Small Ball Poker Starting Hands
NL Hold’em Starting Hand Charts
- Small Ball Poker Starting Hands Against
- Small Ball Poker Starting Hands Reaching
- Small Ball Poker Starting Hands Meaning
- Small Ball Poker Starting Hands Svg
- Small Ball Poker Starting Hands Signals
One aspect of the game of No-Limit Hold’em that causes beginning players much grief is deciding which hands to play and which hands to dump. NL Hold’em is much more difficult than Limit Hold’em because the value of a hand depends on so many factors other than just the cards in your hand. Despite this difficulty, our coaches believe that following some general guidelines and adjusting from these is a better solution than having no guidelines at all. Given that well over half of your profitability in NL Hold’em is based on hand selection alone, we have developed these charts to help you better determine whether to play or fold.
The smaller you open-raise, the more poker hands you can open (by a small percentage). If you raise larger, then generally you should have a tighter range of hands. When playing micro stakes, some coaches advocate a 4x UTG open raise. Then reducing to 3x for HJ, 2.5x for CO and BTN, and then back to between 3 and 4x for SB opens. Stay tuned as I’ll cover additional small ball starting hands in upcoming columns including aces and paint, ace-rag suited, king-rag and queen-rag suited, suited connectors and trash hands. Visit shop.cardsharkmedia.com for more information about Daniel Negreanu’s newest book, Power Hold’em Strategy, from Cardoza Publishing. Here's a useful downloadable chart explaining hand rankings and what starting hands you should play. Click to download. 9-9, for example, is a good raising hand in late position if no-one has raised the pot beforehand, but in early position (the small or big blind) you can find yourself in trouble if you're first to act after the flop. 'Starting hand selection' is simply choosing the good hands over the bad, and thus folding the bad hands when you get them. It is true that any hand can win in Texas Holdem (or poker in general for that matter), but the fact of the matter is that some hands will win more than others.
There are no perfect No-Limit starting hand charts. That is because there are many factors that affect your decision, and charts cannot account for all of them. Some of these include:
- The size of your opponent's stacks.
- How loose or tight, passive or aggressive, your opponents are.
- Where these opponents are located at the table – for example, does an aggressive player still have to act after you?
- Your image at the table – for example, how tight or tricky you are perceived.
That being said, these charts will serve you well in most typical low-stakes No-Limit cash games, such as games with blinds of $1/$2, and home games. These games typically have several loose players at the table, and good opportunities for winning big pots with suited connectors and pocket pairs. With practice, you will be able to be a consistently winning player with these charts as a starting point. As you improve, you'll find yourself making adjustments to these charts based on the factors listed above, and more.
Small Ball Poker Starting Hands Against
AGAIN: These charts are a good starting point for beginners. Specifically, Chart #1 recommends a significant amount of limping. This is great in loose, passive games but less often seen in tougher games. You’ll find other training material on Advanced Poker Training that may recommend a more aggressive approach for more experienced players.
Note: It would be a serious mistake to apply these hand charts before reading the Frequent Asked Questions first.
CHART #1 ‐ LOOSE, PASSIVE GAME (OFTEN 4-5 LIMPERS PER HAND)
NO ONE HAS RAISED YET
- Raise Always
- Call from Early Position, otherwise raise
- Call always
- Call from Middle or Late Position if the conditions are right (see Frequently Asked Questions)
CHART #2 ‐ TIGHTER GAME (FEWER LIMPERS) OR MORE AGGRESSIVE GAME
NO ONE HAS RAISED YET
- Raise Always
- Call from Early Position, otherwise raise
- Call (or Raise) from Middle or Late Position if the conditions are right (see Frequently Asked Questions)
CHART #3 ‐ THERE HAS BEEN A SINGLE RAISE
(3‐5 TIMES THE BIG BLIND) BEFORE YOU
- Re‐Raise Always
- Call from Early Position, otherwise re‐raise
- Call always
- Call from Middle or Late Position if the conditions are right (see Frequently Asked Questions)
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
For the hands in yellow, what do you mean when you say to play these hands if the conditions are right? The hands in yellow are speculative hands. They should always be folded from Early Position. From other positions, they can be profitable given the right conditions. Some of the questions to ask yourself:
- Are there other players who have called so far (the more, the better)?
- Are the players who have called playing poorly after the flop? Will they pay me off if I hit something?
- Is there an aggressive player still to act behind me (you might get raised and have to fold)?
- If there has been a raise and no other callers, what chance do I have of using my position after the flop to win the hand even if I don't improve (Chart #3 only)?
Why does Chart #2 say to sometimes raise with the hands in yellow, but Chart #1 does not? We have different goals in mind. Using Chart #1, we want to call to encourage additional players to enter the pot. These hands will be immensely profitable when our loose, passive opponents enter the hand, and get trapped when we flop a set, or make a well-disguised straight. When using Chart #2, however, we want to size up the opponents still to act. If they are tight, we can raise. Sometimes, we'll pick up the blinds. Other times, our pre-flop aggression will allow us to take down the pot on the flop.
What's the difference between AKs and AKo? AKs means an Ace and King of the same suit. AKo means an Ace and King of different suits.
What are early, middle, and late position? Early Position is generally the first 2 (in a nine player game) or 3 (in a ten player game) positions after the blinds. Late Position is the “cutoff” position (to the right of the dealer), and dealer button positions. Middle Position is everything in between.
How much should I raise? As a general rule, raise 3 to 4 times the big blind, plus 1 extra big blind for every player who has called before you. So if there are 2 callers already, raise between 5 and 6 times the big blind.
Small Ball Poker Starting Hands Reaching
What if someone raises after I call? Whether you call the raise depends on how much money the raiser has for you to win, how many other players are involved, and what type of hand you have. As a general rule, if you have a pocket pair, lean towards calling. If there are a lot of other players (and therefore a big pot), lean towards calling. In general, fold suited connectors from early position. Fold hands like KQ that don't play well against a raiser.
How do I play from the blinds? From the small blind, play the same hands you would play from late position, plus a few more. But don't call with junk hands like T5o, just because it is “cheap”. From the big blind, if there is a raise to you, play like you would if you had already called from early position.
The chart says to fold KQo to a raise. Really? Yes, this hand performs very poorly against typical raising hands. Against AK, AQ, AA, KK, QQ, you are a big underdog. Other typical raising hands like JJ, TT, 99, AJs, are slightly ahead of you as well. The only time you might call or re-raise is from late position, if the opener was in middle or late position, indicating they might have a wider range of hands.
I was told to fold AJo from Early Position, why do you say to call with it? Folding AJo is not a bad idea in many games. We included it because, at low stakes tables (even tight or aggressive ones), the players are often playing badly enough after the flop that it can be profitable. We used data from millions of hands of low-limit poker to analyze this. The same could be said for KQo, ATs, and KJs – you can make a small profit in the long run at most low-stakes games, but folding would be perfectly acceptable from early position.
Can I use these charts in a NL Hold'em tournament? The charts would be best applicable to the early stages of a NL tournament, when everyone has a deep stack. In the middle and later stages, they should not be used.
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Small Ball: For Deep Stack Events
A few poker players on Twitter asked me to help them better understand Small Ball Strategy for no limit tournaments. I’ve decided to summarize the key points based on Daniel’s chapter in his book Power Hold’em Strategy. It’s important to realize that this approach is for deep stack events.
Objectives:
Increase your stack size in no-limit tournaments without taking significant risks.
Battle for the blinds and antes
Play your oppponent’s hand rather than focusing on the strength of your own hand.
Manage pot size–small hands, small pots. Big hands, win big pots.
Want to hit straights and flushes against top pair hands.
Starting Hands
Small ball=focus more on what your opponent doesn’t have than the strength of the cards you do have.
Big pairs:
AA, KK-it’s ok to go broke with these hands
QQ, JJ-you don’t want to play many big pots because you are either way behind or slightly ahead. No need to re-raise, especially against an early position raiser.
Middle pairs:
77 to 1010-they are good hand for their implied value pre-flop rather than their pre-flop strength. Your goal-flop a set to win a big pot. Doesn’t mean you fold, if you miss–depends on the action.
Small pairs:
22-66-play like middle pairs. Don’t re-raise with these hands pre-flop.
Small Ball Poker Starting Hands Meaning
A-K, A-Q:
Big trouble in deep stack events. You don’t want to get all in pre-flop.
A-K-raise pre-flop, but doesn’t play well after the flop.
A-K unsuited will win small pots, but usually a dog if lots of action.
Aces and Paints: A-J, A-10, K-Q, K-J, Q-J, J-10
These hands are much better when suited in deep stack events.
Unsuited one pair hands win you small pots usually, and can cost you big pots.
Also, these hands are second best to premium hands.
If someone raises in front of you, fold K-Q and A-J–unless they are suited.
K and Q rag suited:
Don’t raise with them and only limp in multiway pots.
Will mostly make second best hands–and small ball approach avoids these kind of hands.
Suited connectors:
Ideal for small ball as the goal is to hit flush and straights against premium pairs.
Opponent won’t be able to put you on a hand, and overplay their pair or overpair.
These hands are easy to get away from on flop.
And your reputation for playing small ball allows you to steal pots, example:
You Js-10s:
Flop: 5h-6s-7h
Can win if:
Opponent has A-K and checks flop.
Opponent bets, you call, and a 4 hits the turn.
Small Ball Poker Starting Hands Svg
And–best of all, when you do hit your straight, you can win a big pot.
Trash Hands:
Q-3, J-2, 9-4, 8-2
No value except when you are playing the situation where you are trying to win the pot with a re-raise before the flop. Just don’t get careless after the flop. If you hit your hand, play a small pot.
Or raise when opponents in blinds are very tight and fold pre-flop or fold to a small flop bet when they miss.
Next: Betting