Before the Flop - The Basics
Introduction
In this article
- How and when to enter a hand
- How to evaluate your hand pre-flop
- What awaits you after the flop
At the start of each No-Limit round, you receive two playing cards, your so called hole cards. Each round it will be up to you to decide, based on these two cards, your opponents, as well as your position and image at the table if and how you want to enter the hand. This article covers the different factors that can influence this decision and how you can evaluate your hand pre-flop.
The difference between Full-Ring and Short-Handed
When looking at the two variants of full-ring and short-handed, there a quite a few differences. Most of these differences manifest themselves in the pre-flop play where the relative strength of the various starting hands differs greatly.
In the FR game, you play against eight or nine opposing hands, while in the SH game you only play against five. Accordingly, a good hand in an SH game is worth considerably more, as you are, on average, more often ahead and have better equity.
Furthermore, you find tighter and more passive players at the FR game. The SH game is considerably more dynamic, and many players adjust to this. This means you have to assume that much weaker hands, or speculative ones, will be raised more often than in a FR game.
Especially when it comes to spots such as 3-bets and pre-flop all-ins, a rather big difference can be noticed: while a 3-bet in full-ring from a seemingly regular player usually implies a good hand, it doesn't mean much in the SH game.
How to enter a hand
If you have the possibility to be the first to enter the hand, you should raise; of course, you know the limp/call from FR games, where players do this with small pocket pairs in the hope of hitting a set on the flop. However, especially against thinking players, this is not going to be profitable in the long run, as you will either become readable (with what other hands do you limp/call?), and you will have to play out of position, which makes it a lot more difficult for you to extract additional value.
The alternative option is entering every hand you want to play with an open-raise. The fundamental advantages of open-raises are obvious: you have the initiative and can win the pot pre-flop (or on the flop, with a continuation bet), no matter whether you hit the board or miss it. Furthermore, you remain unreadable and might get more action later on when you enter the round with premium hands.
In the SH game, this is mandatory, because an open-limp is completely impossible here. In contrast to the FR game, you rarely have enough implied odds to play limp/call with a pocket pair. This is simply due to the fact that a lot of players will also raise/3-bet weaker hands, with which they won't be willing to go broke post-flop. A raise in a SH game doesn't automatically imply a strong hand. So, if several speculative hands enter the flop, it is always better to be the pre-flop aggressor yourself and to have the initiative.
Where do you stand pre-flop?
This is the question you have to ask yourself initially: how can your relative hand strength be classified pre-flop? To figure this out, you have to consider a few basic aspects.
What hand are you holding? Do you have a premium hand like aces, with
which you want to get the maximum value immediately? Are you holding a
marginal hand which has some post-flop potential? Do you have a
speculative hand which could develop post-flop, but doesn't
have any showdown value in case it would remain unimproved?
Your position at the table is very important. Besides your position in the current round, the expected relative position after the flop is also important. If, for instance, you raise from early position, you have to consider that many more players can still act behind you, and you'll have to play out of position post-flop most of the time. However, if you 3-bet a UTG raiser from middle position, then you often end up playing in position post-flop.
What has happened before you? Were there any limpers? Were there any raisers? Do you need to evaluate your hand differently as it could have already lost some value after this action? Or is this a good time to remain in the pot with a speculative hand, as you can give yourself sufficient implied odds?
What kind of opponents are you playing against? What can you expect from them when you raise? Will they often fold or call because of this? While you can see the action before you, you can only make educated guesses about what will happen behind you.
Do you want to play your hand in a multi-way pot or heads-up? How many callers do you expect to have? Do you have any fold equity? It is important to think about whether you are raising as a "steal” (which means you are expecting to usually have sufficient fold equity), or if you expect to be ahead and are raising for value. Here, you also have to take the possible post-flop play into consideration, as you live from the implied odds in No-Limit Hold'em. This means you have to take into consideration that even your seemingly weaker pre-flop hands can turn into strong hands post-flop, with which you can get paid off if you hit. On the other hand, you have to realise that you could lose your entire stack in any given round.
Deception basically means being unreadable. You should proceed with your different hand categories the same way: don't only raise premium hands, but raise marginal or speculative hands as well. In certain situations, you will also need to utilize bluffs.
With a raise, you are showing the other players at the table that you have a playable hand with which you want to extract value. Of course, this is not always true.
With strong hands like AA-QQ and AK, you are certainly raising for value because with this range you are often ahead and you want your opponents to invest money pre-flop with weaker hands. However, you also raise with other hands, like small pocket pairs or suited connectors, even though you cannot expect to actually be ahead with these hands. Especially in terms of equity point you are often behind. The benefit of these hands, compared to other hands that you do not raise with, is their excellent post-flop playability.
Your initial goal with these hands is to generate fold equity and to take the pot unimproved (we could also talk about a bluff here). However, when 'stealing' the pot in such a fashion, you only pick hands which could hit the flop strongly enough. That's means either a good draw with suited connectors, or even a set with a small pocket pair. If you hit a flop with such hands, you can often extract value post-flop very well, as people don't put you on such speculative hands.
Your goals before the flop are:
- You want to extract value from weaker hands.
- You want to create fold equity. Along with the pre-flop fold equity, you should also add a certain amount of post-flop fold equity, in case you make a continuation bet on the flop.
- You want a good hit post-flop with speculative hands, and then to stack your opponent if possible.
- You want to remain unreadable while doing this. Your opponents shouldn't be able to recognize what hand you are currently holding and what your intentions are.
In an FR game, we're usually talking about AA/KK here. With these hands you should be ready to go all-in pre-flop at any time because you are almost always ahead and have the goal of getting paid off by a worse hand.
In an SH game, you can certainly add AK/QQ. Of course, you always have to observe your opponents and consider against who you are playing and how your opponents' range might look. However, you can't really make a mistake, except in the very rare cases when you go all-in pre-flop for normal stack sizes with AK/QQ.
Besides the premium hands, the strong hands also play a decisive role: they include hands like AQ, KQ, JJ-99. Equity-wise, you're often ahead with these hands, however they can cause trouble post-flop, as they have less than ideal playability.
It is difficult to extract value with such hands post-flop, as they are often dominated. With a hand like AJ, an A-high flop is certainly a nice sight; however, you have to ask yourself what worse hand will pay you off. On the other hand, you also need a good reason to fold this hand on such a flop.
In a FR game, if you hold such hands in a relatively early position, you can simply fold a part of them. Likewise, you should think about how you'll react to a raise before you: with a 3-bet, you'll often isolate yourself against hands that dominate you.
In a SH game, the relative hand strength has to be categorized differently, as you only play against 5 hands rather than 8 or 9. On average, you are ahead much more often, so you also have to raise with these hands. However just as in FR you need to be careful when there have been raises before you.
The speculative hands have the exact opposite qualities of the strong hands: their equity is not really high pre-flop, however they have excellent playability. Included in this category are hands such as small pocket pairs and suited connectors.
On the flop, you rarely get into difficult situations as you can define your hand considerably better: if you hit well, you can extract value; if you missed the flop, you can possibly make a continuation bet. If there is further action after you, you should usually give up these hands.
In certain situations it is also possible to extend your range very loosely. If for instance you sit on the button, everybody folds in front of you and you also know that both blinds are very tight and almost never defend their blinds, then you could theoretically steal with any two. Here you are not as much interested in the equity of your hand, but moreso in the fold equity you have against your opponents.
Ideally you of course also have a hand which can expect to hit something on the flop, so that it is of course easier to steal with a hand like K7s than with e.g. J4o.
If you have the opportunity to act first-in, which means that all the other players before you have already folded, then you can usually find a relatively easy solution: you look at your position and your hand and decide if you should raise with it or not.
However, if players have already entered the hand before you, it is important to pay attention to what type of opponents they are and how they entered the hand: if there has been a limper before you, your fold equity decreases, of course. It is improbable that all the players will fold after your raise. If there is a raise in front of you, you have to try and give the opponent a range. Are you ahead of this range? Will he call a 3-bet with hands weaker than your own?
The options after a raise are clear:
- You fold because you no longer consider your hand to be good enough, and cannot really expect much post-flop.
- You call, as you either see yourself being behind and you hope to hit an optimal flop (in this case you have to give yourself good implied odds), or because you don't want to become isolated against a better hand.
- You 3-bet, as you clearly see yourself ahead and expect your opponent to pay you off with a worse hand.
Furthermore, you have to pay attention to the players that might still act behind you.
What happens before you in the hand can be easily followed. However, what opponents (-types) still have something to say after you?
Here, it is important for you to protect yourself with strong hands pre-flop, so you will not give speculative hands the opportunity to suck out on you. On the other hand, you have no problems playing drawing hands in multi-way pots.
So there are three main scenarios that can develop behind you:
- All player behind you fold.
- There are limper/cold callers that will join the pot after you.
- Aggressive players (from whom you expect a raise/3-bet) are still sitting behind you.
If you are taking the points of protection and implied odds (with speculative hands) into consideration, you see that it is important to include the expected action behind you. If the players behind you are passive and likely to join into the hand, you might have sufficient implied odds to call yourself. If on the other hand you have aggresive opponents behind you that are likely to raise, it is probably best to fold.
The question you have to ask yourself is: what kind of flop do you want to hit, and what goal do you want to achieve against your opponents?
Your main objective is of course to hold the strongest hand on the flop, and to bet in order to receive value from weaker hands. You know however that this will not always be the case, and that more often than not you will hold a rather marginal hand or one without any showdown value at all. You can roughly divide your post-flop situation into three categories.
You have a very strong hand on the flop and you see yourself ahead in most of the cases. You bet in order to receive value from weaker hands. Pre-flop, you can expect this with strong hands like AA-QQ, as you will often have an overpair on the flop with which will get you paid off.
This is just as possible with speculative hands. For instance, you hit a set with your small pocket pair. With this, you also want to extract as much value as possible, and you (ideally) get your opponent to go all-in.
It is quite often that you hold marginal hands - this might be a top pair without a good kicker, or a middle pair. You don't know where you stand exactly and you should really pay attention to your opponent and consider if he will pay you off with a worse hand.
You have to make these decisions pre-flop: if you know that your opponent plays rather tight, you don't have to 3-bet him with AJ. He will not call with a worse (dominated) hand, and will rarely pay you off on an A-high flop. On the other hand, you'll get into a bad situation, as you can't get out of this hand easily against AK or AQ.
It is also possible that you completely missed the board. Especially with a small pocket pair (you only hit every 7.5th time), this is very often the case, so you have to bluff, which means you have to give yourself a rather high fold equity with your continuation bet. However, if the opponent is very loose and calls very often on the flop, you should not use this option automatically, but rather check/fold.
As already mentioned, deception plays an important role in No Limit Hold'em. It is very important to disguise your hand strength so that your opponents do not know what cards you have. You should therefore open-raise all your playable hands and, ideally, always use the same bet sizes as well.
Besides the advantage of forcing your opponents to make mistakes due to you being hard to read, you will frequently have the initiative; this means that you can often take the pot on the flop because of your pre-flop aggression.
It is very difficult for your opponents to guess if you are betting to extract value with a strong hand, if you are making a semi-bluff as you have hit a good draw, or if you are completely bluffing. This wouldn't be possible if you only played strong hands, or only played limp/call with weaker or speculative hands pre-flop.
Conclusion
It should be your goal to protect yourself with strong hands pre-flop and to play aggressively with weaker or speculative hands.
Often enough you can win the pot unimproved, or hit a good board on which you will be paid off. In a full-ring game, you can frequently drop down a gear in this respect, as you have to lower your relative hand strength due to the higher amount of players, and you also have a lesser amount of fold equity. The following articles will show you what should be done there.
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