Poker Preflop Strategy to Help You Master the Game

Preflop may be the first street in poker but it is, in fact, half the game. The decisions you make before the first three community cards hit the table will determine how your postflop game will go. That’s why, developing a solid poker preflop strategy will not only define the rest of the hand for you but also ensure you end up with a better bottom line.

On the other hand, if you play preflop without a sound strategy, you run the risk of missing out on what could have been a rewarding hand and find yourself in a much tougher situation postflop. 

What is a Poker Preflop Strategy?

A strong poker preflop strategy rests on making sound decisions that will define how the hand goes for you and put you in a position where you can make the most profit out of the cards at hand. 

While the cards you have been dealt are important, they are not the only factor you should be building your decisions upon. Each hand consists of a number of variables, some of the most significant ones being your position at the table, starting hand requirements, and even knowing your opponents.

Frequently, your position plays a larger role in the hand than the card you have, yet it is a common mistake to ignore it. Positions are counted in relation to the proximity to the dealer and, moving in the clockwise direction, are: blind, early, middle, and late.

A key to a successful and profitable poker game, especially if you are still new at the table, is to know which hands to play and which to fold. The earlier you have to act the stronger your hand must be because with more players after you the chance that their hand is stronger than yours is higher.

The general rule of thumb here is to tighten up your starting hand selection in earlier positions. In later positions you can afford playing with a wider range. 

Preflop Hand Charts for Different Situations

It may sound overwhelming in the beginning, but just like any other skill, poker requires practice. With time, you will be doing this more confidently. Until then, preflop hand charts can help you estimate your preflop hand and play according to your position in the hand and the actions of the opponents who come before you. Keep them with you throughout the game for easier decision making. 

A range is any and every possible hand your opponent can be holding at the moment. Understanding ranges increases your chances to win, that’s why it pays off to spend some time practicing this skill. Other players’ actions before the flop can tell you a lot about the range they might have and adjust accordingly. 

The main difference between a tournament and a cash game is that in a cash game you can play more loosely (i.e. with more hands than you would in a tournament). On the other hand, tournament games tend to be more aggressive when it comes to raising.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Your Poker Preflop Strategy

Below you will find some of the most common mistakes poker players make before the flop. The good news is that they can be easily avoided or corrected if you keep in mind several things. 

Mistake #1. Ignoring Your Position

We mentioned above how your position at the table influences a lot of things in the game and why you should always be mindful of it. Position directly correlates to the range you play. 

Remember that the earlier you have to act, the tighter your range should be because there is a higher chance that players behind you have a stronger hand. You can widen your position when you move closer to the button.

Mistake #2. Limping

While there are some cases when limping can be justified, most of the time it is a strategy you shouldn’t use. Opening the pot with a limp (i.e. calling instead of raising) can be perceived by others as a weak hand leading to them exploiting you. 

In this case, you should either raise or fold in. The only time limping can be employed is if you have a strong hand and others have limped before you. Otherwise, simply avoid limping by calling the big blind.

Mistake #3. Being afraid to raise

Many players don’t like raising unless they have unmistakably good cards. The thing is that raising preflop is a viable strategy to scare off opponents into thinking you have a strong hand and forcing them to leave the game. 

While it should be applied reasonably, bluffing still is an indispensable part of a poker game. If you keep raising only when you have a strong hand, more experienced players may notice a pattern and adjust their strategy accordingly to fold every time you raise. In this case, while the pot is yours, it will be rather small. On the same note, always examine how your opponents raise and fold and try to find a pattern you can use to your advantage.

Most Important Preflop Strategies

Let’s take a look at some of the most important and frequently employed poker preflop strategies.

Starting Hand Selection

All hands dealt in poker can be divided into strong (optimal), mid (marginal), or weak. The hand you have, combined with your position at the table, largely influences whether you raise, call, or fold. 

Optimal cards are the best possible combinations you can get, so you can raise more confidently. The highest one here is a pair of aces (AA), other optimal combinations include two kings (KK), two queens (QQ), ace+king (AK) suited (i.e. of the same suit), and two jacks (JJ).

Marginal cards have lower value but can still win if played right. These include one or two card gap (KJ, AJ), offsuit cards, or having a lower number. Here your position will be even more important to decide your action. Generally, bet more carefully until the community cards drop.

Weak cards are either unsuited or low numbers. The chance of a winning hand in this case is very implausible, so the most reasonable move is to fold.   

Table Position

The further you are from the dealer in a hand, the stronger are the chances for your hand to win. To understand table positions and their influence, let’s examine them, moving clockwise from the dealer.

• Blinds: positioned on the dealer’s left hand. There are usually two (called “small blind” and “big blind”), however, depending on the number of players and the game style, there can be none to three. Blinds are the ones who make forced bets.
• Early: positioned next to the big blind and referred to as UTG (under the gun). In a game of ten players, there are three early positions. If there are only nine or eight players, there will only be two or one early positions respectively. With seven or fewer players at the table, there are no early positions. If you are in the early positions, your strategy should include the following: play on a tight range if you don’t have an optimal hand and never limp. If your hand doesn’t allow you to raise, it is better to fold than call. 
• Middle: positioned next to the last early position. In a ten player game there will be three middle positions that will decrease in number with each vacant place at the table. While you can be a little more generous with your bets here, you still have to be aware of the players that come after you and their possible stronger hands. So make sure you’re holding a strong hand yourself before you take any action.
• Late: positioned after the middle position, the late positions include the dealer. Normally, there are two late positions, called the CO (cutoff) who is seated to the dealer’s right hand and BU (button), i.e. the dealer. You can loosen your requirements for the starting hand in the late position as there are no more players who can have a stronger hand.

Importance of the Aggressive Preflop

With the information above in hand, you should be able to make a good call on your next action. However, many players are afraid to raise or make a bet even when they have optimal cards. With a strong hand, you should strive to get as much value out of it as possible. The only way to achieve it is to raise aggressively instead of calling. 

Most good players with experience will tell you that aggressive style in poker is a strategy that pays off. Naturally, you shouldn’t be raising with a weak hand. However, if you do have a strong hand, playing it weakly is just wasting it and not making the profit you could have made.

Different Poker Type Strategies

Crushing Poker Microstakes Preflop Strategy

First things first: when playing microstakes, focus on quality, not quantity. Don’t feel obliged to play multiple tables at the same time until you’ve mastered the strategy. 

The tight-aggressive strategy (TAG) is deemed to be the most optimal for players who are mastering the game. It implies that you only open raise a limited range of hands in preflop, followed by an aggressive game postflop. If you’re looking to improve your skills in crushing poker microstakes, the preflop strategy of TAG is your best friend. 

The loose-aggressive strategy (LAG) implies that the player open raises with a wider range of hands. This strategy is considered to be more profitable, but it also requires a more extensive experience as you run the risk of making more mistakes. 

During the game, it is very important to observe your opponents and determine their style to know how to act against them and maximize your win.

Middle Hands Poker

In the table above we showed how to adjust your marginal hands in every position at the table. However, in short-handed formats, such as Spin and Go, the strategy is quite different. So if you’re building a middle hands poker spin and go strategy preflop, here are some tips.

With fewer players at the table, you have to post blinds more frequently. This means you can’t afford waiting for strong hands and have to play marginal hands more often. This, in turn, leads to more bluffs and semi-bluffs. Some marginal hands increase in value in a short-handed format, and you have to evaluate your actions correspondingly. 

Advanced Preflop Strategies

3bet or 4bet Preflop

After the first player makes a bet, the next player has a choice to either call or raise. If they choose raising, and then the player after them re-raises, this is called 3bet. If the next player in line re-raises again, this will be a 4bet. 

Being one of the most important tools in poker, 3bet can be used to either defend your strong hand or to increase the pot size. Many players use it as a bluff to lead other players into thinking they have a strong hand and push them out of the pot. 

Employing a 3bet depends on several factors, including the cards in your hand, your position at the table, and how you read your opponents. If a player who is in the position to make a 3bet doesn’t do it, this can be considered as a sign that they have weak cards or they aren’t very experienced at poker and are uncomfortable raising the pot. In both cases, this could be used by more experienced or aggressive players to their advantage.

A 4bet is an ideal action if you have a premium hand to increase the pot, however this isn’t the only time when you can employ it. A lot of the times 4bet is used as a bluff technique. It is a good tool in case of a loose aggressive play, especially during tournaments when you play against more experienced players. But keep in mind that this is a more advanced technique than a 3bet, so take your time to get comfortable with it. 

Balanced Ranges and Game Theory Optimal (GTO) Play

If you always play certain hands a certain way in certain situations, your game is unbalanced. On the opposite, if you play the same strength hand in different ways or you play different strength hands the same way, your game is balanced.

Balancing your range is one of the key components of the GTO strategy that is designed to make you unexploitable to other players. Generally, playing at the lower stakes with inexperienced players, you don’t need to worry about the balanced ranges too much. But once you progress to better players and higher stakes, balancing your range will prevent you from developing patterns that can be easily read by your opponents. 

The concept of balanced ranging isn’t difficult but it does require practicing and multilevel thinking. Two primary ways to balance your game are:

1. Play different strength hands in the same way
2. Play the same strength hand in a different way

The more advanced part of balancing is knowing when to do it because doing it once out of the blue isn’t going to cut it. This skill comes with practice. But even when you’ve mastered it, remember that not every game requires balancing. If you’re playing against bad opponents who don’t balance their own game, you can afford doing the same without any risk.

Open-Raising and Sizing Adjustments

The first raise in the preflop is referred to as the open raise. In other words, if you make an open raise, you increase the big blind. The idea of a raise in poker is to force players with marginal or weak hands to fold before the flop, leaving as few people in the pot as possible. 

That’s why, if you decide to do an open raise, go 3 to 4 times bigger than the big blind. However, if a raise has occurred before you, consider your cards before you raise, call, or fold. You can also increase your raise if other players limped.   

Preflop in Online and Live Poker

Playing poker online and live may seem alike – and in a lot of aspects it is – however, there are significant differences that you should be able to adapt to if you want to play successfully.

In the preflop stage, live poker tends to be much looser and less aggressive. It also usually is much slower because the thinking time isn’t as limited as in an online game. Another thing to pay attention to is the bet sizing. While in online poker you have pre-set buttons for betting, in live poker bet sizes can get out of hand, especially if you’re playing against weak or inexperienced players. 

Body language, game talk, and other tells get a whole different level of importance in a live game. If you know how to observe people and analyze their behaviour, these signs can be very helpful to determine their hands and understand your situation in the game. Use this information to your advantage.

Final Thoughts

The main take-aways from this article for someone who wishes to build a solid poker preflop strategy and become a top poker player:

1. Always be aware of your position in the hand.
2. Don’t be afraid to be aggressive, especially if you have a strong hand.
3. Never limp in an early position, it is better to fold.
4. Play tight in early positions, loosen the range in late positions.
5. Increase your raise size if players before you limped. 
6. Keep practicing to improve your skills.