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

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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.

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