Free Poker Lessons Online Guide To Table Position, Playable Pockets And Limping

How and what hole cards to play and from what tables positions is what you'll learn about in this poker free online training article. At the end you'll also learn about the not well understood area of limping.

A key concept first, the range of hands your opponents may have is something you must first nail down, the term for this is "hand range".

As a poker skill hand ranges count as one of the most critical.

Lets say an opposing player is super tight and make a big reraise preflop. An example range for them to have is (QQ,KK,AA). You know they must have one of these hands, though not which one exactly.

When writing a range, though, don't write out every possible hand in the range. QQ, KK, AA we shorten to QQ+, i.e., pocket pairs QQ and higher.

Writing (KTo+) would mean any offsuit king KT or above (so KT, KJ, KQ - note not AK because the highest card is always written first). An "o" designation means offsuit, while an "s" designation means suited, so K7s+ means any suited king K7 and above.
What are the Playable Hole Cards
First there are 3 variables to consider
1) What has happened before your turn
2) Our table position
3) The opponents' tendencies
The first is self explanatory. For example, you fold your pocket 9s if there has been a raise, 3 bet or 4 bet before your go. Basically just understand that when your opponents open you need to be tighter.
Table Position -
The closer to the butotn you are the wider your options for opening..
1) There is a lower chance of other players getting a playable hand and better chance of folds as there are fewer players left to act after you.
2) Your postflop position is superior. For example, you're on the button, your opponents have to act before you meaning you get to act with more information than them at every point in the hand. They do not know what you have but you know they elected to play preflop AND their reaction to the flop.
Opponents' behaviours examples -
> If the big blind is going allin every hand, don't open wide from the button as you'll have to fold to his shove with weaker holdings.

Loosen up if the players still to act are tight, it gives you a better chance of stealing the blinds.

Make these 2 tweaks if the players behind are loose aggressive:.
Tighten up.
Play more high card hands and less suited connector hands.

Against loose aggressive opponents you can play hands like KJo, flop top pair, and move All in OK. But with say 87s if we miss and cbet the flop you're unlikely to get many folds and the hand has less equity. So high-card hands go up in value while middle connectors go down.

Some hands you nearly always play, for example, JJ+, AQ+. Others like 52o nearly never, but "it depends on the situation" applies to many more.

Commonly:
- Play tight early position, looser late position
- Play tighter against loose players, looser against tight players (preflop)
- Preflop play looser against passive players and tighter against aggressive.
- Play tighter if there has been action before you
- Almost always play premiums, almost never play trash

Here are some examples to Demonstrate.
- UTG (1st position) ten handed example range: (TT+, AQo+, AJs+)
- Button range vs tight blinds: (22+, A2o+, A2s+, K6o+, K5s+, Q9o+, Q8s+, JTo, JTs, T9s, 98s, 87s, 76s)
- Button range vs loose blinds: (22+, A7o+, A2s+, K8o+, K8s+, QTo+, Q9s+, JTs)
- Button range readless: (22+, A7o+, A2s+, K8o+, K7s+, Q9o+, Q9s+, JTs, T9s, 98s)

Now a relatively uncovered topic - limping.

When should we limp preflop? The answer is almost never, apart from:

Playing a marginal hand against a loose passive player..

A "Limpede" which is more commonplace, in free online poker games especially. A limpede is a limp+stampede = limpede...where several players limp preflop.

Join "limpedes" when you have suited connectors or low pocket pairs, as you have the chance to flop a strong hand, flush, straight, combo draw or set very cheap. If it becomes clear that you won't then check/fold the flop as the sole objective is to flop good.

This is not a simple subject but it is fundamental to poker success so to get comfortable with all this practice hard on free poker sites such as NoPayPOKER until you are happy, play with ranges and the way of thinking and different scenarios and so on. with absolutely no monetary loss.

So experiment away! It is a deep subject and in this article I have only touched on many areas. there is another longer version of this lesson, see it at the NoPayPOKER.com free poker training blog (where you can also play free poker games online for fun and practice)