Low-Limit Preflop Quiz

1. C R F
2. R C F
3. C R F
4. C F R

WHOOPS.

5. C R F
6. C F R
7. R C F
8. C F R
9. R C F
10.R C F
11.C F R
12.C R F
13.R C F
14.F C R
15.C R F
16.C R F
17.R C F
18.C F R
19.C R F
20.R C F

I think I called way too much probably.

1. I think cold-calling is fine. The limpers will call the raise and I would expect some others behind us to cold call as well. 2) 3-bet 3) fold

2. With the four cold-callers, this is an easy 3-bet for value, even if UTG could have a better hand. 2) call 3) fold

3. Cold-call. Your hand is suited which will make it playable despite the possibility of being dominated. 2) 3-bet 3) fold

4. Limp since you expect the pot to be multiway and usually won’t have to face a raise. 2) fold 3) raise

5. Limp. There’s 6 players left to act and we’d like at least 5 of them to come along, but in this game that’s a reasonable assumption. 2) raise 3) fold

6. Fold. Our hand is suited but our kicker is a little low with no straight possibilities. If it was Q9s I’d play, but even with the button and 4-limpers to us, I don’t think we can salvage the hand. 2) limp 3) fold

7. 3-bet, since the player could be raising with K8s or 55. 2) cold-call 3) fold

8. I would actually limp here. K6s is a little better than Q7s, even though both have no straight possibilities. Making top pair with Ks is better than with Qs, and I believe that this hand is good enough to play (though just barely so). 2) fold 3) raise

9. Raise. There is almost no doubt your hand is best and that most if not all the limpers are in there with trash. Get some value out of your 9s!
2) check 3) fold instead of seeing a free flop

10. Raise for value. Pretty much the same deal as with the 9s. 2) complete 3) fold

11. Call. You should call pretty liberally from the blind for one bet, even with the lowly 73s. Your hand does have some possibilities, and if you do happen to flop something, the bettor will be on your direct left, so you can check, expect him to bet with at least a few calls in between, and you can then raise. 2) 3-bet 3) fold

12. Cap. We could be behind here, but I don’t think I could get rid of the jacks in this spot. We don’t know what hands players will reraise with, but the LP player could certainly be 3-betting light, so I don’t think we can fold. I’d gamble here and cap with the jacks. 2) fold 3) cold-call

13. Limp. With ATs or better, I would raise. 2) raise 3) fold

14. Fold. Your hand isn’t worth much being unsuited. 2) call 3) 3-bet

15. Reraise. Now our hand is good enough, especially with 4 callers (who you’d expect to come along), to reraise for value. 2) cold-call 3) fold

16. Raise. ATo is a good enough hand to raise here. Even though it’s not suited it still compares favorably to the wide range of hands your opponents are playing, so you must push your edge. 2) limp 3) fold

17. Reraise. In a tough game, ATs against an UTG raise would be trash. But against these players, an UTG raise doesn’t mean a premium hand. 2) cold-call (which I guess has some merit because players behind will play trash for 2-bets, but not 3) 3) fold

18. Call. Even though our hand is offsuit here, it has some straight possibilities going for it, so I would call for the one bet.

19. Reraise, especially with a caller in between. The same concept as the other reraises which is 1) Your hand, while would likely be dominated against a solid player, still compares favorably to the range of hands that the raiser would open with. 2) The caller in between likely has garbage and it’s important to push your edge against him before the flop. 2) cold-call 3) fold

20. Cap. There’s 4 cold-callers in there, so you must cap even if it’s likely that the BB has AA or KK. That’s an unreasonable assumption though, so that makes it an even easier cap. 2) call 3) fold

Of course, if you make these same plays in no-limit, you’ll probably go broke, but limit is a crazy game.

I will take a swing at this one!

1. I call this one. I assume the other players who limped are calling and we will likely pick up the blinds and maybe another cold caller or two. I think 3-betting is a bit over the top for the value of this hand.

call>raise>fold.

2. 3-bet. Two big suited cards have an equity edge in a 6-way pot.

raise>call>fold

3. Call. I don’t think we have an edge to raise but we certainly want in a pot with those cold-callers and the button.

call>fold>raise

4. I will limp this one in against these players. I think a raise is way over the top.

call>fold>raise

5. Hard one for me. I can see limping this in here figuring we will pick up enough limpers to play this hand for set value. I can also see raising it to limit the field. I can also see that we may not get the limpers in order to limp in.

call>fold>raise

6. Limp it in. This is certainly strong enough of a hand with the button against these players.

call>fold>raise

7. 3-bet. I think you have an edge against these players.

raise>call>fold

8. Call. No need to raise here, not enough of an edge.

call>raise>fold

9. Raise. Certainly have an edge against these players.

raise>check

10. Raise. Equity edge against these players.

raise>complete>fold

11. Fold. I don’t think even this hand is good enough in this spot.

fold>call>raise

12. Cap. I think we have an edge against his 3-betting range and we have position.

raise>call>fold

13. Call. I could see an argument to raise and maybe buy the button and you may have an edge.

call>raise>fold

14. Fold. I don’t really see a point to get into this one.

fold>call>raise

15. Call. I like just allow the other players in and I don’t think we have the edge for a 3-bet.

call>raise>fold

16. I like to limp this one since it doesn’t do that well in a multiway pot. I can see an argument for raising for both value and to buy the button.

call>raise>fold

17. I call. I don’t this is good enough for a 3-bet this far out of position, but I don’t see a reason to fold it.

call>raise>fold

18. I call this one. We are getting great odds on a call with this many cold callers.

call>fold>raise

19. I call. I think 3-betting is over the top here.

call>raise>fold

20. Cap. We have way too much of an edge not to cap.

raise>call>fold

I sat and thought hard after this quiz. I put call in 2 or 3 places where when I was playing limit I would have raised for sure, ie. the JJ.

I hope nl is not making me too tenative. When I started nl it seemed like I was raising too much like my limit days and I have scaled back. But as I looked back over and thought longer I can remember actually answering softer here than what I played. I liked limit a lot but it’s hard to get in a game that lasts and it’s usually the same players over and over that refused to switch to nl.

I didn’t mean to go off topic, should have put this on the message board. Has anybody else switched to nl and had it slow them down some ?

1. call raise fold – Hoping for a set, you want players around for action

2. raise call fold – A good hand multiway, normally a call, but this crowd warrants a raise

3. call fold raise – Another good multiway hand, but with less high card strength, no raise here

4. fold call raise – Fold. ‘tis junk.

5. call raise fold – You want to encourage plaers to stick around so you can get action if you hit your set

6. call fold raise – Barely a call, but you are on the button and its easily multiway. You are hoping for a good draw.

7. raise fold call – They are loose with their raises, so 3-bet to minimize the field if possible

8. call fold raise – Since two entered the pot, a call is ok here. (Unless you think the blinds are the ones on this table more likely to raise.)

9. raise call fold – Good hand, raise it. Still kinda hoping for a set with six others though.

10. raise call fold – Good hand, unraised pot. Raise might knock out the blind too.

11. fold call raise – Blah. I am aware that it’s only one more bet for the 13 in the pot. I probably should call and hope to hit big. But, I am not used to these situations and probably would fold to be safe.

12. raise call fold – Raise to knock other out and get close to heads up as possible. Maybe he’s got something like AQ or KQ.

13. call raise fold – Encourage the blinds to play.

14. fold raise call – See ya!

15. call fold raise – Keeping it multiway is more profitable. You could raise, but your hand could be dominated.

16. raise fold call – Knock out the blinds,

17. call fold raise – Normally a fold, but these guys will cold call it to allow mutilway action.

18. fold call raise – Junk it. Unlike the hand in question #11, this hand has no flush draw value.
19. call fold raise – Going for mutilway again.

20. Raise call fold - they’ll all call for 2 bets more, the BB has something good, but it doesn’t menan it’s great in this game.

1. Fold. You need to spike a set and you aren’t getting the right price to get it. If your opponents are total dolts, you might argue your implied odds make it a call, but that’s overly-optimistic, IMO. Call is next best; raise is terrible.

2. Call. You have a volume hand in a volume pot. Reraise is fine; fold is bad.

3. Call. Same answer as above, but reraise is worse (less volume). Fold is still bad, though not as bad as above.

4. Fold. I know you think it’s a call, but I think you’re wrong. Too speculative.

5. Fold. Same answer and reasoning as 1, but even more so.

6. Fold.

7. This really depends. Even loose players often tighten up for EP raises. If UTG has tight tendencies, fold. Otherwise, raise.

8. Fold.

9. Raise for value.

10. Raise. Call is OK, fold is unthinkable.

11. Call. With those odds, I”m calling with anything. Any other action is silly.

12. Fold.

13. Raise for value and position.

14. Fold. Why on earth would you play K7 here?

15. I would usually just fold. You are likely dominated.

16. RAise for value, position, etc.

17. Fold. Why would you do anything else?

18. I’d call it. If the raise came from late position, I’d fold. I’d prefer if the raise came from UTG (giving me last action), but it’s close enough.

19. Fold. Not enough volume to justify playing a volume hand.

20. Captown. Trap dead money if you can and if you can’t, no big deal. You still probably have the best hand.

I just reread the table description. I suppose I should have folded a bit less, given the information that players are totally position insensitive and will call raises with such a wide variety of hands.

But I must add, this table exists only in Fantasyland. I frequently play in loose LL games, and none are THIS loose.

1 call raise fold
2 call fold raise
3 call fold raise
4 call fold raise
5 call raise fold
6 fold call raise
7 reraise call fold
8 fold call raise
9 raise check fold (actually how can one fold it?)
10 raise call fold
11 fold call raise
12 cap call fold
13 call raise fold (or maybe raise and call is close)
14 fold raise call
15 raise call fold
16 call raise fold
17 fold call raise
18 fold call raise
19 fold call raise
20 cap call fold

And as far as the celebrity poker post by Flight, I made the PokerRoom topic especially for that (and better style kind of stuff on the forum, so please go and post it there!!!
http://www.notedpokerauthority.com/board?forum=1&topic=52&page=1

1. Fold
2. Call
3. Call
4. Fold
5. Fold
6. Call
7. Fold
8. Fold
9. Raise
10. Raise
11. Fold
12. Fold
13. Call
14. Fold
15. Call
16. Raise
17. Fold
18. Fold
19. Fold
20. Raise

Oops. I didn’t see the playing conditions. My answers were for a table of unknowns (average players).

1. Two limpers to an MP who raises. You are next (two off the button) with 44.

Call-Fold-Raise

Option 1
Call, small pairs are great hands when you can expect lots of action when you hit a set. This hand is profitable even for two bets so calling is better than folding.

Option 2
Fold, I don’t really want to pay too much to see the flop with a speculative hand so i think folding is better than raising.

Option 3
Raise, I like this least of all options. I think the EV of 44 starts to deminish above 2 bets pre-flop. It would still be profitable even for 4 bets if we were sure to get 8 way action, but players tighten up behind the 3-bet so we’ll kill a lot of the players behind us with a raise.

2. UTG raises and gets four cold-callers. You are in the SB with KQs.

Option 1
Raise, this had is made for multi-way action, we’ll only be facing the field with one additional bet so it’s unlikely we’ll lose customers. Let’s build a pot.

Option 2
Call, only because it’s better than folding.

Option 3
Fold, Are you kidding, Raisy Daisy!

3. UTG raises and gets four cold-callers. You are on the button with A5s

Option 1
Call, despite the A instead of the K this hand is weaker than the previous KQs. We certainly don’t want to fold but now isn’t the time to build the pot either.

Option 2
Raise, With 5 people in for 2 bets already, folding is out of the question so option 2 would be raise
Raise,

Option 3
Fold - The kiddy games down the street

4. You have K9s UTG
Option 1
Call, we’ll likely get lots of other callers and we should be okay even if it’s raised behind us.

Option 2
Fold, Raising this hand from UTG would be playing like opponents not outplaying our opponents

Option 3
Raise,

5. Folded to you in MP (four off the button) with 33.
Option 1, Call were likely to get 3-4 people in and we can play 33 for set value.

Option 2, Fold we’re a bit too far off the button to try a steal

Option 3, Raise we’ll steal the blinds for sure, they’ll never know what hit them

I’ll post my comments on 6-10 tomorrow. My attention span is too short to take a 20 question quiz in one sitting.

1. C - blinds will probably follow suit, maybe others and we’d prefer even more company if hit the set we are looking for, enough company for paying two bets to be profitable, poor post-flop skills of the opponents should counter risk of 3bet from behind. (R F)
2. R - broadway suited has too much equity to just call. C - we’d have a good relative position to preflop aggressor in UTG
3. C - not good enough to raise, too easily dominated, most value comes from flushes, want to get blinds in, (R F)
4. C - not that strong OOP, (R F)
5. F - risk of raise from behind, C - we need company and in this games we still might a caller or two plus the blinds.
6. C - positional advantage makes this profitable, Q-high not good enough to raise, (R F)
7. R - try to get position and the pot 3-way, (C F)
8. C R F
9. R - for value and for set value, C - we are OOP and overcards will kill us postflop with 6 callers
10. R - value raise, (C F)
11. C - close call, F
12. R - cap it for value and to try get 2-3 way flop from position, (C F)
13. R - good enough against two limpers, likely not to be dominated by a better ace - we don’t mind more callers with suited ace, C - lure more people in for flush value
14. F - offsuit K-high not good enough OOP
15. R - raise for value, we do not mind callers though, C - lure more people in for flush value
16. R - raise for value, try to get position, (C F)
17. R - try to isolate loose raiser, with suited ace we do not mind more callers that much, (C F)
18. F - offsuit one-gapper needs to hit flop hard, (C R)
19. R - raise for value, (C F)
20. R - cap it baby! we are likely to have best hand, reel in the dead in money

1 crf
2 crf
3 crf
4 cfr
5 fcr
6 crf
7 rcf
8 frc
9 crf
10 rcf
11 crf
12 rcf
13 frc
14 fcr
15 crf
16 rcf
17 crf
18 cfr
19 rcf
20 rcf

1. raise, call, fold

2. call, raise, fold

3. raise, fold, call

4. fold, call, raise

5. call, raise, fold

6. raise, fold, call

7. raise, call, fold

8. raise, fold, call

9. call, raise, fold

10. call, raise, fold

11. call, fold, raise

12. raise, call, fold

13. call, fold, raise

14. fold, call, raise

15. raise, call, fold

16. call, fold, raise

17. fold, raise, call

18. fold, call, raise

19. call, raise, fold

20. raise, call, fold

1. call. enough players will call behind.
2. raise. massive equity advantage.
3. i think raising and calling are about the same. i usually raise, because raising is more fun in games like this.
4. i think calling and folding are about the same here. i lean towards a call if the table is reliably loose and towards the passive side of 30-60% raising.
5. call. let’s try to flop a set.
6. call. folding isn’t that bad, but a suited queen is enough with position against this crowd.
7. raise. in very passive games you would consider folding this, but against this crowd we have a huge edge.
8. call. in a tougher game i’d like more limpers to play this hand, but i’m happy to here.
9. raise. HUGE edge, terrible opponents.
10. raise. same as above.
11. call. getting 13-1 and closing the action i’m calling with any two suited.
12. raise. in a tougher game i’d fold this, but in this game people raise with crap so i’ve got good pot equity.
13. raise. if i raise on hand #3, i have to raise here, right?
14. fold. in this game i’m not folding very much getting 9-1, but this one i am folding. as a rule, offsuit high-card-no-kicker hands have bad multiway pot equity. not just that, but i’m not closing the action, and a reraise would be a disaster.
15. raise. in a game like this there is no reason to give up preflop equity to gain an advantage later.
16. call is probably best, but in practice i raise it up. i don’t think there’s much difference to be honest.
17. call. our hand is decent and we don’t want to blast people out of the pot. one of those times when cold-calling is correct.
18. hold my nose and call. why call here and fold #14? relative position. i’m closing the action, and getting 11-1.
19. ugh, call? another one where we have a decent hand and don’t want to blast people out of the pot.
20. cappucino, baby. qq is practically the nuts against this crew.

1. call>raise>fold
2. call>raise>fold
3. call>raise>fold
4. fold>call>raise
5. raise>call>fold
6. call>fold>raise
7. raise>call>fold
8. fold>raise>call
9. check>raise>openfold;)
10. raise>call>fold
11. call>raise>fold
12. call>cap>fold
13. raise>call>fold
14. call>fold>raise
15. call>raise>fold
16. raise>call>fold
17. reraise>call>fold
18. call>fold>raise
19. call>reraise>fold
20. cap>call>fold

1. C>F>R Assuming we get the BB and at least one other cold-caller, that’s at least 6 big bets pre-flop, and we only need to make 8-9 big bets when we hit our set: easy call.

2. R>C>F Raising for value, though there might be value in calling and check-raising the flop instead. Folding would be terrible.

3. C>R>F Easy call for the implied odds. Raising wouldn’t help.

4. C>F>R Folding might be best, though, depending how often people raise pre-flop.

5. F>C>R Hard to tell if we will get enough callers to justify going for the set, and if we do, we’ll be in the middle post-flop, which makes it more difficult to extract value.

6. C>F>R Easy call given we have the button and are getting at least 5 to 1 to call if the blinds don’t raise. Raising would be bad, but folding would be pretty bad, too.

7. R>C>F We don’t want to have 5 more people come in behind us as big offsuit hands play best against 1-3 opponents. Raise for value, but also to limit the field and give us position for the rest of the hand.

8. F>C>R A weak king without sufficient pot odds to justify a call. A raise would be spewing unless the table respects us so much they’ll lay it down on the flop.

9. R>C Raise for value.

10. R>C>F Raise for value against 3-4 players. Folding would be awful.

11. C>R>F Calling should be automatic with immediate pot odds of 13 to 1. A raise would not be great, but not nearly as bad as folding.

12. R>C>F Cap, even though you might be behind. Calling might disguise your hand more, but we’re assuming this table can’t read your hand anyway.

13. C>R>F Raising might have more value if you had a better chance of buying the button.

14. F>C>R Decent pot odds, but what kind of flop would you want to see?

15. R>C>F Easy raise for value, and it’s unlikely you’ll lose anyone behind.

16. R>C>F Raise for value, but it’s not great if 2 more people cold-call.

17. R>C>F I think raise and call are close here since you can expect to get at least 4 more people behind you if you cold-call.

18. C>F>R With such odds, almost any 2 cards merit a call since you close the action.

19. R>C>F Calling might be a good option here, too, same reasons as 17.

20. R>C>F Automatic cap unless you know that 3-bets mean AA-KK. Even then might be worth it since you’ll know exactly where you’re at and could extract the most if a Q hits.

I’m certanly NOT FOLDING any of these holdings against those fishes.

1. Call
2. Call
3. Call
4. Call
5. Call
6. Fold
7. Fold
8. Fold
9. Raise
10. Raise
11. Fold
12. Raise
13. Call
14. Fold
15. Call
16. Raise
17. Call
18. Fold
19. Call
20. Raise