No-Limit Holdem (Part 1)

By Wesley R. Young

In this two part series we take a look at starting hand recommendations and some strategy for no-limit holdem.

The starting hand recommendations for no-limit holdem are slightly different than those for limit holdem. The first reason for this is the importance of position is magnified because any player may go all-in at any time. Because of this, playing weak or drawing hands anywhere except late position can be expensive. If you limp in with a weak hand and one of the late position players makes a raise, you must fold. You are out of position with a weak hand against a player who has shown strength. This is a losing situation and should be avoided. The second reason is that every time you play no-limit you should focus on not only winning hands, but also taking an opponents entire stack. When the opportunity to break someone presents itself, you must capitalize on it as often as possible. An example of this follows. An early position player makes a standard raise of about three times the big blind and everyone folds to you in late position and you look down to see a pair of fours. We both realize that a pair of fours is weak, but if you both have deep stacks (plenty of chips) I recommend calling to see the flop unless you are sure one of the blinds will re-raise. The thought process here is that if you happen to hit a four on the flop, you will have a powerful yet disguised hand and have a chance to take your opponents entire stack, especially if they have AA or KK. In addition, if the flop does not help you and the preflop raiser bets into you, you can easily fold because you have nothing. Depending on the climate of the game you are in, it may even be profitable to limp-in in late position with hands as poor as 56s at times. Of course you won’t find that on my list below, but I have been in games that this was a correct play. As you gain experience you will start recognizing game situations that you can play profitably and capitalize on them.

Early Position: AA KK QQ AKs AK AQs AQ

Middle Position: JJ TT AJs AJ ATs AT KQs KQ KJs KJ QJs

Late Position: 99 88 77 66 55 44 33 22 A5s A4s A3s A2s KTs KT K9s QJ QTs QT JTs

T9s 98s

I rarely call raises with anything but the pairs listed above unless I have a read on the raiser. My idea is to not lose money because of my kicker with AQ and worse to hands like AK.