HomeThis week we are continuing the series of articles on how position should affect your hand selection. Last week we looked at the pre-flop decisions you faced when playing in the blinds. This week, we discuss how to play before the flop from early position.
Hand Selection from Early Position
Before the flop, the first player to act before the blinds is in the earliest position, and has no information at all to make a judgement on what his opponents might be holding. When you are in early position pre-flop, all the other players – including the blinds – will be acting after you and this has an impact on what sort of hands you should be considering playing. As we’ve discussed earlier, being out of position is not the best place to be, so you need to be fairly cautious.
Limping in from early position – i.e. calling the big blind – is rarely a good idea unless you are trying more advanced strategies like trying to trap aggressive opponents. If you are relatively new to the game then you don’t want to be thinking about getting tricky like that, and should just keep it simple. To some extent, what you should do from early position depends on how many players you are facing and what sort of players they are but essentially your decision from early position pre-flop should mostly be to either fold or raise.
Taking into account the fact that there are still plenty of players to act behind you, you really should only be raising with a strong hand. Any pair from T-T upwards is definitely a raise, while 8-8 and 9-9 can also be considered. Anything pairs lower than that and, for the most part, you should just be throwing them away. A good suited ace, such as A-J suited or better is worth a raise, and you can also think about raising with K-Q suited. The only other hands you should really be raising with is A-K or A-Q unsuited.
Next week we cover hand selection from middle position, so please check back soon.
