Preflop Tips
When you are starting a hand of Texas hold’em hand selection is one of the main things that you need to worry about. Having a nice tight hand selection that you are playing from will rid you of all those painful times that you have a mediocre hand stab you in the back. By doing this and having some good reliable preflop strategy will take you a long way. Any flop tips or turn tips that you have learned won’t come in handy too often if you are playing wrong preflop.
We have come up with a list of the top five preflop tips for any player. Knowing these poker tips will be a great addition in your arsenal on the poker table.
Top Five Preflop Tips
- Play Tight- I know that it was stated above but it is still the number one tip that any player needs to take into consideration. You don’t know what your opponent holds, and there are the chances that you could misplay your hand as well, so sticking to a strong tight starting hand selection will eliminate these problems for you. You need to remember that the earlier you are in position the tighter your hand selection needs to be.
- Loosen Up in Position- Since you are playing so few of hands in early position you need to make up for that by raising with a wider hand selection when you are in late position. When you are the dealer or one before the dealer you are in late position. You need to be raising more frequently here because you have less opponents to oppose you for the pot which means your chances of taking it down as a steal are increased. This adds to your win rate significantly especially when you are aiming for 5 big bets per 100 hands.
- Steal Those Blinds- Now this doesn’t mean that you have to become a bully, but you most definitely need to focus on taking down the blinds as often as you are allowed when you are in late position. Your objective is to win at a rate of 10 big blinds per 100 hands, or 5 big bets per 100 hands, same thing. When you steal the blinds you are taking down at least one and a half big blinds. If you are isolating a limper you can normally take down an extra big blind. The key to this is to find the perfect amount of times that you can do it without your opponents trying to oppose you. If the table is tight then you steal more. If they are loose you steal less.
- Find Your Opponent’s Range- You need to know what type of hands you could be up against when you are raising preflop. You need to keep track of the hands your opponents like to call with so that you know the types of hands to raise with. If they are loosening up to call your steal attempts with hands like KT or QJ then you need to steal with hands like suited connectors. These hands can make very strong hands like flushes and straights which can beat the hands your tighter opponents are likely to make and continue with. If your opponents are calling with those hands then you need to raise with hands like KT and QJ yourself because you are the aggressor and your opponent will only hit their draw one third of the time.
- Know When to Let Go- One of the most important things for any player to realize preflop is when to let go when they are reraised. If you are holding a hand like AK or AQ and someone reraises you your hand is probably no good. You have to think about the range of hands that reraise. AA, KK, QQ are normally the hands doing this so you are only even a coin flip against one third of them. You are better off laying your mediocre hand down and waiting for the next one. You have to know when to fold’em.
If you like these tips then check out our flop tips, turn tips, and river tips as well. You can practice these preflop tips and more when you sign up for an account at Cake Poker! Right now when you sign up for an account at Cake Poker using our TOPFIVEPOKER Cake Poker DEPOSIT BONUS CODE you will receive a 110% on up to $600 Cake Poker deposit bonus! Sign up for Cake Poker today!
