How and what hole cards to play and from what tables positions is what you’ll learn about in this free poker 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”.

Understanding ranges is the most important SKILL a poker player has.

Lets say an opposing player is super tight and make a big reraise preflop. QQ,KK,AA would be the example range. 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.

KT, KJ, KQ offsuit would be written KTo+ to mean offsuit king KT or better. Offsuit is designated “o” and suited with an “s”, so, K8o+ is any offsuit king K8 or above.

What are the Playable Hole Cards

There are 3 factors to consider:

1) The action before our turn to act.
2) Our table position
3) Your opponents’ tendencies

Number 1 is self explanatory. If there’s been a raise, a 3bet, and a 4bet before action reaches you, you should fold your pocket 9s. Being tighter than your opponents when you open is a good rule to work by.

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) You get position on your opponents postflop. 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. You get to see their reaction to the flop if they play it while they do not know anything about you.

Opponents’ tendencies examples –
> Don’t open wide from the button if the big blind is going all in with every hand as you’ll have to fold weaker hands to his shove.
> 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:.
> Play tighter..
> 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 lesser hands such as 87s if you miss and continue bet the flop asggression may result and few folds. So high-card hands go up in value while middle connectors go down.

Of course, some hands we’ll almost always play (JJ+, AQ+ for example). Some hands we’ll never play like 52o, but for tons of others the answer is “it depends on the situation”.

Generally:
- Play loose late position, tight early.
- Preflop, play looser against tight players and tighter against loose.
- Preflop play looser against passive players and tighter against aggressive.
- If there has been action before yo play tighter.
- Nearly never play trash and nearly always play premiums.

Here are some examples to Demonstrate.

- UTG (1st position) 10 hand 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:

> When against a loose passive opponent with a marginal hand.

> More common, especially in free poker games, a limpede. Where several players limp preflop (limp+stampede = limpede!)

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.

As so much of this is “it depends you should practice on free online poker sites where you can change around your ranges and see what works and what doesn’t, how you should adjust in certain spots, etc. with absolutely no monetary loss.

So test away! For a much more in depth version of this article, see the full lesson on the NoPayPOKER free poker education blog