Preflop Strategy: Winning Before the Flop
Most money in poker is won or lost by who entered the pot, from where, and with what — get preflop right and everything downstream gets easier.
Starting hand selection
The biggest leak for most players is playing too many hands. Strong starting hands make strong, easy-to-play post-flop situations; weak ones bleed chips. Tiers of Hold'em starting hands:
- Premium: A♠A♦, K♠K♦, Q♠Q♦, A♠K♠ — raise and re-raise from anywhere.
- Strong: J♠J♦ T♠T♦, A-Q, A-J suited, K-Q suited — open from most positions.
- Speculative: small pairs, suited connectors (8♠7♠), suited aces — great in late position and multiway pots.
Raise sizing
Open to about 2.2–3× the big blind online, a bit larger live or with limpers already in (add ~1bb per limper). Use a consistent size so you don't reveal your hand strength. When you're re-raising (3-betting), go to roughly 3× the original raise in position and ~4× out of position.
Opening ranges by position
Open tighter early, wider late — because fewer players remain to wake up with a hand behind you. Rough opening frequencies for a full-ring/6-max game:
| Position | Approx. opening range |
|---|---|
| Early (UTG) | ~12–15% (pairs, big aces, suited Broadways) |
| Middle | ~18–22% |
| Cutoff | ~27–30% |
| Button | ~45–50% |
| Small blind | ~35% (raise-or-fold; avoid limping) |
Facing a raise
When someone raises in front of you, you have three options: fold, call, or 3-bet. Fold the bottom of your range, 3-bet your strongest hands (and some bluffs), and call with hands that play well but aren't strong enough to re-raise — pairs that can set-mine and suited hands with good implied odds.