Playing Under The Gun: A Texas Holdem Problem
Tight Tight Tight!- The first player to act preflop in holdem is also in the worst position at the table; before any other players at the table get to act, you have to make the first action at the table. Once you raise or call, 1-9 players, depending on how many players are at your table, get to respond to your initial action. What does this mean? When youre under the gun, you should be much, much more selective about the hands you choose to enter the pot with. Not only do you have to act first at the start of the hand, but you have 3rd position post flop, with only the blinds to act before you. This drastically devalues a lot of potential hands that you might consider playing normally in other positions, like small pocket pairs and connected suited hands, without the safety net of position to act last or ensure the pot isnt raised after you enter the pot.
Hand selections- At a full ring table, the hands you should be playing from under the gun are few and far between. Id only play AA-QQ and AKs at a tight, tough game, and add JJ-99 and AKo and AQs at a weaker, wilder game. The smaller pocket pairs and connected suited hands usually wont get to the flop cheap enough to make it worth playing, and the other big broadway hands will find themselves dominated far too often to make it worth playing. A play that many players like to make from UTG is to limp with monster hands; too many people now recognize the limp from UTG to be a monster now for it to be effective, and players may limp with hands theyd normally just fold to a UTG open. knowing that you have a monster and that their hand is well disguised. Six handed tables, which have gained popularity in recent years, provide an opportunity to play a wider selection from UTG; you can open AA-77 and AJs+, and even limping with 22-66 and connected suited hands becomes a viable option.
Variations- You may want to play a few hands other than the very tight range listed in order to keep players guessing, especially in a cash game where players tend to grind through long sessions. Instead of trying the “monster” limp, you may be more inclined to throw a speculative raising hand into your raising mix that you include into your opening range. Instead of saying, “Im going to open every fifth connected suited hand I get UTG,” something that works with my game is to pick a solid speculative drawing hand, like J10s or 67s, or even a hand like 33, and decide that every time Im dealt that hand UTG, Ill open with it like I would AA/KK, and play it on the flop similarly. It adds a bit of deception to your game, and makes it harder for people to play you straightforwardly with your UTG raises.
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