Home Articles Books Coaching Free Stuff About

Q&A #98: Talking 6-Max No-Limit Hold’em Out Of Position Preflop Blues

Don't miss one article! Subscribe to the Full Feed RSS or get NPA in your inbox.

You’re playing 6-max and your under the gun. You just got dealt one of your opening-quality hands, and you pot it. Everyone folds to the button… who calls. Hrmm. Is that a good thing, or a bad thing? It could be either. And whether it’s good or not, there’s a good chance you’re about to end up in a sticky situation.

Today’s question comes from Baggie Boy.

Playing a lot of 6-max in recent months I have found, in some games, that quite a few raises from the first couple of seats are called by the cut-off or button. The players in these games are not particularly tough but neither are they always straightforward either. Basically you can often find yourself OOP versus occasionally tricky players. Hypothetically speaking if you KNEW a raise was going to be called behind you in this situation (taking into account the above player type and the fact that they are often loosening up pre and post flop for 6 max) what hands are we still raising with? Would we be rasing hands similar to what we would call with from the blinds? Or are some weaker hands still profit makers OOP when your opponents loosen up? How important is position over cards in this situation?

If you know you’re getting called behind you, how should it affect your raising range? I tighten up fairly dramatically if the player I “know” will call is tough, and I might actually loosen up a bit if the player is really bad. If I don’t know who will call, but I “know” I will get called by someone, then I play the percentages and adjust according to how likely certain types of players will call me. Before I continue, I want to repost Baggie Boy’s followup

I am trying to get handle on how important position is and which hands are worth playing OOP in raised pots. I have found myself in a lot of pots OOP with SC’s or the weaker high card hands and regretted the raise. I am finding it too hard to get myself up against the blinds from UTG or the hijack when playing shorthanded.

Overpairs can also be tricky, especially at 6 max, as a lot of opponents will raise Ten high flops assuming you have missed but you may end up getting all in versus a flopped set if you are not careful. I’m beginning to believe that outside of the cut off or button you are better off limping, folding or limp/raising if the game is aggressive.

Todd, you stated that you consider AQ a borderline raising hand from the blinds versus 1 limper: does this mean you are limp/folding a lot of high card hands in the first couple of seats as opposed to playing them OOP in raised pots?

I would definitely tend to dump those suited connectors. I dislike playing them out of position unless my opponent is pretty soft.

The remainder of this article is insider content available to premium members only. Log in to your account or become a premium member and get instant access.

Tags: , , , ,

6 Responses to “Q&A #98: Talking 6-Max No-Limit Hold’em Out Of Position Preflop Blues”

barouh
@ Mon Jan 21, 2008 10:48:27 AM
1

I would personnally widen up my range by raising with small pocket pairs once in a while (about 50 percent of the time I hit a pp with a deep stack)

The reason is so my oponent can never know for sure that i am not sitting on a flopped set.

It is more of a way to prevent them from stacking me when I do have an overpair and they have 2 pair than for the occasionnal profit of flopping a set.

Is that a leak ?

threads13
@ Mon Jan 21, 2008 12:32:57 PM
2

barouh,

I think that is fine logic once your opponents start becoming more perceptive. You have to work harder to get them to make mistakes.

I think that in general, a lot of us play too much out of position. Position is so important in NL.

I have really been tightening up in EP and it has made things much easier on me.

AKQJ10
@ Tue Jan 22, 2008 12:04:51 AM
3

If you check, on the other hand, you ask your floating opponent to make that first bet. If he obliges, that gives you the opportunity to drop the commitment bomb, which can actually tend to neutralize his positional advantage. I checkraise aggressive floaters quite a bit on the flop. I do it with good made hands, with good draws, and sometimes with bad draws or total air.

Very interesting and subtle point. In reading the original question, my intuitive first thought was, “Play tighter but check/raise a lot more.” However, I’d have a hard time articulating why that is. (In particular, someone always points out that I’m bloating the pot for a one-pair hand.) But this is a great explanation, one I’ll need to think over quite a bit more.

Baggie Boy
@ Tue Jan 22, 2008 08:00:11 AM
4

Thanks for the reply but hasn’t Dylan got a copyright on that title?

My concern was whether you should attempt to outplay your opponent using the strategies you have mentioned above or just save yourself the headache and not raise from awkward postions. I can see now that it is often better to put that raise in as you may be missing out on a chance to exploit your opponent’s aggression and overplaying of hands.
That check can really nullify unsuspecting opponents positional advantage and make them play their postion badly. I recently checked and called off 70BB with TPTK (AK) versus his 88.

threads13
@ Thu Jan 24, 2008 03:36:03 PM
5

Ed,

So, are you conditionally committed when you are c/r’ing the flop against an aggressive floater. For example, say you have TPTK and c/r an aggressive floater and he 3-bets(or calls). What is your plan from there?

Jonathan
@ Sat Jan 26, 2008 12:28:03 AM
6

I agree completely that routinely playing suited connectors out of position against good opponents is a bad idea. There was a really good article by Phil Galfond that pointed out that if you never raise suited connectors early its easy for a good player to push you around if the flop comes 567 etc.

Leave a Reply




You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>