Have no fear faithful reader, your old buddy Fox would never bore you with charts, graphs and numbers… Well actually I would, and I have done it before, but this time I won’t. The last thing I want to spend an afternoon doing is writing up another preflop hands chart and then argue the value of ATs in middle position on the forums for a week. I’ll leave that to the poker nerds who argue all day about tiny EV plays and still haven’t figured out how to make any money. Instead I think I’ll tell you a little bit about how I think about hand selection and why. <READMORE>

If you’ve been reading the blog for a while you know by now that my focus is on money. Most starting hand charts seem to focus on hand strength, and for fixed limit games that is a reasonable (though occasionally flawed) approach. No so in no-limit cash games. In no-limit cash games you want to avoid domination at all costs and protect your big hands preflop. You also want to have the advantage of surprise to help you win those huge pots. To accomplish these goals you want the very best of two kinds of hands.

Power Hands - These hands are obvious, but when I say only the best of each type I mean that hands like AT are junk. It’s acceptable to steal with it, but the simple fact is that you aren’t far ahead of anything, and if your opponent calls you it is often with a better ace. The vast majority of flops that hit your hand won’t hit it hard enough that you’ll want to play a big pot with it. “ATo isn’t a monster? C’mon Fox we knew that…” No. I mean ATo is JUNK. After the flop you may lose more money with it than you make in a tough game, even from late position, and the blinds are so small in online games compared to the buy-in that stealing them isn’t a high priority.

True power hands are AA, KK and AK. I won’t spend all day talking about how to play them, but it’s fairly obvious that you can play those three in any position. Protect them and don’t feel bad if everyone folds to your preflop raise, they’ll come along again soon.

Secondary power hands are TT, JJ, QQ, and AQ. The secondary power hands must be played more carefully, because if one of your opponents seems interested in getting a lot of chips in the pot it is very likely that you are behind or at best in a race. Knowing your opponents will be helpful here, but it’s amazing how many players know that I am a tight player and will call my all-in reraise with a hand like JJ. Get it through your head now and remember it forever - The secondary power hands aren’t worth that much, and folding them is not a tough thing to do. Even if your opponent is weak, they still may be way ahead of you, and if they aren’t they almost certainly have a good chance to catch up.

Speculative Hands - These are hands that can make a monster very easily. Hands like 66 or 78s are good examples. I am more partial to the suited connectors, but some people love “set mining” and I definitely play my smaller pairs to a small raise in late position, especially if the raise came from a predictable player who gets stuck on his big preflop hands and can’t get away from them. Examples of hands that are NOT reasonable speculative hands include 69s, 57o and K9s. Those hands are utter garbage, and no matter how brilliant you think you are they won’t be profitable for you.

Quality speculative hands have two uses. You can call a raise with them (hopefully in late position) and try to bust the poor guy who started with a big hand, or you can steal with them. the lower cards and the advantage of position makes these hands very profitable once you learn how to play them well, but remember to only play the very best of them unless the situation is really fantastic. If the pot is likely to be two or three handed the low suited connectors and small pairs play very well. In a pot with more opponents you will want a higher pair (set over set is expensive) like 77 or 88, or a suited ace. Suited connectors still play well in a multi-way pot, but you are really hoping for a straight rather than a flush with them (flush over flush is also expensive).

“Flush over flush and set over set don’t happen all that often.” you say? That’s true, but we’re trying to keep the focus on money, and your opponents are not blind or dumb*. They can see the three suited cards on board, and if the board is uncoordinated your average fish still knows to suspect a set. You want a hand that will win a big pot, not win a medium-sized pot or lose a giant one. Hands like 88 also get counterfeited by two pair on board above them than 22 does, and they make the better end of four straights on board as well. Even the four flush value is better if your opponent happens to make a flush with 33 and you make yours with 77. It’s not a huge difference, I know, but these are nut hugely profitable hands in the first place, so don’t push it.

There you go folks, no charts to memorize, no starting hand groups, just some basic understanding of what you should be thinking about when you look at those two cards. That wasn’t too painful was it?

I’ll see you at the final table,
Fox

This article sponsored by PokerFox.net where we turn players into winners and winners into pros.

* If your opponents are idiots please contact me, I may wish to join your game.
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