is that as many opponents as possible with weaker hands will also just call so that you get to see a cheap flop.
In the small limits up to 0.5/1, this will prove successful very frequently. You are the first one to call with a hand such as 22, three people behind you call and no one raises. At higher, tighter and more aggressive tables, this will usually not be successful. If you call with 22 here, it is likely that all but one opponent fold, and that the remaining player puts you in an extremely unprofitable situation by isolating you with a raise.
That's why you will see relatively frequent open limps from early position in a limit such as 0.5/1, where your opponents tend to play far too many hands. At tighter tables you will hardly ever witness open limping.
The following ranges are recommendations for open limping in UTG and UTG+1:
- At loose tables, in the limits 0.5/1 up to 2/4: 88-22, KJs-KTs, QJs-QTs, JTs, A9s-A2s
- At somewhat looser tables, in the limits 3/6 and 5/10: 88-77, KJs, QJs, A9s-A8s
Depending on how loose or tight your table is, you can add more hands to the list and remove others. Whenever you are in doubt, you should choose the tighter alternative.
As mentioned, open limping is only an option in early position, i.e. in the first three seats at a full table of ten players. From MP1 onwards, and therefore also at tables with only 7 or fewer players, open limping is almost always a mistake.
If exactly one opponent called or raised before you, it would hardly ever be correct to only call. Either you raise or you fold. Any decision here should be based on the equity principle.
At extremely loose and passive tables, you also have the option of loose limping. You can consider this with hands that have a good equity edge against the opponent before you, but are not listed in the ORC. If you are sure that there are several loose passive fish behind you who will enter the pot with hands that are, on average, weaker, you can also limp with only one limper before you. This is because you can assume that at the end of the preflop round you will have an equity against the entirety of the players that have entered the hand. The theoretical basis of these so called loose limps is very similar to that of open limps.
If two or more opponents before you only called, you still raise all the hands that have an edge according to the equity principle. Additionally, you can only call with certain hands that have good implied odds. These mainly include medium and small pairs, which have excellent implied odds in multi-way pots.
Also included might be the stronger suited connectors, such as T9s and 98s. The weaker your hand is, the more opponents are usually needed for a call. As you have internalised the charts from the beginner's and bronze sections by now, you have already developed a feel for such calls. Keep in mind, however, that you have to raise every hand that has an equity edge. If you have two extremely loose opponents before you that only call, you should raise with hands such as A7s or A9s, for example.
In extremely rare cases, it can also be best to only call when confronted with a raise and several callers before you. This is called cold calling and can sometimes be considered with pairs, for example. If you have 66 in late position and there are three callers and one raiser before you, you can call two bets. Your hand is definitely too weak for a reraise, but a call is profitable due to the high number of opponents and the favourable implied odds.
A weak hand, in this context, is a hand that is not listed in the Open Raising Chart for your specific position. This means KQo is a weak hand UTG. At a table with world class players, you would indeed lose money by raising UTG with KQo. At such a table, you should fold your hand.
At a regular low or middle limit table, you will always find people, however, that will play much too loose against raises. If you raise with KQo, for example, they would cold call your raise with hands like KJo or QJs etc. It is this effect that makes a hand such as KQo in UTG profitable at a typical table.
All in all, there are only two hands affected by this: AJo and KQo. At any typical table, these hands can be raised profitably in UTG.
Typical short-handed situation: Exactly one opponent before you raises and no one calls. You consider 3-betting and folding. You hardly have any reads or stats on your opponent so far. From the preflop theory you know that you need an equity of 46% against a typical opponent. If you are in the small blind, you only need an equity of 43%. But what makes a typical opponent?
If you don't know anything about your opponent, you are on the safe side if you assume that he plays by the ORC and therefore has an ideal preflop game. This basic idea leads to the 3-betting chart, which you can see below. It presupposes that your opponent plays by the ORC and lists all the hands which you 3-bet with, depending on the position in which your opponent raised. Your own position doesn't play a role here because you only consider 3-betting with strong hands anyway.
Each column refers to the position of the raiser. You already know this principle from the extended charts in the Bronze section.
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3-bet against open raise (incl. SB-defense)
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As mentioned earlier, you should 3-bet an individual raiser before you when your hand is listed in the ORC and secondly, when your equity against this opponent equals or is higher than 50%.
In practice, you can somewhat lower this 50% requirement. There are two reasons for this: Firstly, you have position on your opponent and secondly, your 3-bet will often get both blinds to fold. You will therefore have dead money in the pot, that is distributed between you and your opponent.
Without going into mathematical detail: Against a loose-aggressive opponent, you need at least 48% equity. Against a typical opponent, 46% equity are sufficient.
How do you play in the blinds?
The equity principle is fundamental and also valid for the blinds. Every hand with an equity edge should be raised or reraised.
However, there are cases in which you can play hands that you couldn't play in a non-blind position. The reason for this is that you have already made a forced bet - the blinds. As a consequence, calls as well as raises will be cheaper for you than they would be in a non-blind position.
In general, this means that you can often play hands in the blinds that have less than the average equity.
The central question here is: How much can you lower your equity expectations before your hand becomes unprofitable?
If you are in the big blind and someone raised before you, you will, of course, raise all those hands that have an equity above the average equity.
With hands that are too weak for a raise, but that have an equity of at least 70% of the average equity, you should only call.
In heads-up, for example, the average equity is 50%. 70% of this equals 35%. If you are in the big blind, the button raises and the SB folds, you will need a hand that has a minimum equity of 35% against your opponents raising range.
With 3 players, the average equity is 33%, 70% of which equals about 23%. This is the equity that you need. With more players in the hand, the calculation varies accordingly.
You will often find yourself in the following situation: You are in the SB and all opponents before you fold - with the exception of one. This opponent raises. Again, the basic principle applies and you need to either 3-bet or fold.
You have, however, already invested some money in the form of the small blind. That's why a 3-bet will become cheaper for you. This means you can usually make a profitable 3-bet with an equity of at least 43% against your opponent's raising range. Against a loose aggressive player however, the equity should be at least 45%.
If the small blind is only 1/3 of a small bet, you need 45% against a typical opponent and 47% against a LAG to make a 3-bet.
If the small blind is 2/3 of a small bet, you only need 41% against a typical opponent and 43% against a loose-aggressive opponent to make a 3-bet.
Completing in the small blind means that you call in the small blind when no one before you has raised. As you already paid the small blind, the call will effectively only cost you a fraction of a small bet. As you are getting a discount on your call, you can play more hands than would be playable according to the equity principle.
As you usually only pay half the price for a call here, you might also say that you will also only need half the equity to play your hand. This would be true if the hand was over before the flop. But particularly when holding a very weak hand you will often find yourself in unfavourable postflop situations with reverse implied odds. This means that if you are behind, you will lose more money than average on the flop, turn and river. The preflop equity disadvantage has increased in the postflop rounds.
That's why you should keep the following recommendation in mind: When in the small blind, you should complete with all hands that you would also only call on the button. Apart from that, you should complete with all hands in the small blind that have an equity of at least 70% of the average equity. If you follow this principle, you will complete far more hands than you are used to. It would therefore be correct, for example, to complete with a hand such as T6s after two tight limpers.
If the small blind is 2/3 of a small bet, you should complete those hands that you also would have called on the button and those hands that have an equity of at least 50% of the average equity.
If the small blind is only 1/3 of a small bet, you will only complete those hands that you also would have called on the button.
Particularly in shorthanded games it often happens that you are in the small blind and all opponents before you fold. Against a typical, aggressive opponent in the big blind, you should stick to the principle of "raise or fold". You raise all the hands that are listed in the ORC for the SB. You should fold all other hands.
To only complete against an aggressive opponent in this "SB vs. BB" situation would be a mistake. You would give your opponent the opportunity to raise you with his strong hands and to see a free flop with his weak hands.
However, open completing is a very good option against a passive opponent. A passive opponent will be very unlikely to react with a raise. Apart from that, you can often even fold against these tight raises behind you, whenever your equity against his raising range is smaller than 35%.
In most cases, however, a passive opponent will not raise your SB complete. If he checks and you get to the flop, you can bet almost every flop without even looking at the board. To make this bet profitable, it is sufficient if your opponent folds in 33% of all cases. And with such a tiny pot, the opponent will fold in 33% of all cases. You should only make an exception when your hand is extremely strong and you think you could extract extra value by playing differently.
That is exactly why the SB complete is a powerful strategy when your hand is weak - if your opponent allows it. Against an opponent who does you can complete every hand in the small blind, even 32o, and bet on the flop.
Analysis examples
The theory we have just introduced is complex and there will be situations in which you will not immediately know what to do. In this case, keep in mind: Whenever in doubt, play how you would according to the charts from the beginner's or bronze sections. Note down your hand and take your time to analyse it after the game in order to find out which action would have been the correct one.
Of course, you won't always be able to calculate your equity against your opponents' hand ranges during a game and play accordingly.
Make it your long term goal to get a feel for preflop equity edges. You'll particularly develop this feel by making frequent use of the Equilator to calculate and analyse the typical equities against specific hand ranges. You will then roughly know with which hands you can or can't isolate a 10 PFR/30 VPIP limper, which hands are worth a 3-bet against a 10PFR player, etc.
Problem: An opponent with a PFR of 10% raises in MP1. You are in MP2. Which hands should you 3-bet with, which should you call and which should you fold with?
Answer: You estimate that an opponent with a PFR of 10% in MP1 will raise about 8% of his hands. According to the Equilator, he has the following range: 88+, ATs+, KTs+, QJs, AJo+.
Now you use the equilator to see which hands have an equity of at least 46% against this range. The result of the is: TT+, AQs+, AQo+.
This is the range for a 3-bet. There are no hands which you would only call.
Problem: An opponent with PFR 10 and VPIP 30 limps in MP2. You are in MP3. With which hands should you isolate him with a raise?
Answer: You specify his hand range by entering a range of 30% in the Equilator and then removing the upper 10%, because he would have raised in those cases.
You get the following limping range for your opponent: 77-55, A8s-A2s, K9s-K5s, Q9s-Q7s, J8s+, T8s+, 98s, ATo-A7o, A5o, KJo-K9o, Q9o+, J9o+, T9o
The first question to ask is: which hands would give you at least 50% equity against this range. According to the Equilator, this would be 55+, A2s+, K9s+, QTs+, A5o+, KTo+, QJo
However, these are not all of the hands that you can raise because there are still players to act behind you. You therefore don't only take into account this range, but also consider the hands that the ORC lists for your position, because these hands also have the required equity against the players behind you.
The remaining hands are: 55+, A9o+, KJo+, QJo+, A6s+, K9s+, QTs+
JTs, J9s and T9s were therefore removed from the ORC open raising range. JTs has an equity of 47%, but can still be raised despite a slight equity deficit. This hand can be played very profitably in position in a raised pot because you can often take a free card at the flop as long as the blinds call.
There aren't any more hands which you can limp with against these opponents. The second criterion (sufficient equity edge against the opponents behind you) is not met and hands such as A8o, which do have an equity of 53% against the limper, aren't suitable for limping due to reverse implied odds. However, you could raise with A8o in this case.
Problem: An opponent with PFR 10 and VPIP 15 limps UTG. Everyone before you folds and you are on the button. Which hands should you play?
Answer: This somewhat extreme example illustrates that, especially in late position, a lot of hands listed in the Open Raise Chart have to be folded in a lot of cases when there are limpers before you.
Again, you have to specify the hand range of your opponent first. The typical range for a 15 VPIP/10 PFR player that limps UTG is a range such as: 99-88, ATs-A9s, KJs, QJs. We didn't use the Equilator to specify this, but derived it from practical examples.
Now you will check the performance of these hands against this range by using the ORC, as usual according to the equity principle. As exactly one opponent entered the pot before you, you will need an equity of 50% or more. Due to your advantage against the blinds, you can lower this number a little but, to around 48%.
Against the specified range, the following hands have the required equity of at least 48%: 99+, ATs+, KJs+, ATo+, KQo
As all these hands are also listed in the ORC for the button, they form your raising range in this situation. Hands such as KJo (46.4%) have to be folded.
Conclusion
Going from blindly relying on the chart to independently playing for equity is an important milestone in the development of any poker player. This article showed you how you can use the equity principle to analyse preflop situations and find correct decisions, even though this is often not possible until after the game.
The ORC, which we have introduced you to in this article, is the basis of preflop play. It comprises all those hands that you can profitably open raise in any case. You should also be able to realise now when and how to deviate from the ORC, and how to react to raisers and limpers. You should also have learned how to use the Equilator and your calculator to determine ranges and the ideal play of your hand in any given situation.
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A key factor in determining the ideal play of your hand is „Pot equity“. The pot equity of a hand is a percentage that expresses your chances of winning relative to your opponents hands - provided that all players remain in the game all the way to the showdown.