How to Improve Your Preflop Play

One of the key factors for success in poker is skillful play preflop. It’s at this stage of the hand that the foundations for subsequent postflop decisions are laid.

Optimal preflop play allows you to create advantageous situations postflop and minimize your losses. In this article, we will examine key points that will help you significantly improve your preflop play.

Table of Contents:

- Play Tight

- Avoid Calling from the Small Blind

- Use Bluff 4-Bets

- Consider SPR

Play Tight

At micro-stakes, the key to success is tight play. You should be selective about the hands you enter the pot with and adhere to positional principles. The earlier your position, the narrower the range of hands you should play.

In early positions, such as EP and MP, it’s better to stick to a tight range of hands. This means folding marginal hands like weak suited connectors, and offsuit broadway cards. Opening marginal hands from early positions often results in getting one or two calls and playing out of position postflop, which can lead to losing money in the long run.

In the preflop matrix, I have chosen the following hands:

Then in Hand2Note 4 reports, I filtered situations where I made an open raise with these hands while playing in the Early or Middle positions:

As we can see, my expected win rate in this scenario is -2,9 bb/100, meaning such hands perform poorly in early positions. Therefore, it’s better to fold them preflop to increase the overall win rate.

In late positions, such as the Cutoff and Button, you can expand your range. This is because you will have a positional advantage postflop. Here, you can add weaker hands to your range since you will be the last to act in each betting round, which gives you a significant edge over your opponents.

Avoid Calling from the Small Blind

In poker, there are three main elements through which money is won: hand strength, position, and aggression. The Small Blind is the most disadvantageous postflop position because the player in the Small Blind will act first on every street, always playing out of position.

Сalling with marginal hands puts you in a scenario where you play without a strong hand, out of position, and without initiative.

Such a strategy is doomed to fail. Instead, when in the Small Blind, consider the aggressive approach of either 3-betting or folding. A 3-bet allows you to take the initiative and apply pressure on your opponent, even if your hand is not very strong.

We are dealt A2 suited on the Small Blind, and a tight regular player opens from the Button. Many players would call with our hand in such a spot, hoping to hit the flop and make a strong combination. However, a 3-bet is a much stronger play.

With a 3-bet, we don’t lose the chance to hit a strong hand postflop, but we also gain the opportunity to win the pot without a showdown, representing a premium hand and leaving our opponent facing a tough decision.

Furthermore, given that Hand2Note 4 dynamic HUD indicates that our opponent folds to a 3-bet 88% of the time after an open raise from the Button, opting for a bluff 3-bet would be a highly profitable decision against such a player.

Use Bluff 4-Bets

Many novice players avoid using bluff 4-bets preflop. When they make a raise with marginal hands and face a 3-bet, their standard actions are to call or fold. However, bluff 4-bets can be a very profitable and effective way to defend against 3-bets.

First and foremost, you should attack with bluff 4-bets aggressive players who frequently 3-bet preflop. By employing bluff 4-bets against them, you force them to fold their weaker hands and medium-strength hands, which are difficult to play in a large pot.

This allows you to win the pot immediately without having to see the flop and play through the difficult post-flop situations that arise when you call an opponent’s 3-bet.

Bluff 4-bets also work well in late positions. Players on the Button or in the blinds often 3-bet with a wider range, making your bluff 4-bet more effective. If your opponent responds to your 4-bet with an all-in shove, you have a simple decision. You can easily stack off with your premium hands and fold your bluffs.

Hands that block your opponent’s premium hands, such as those with an Ace or King, are suitable for bluff 4-bets. They reduce the likelihood that your opponent has a very strong hand like AA, KK, or AK.

It’s also useful to include hands in your bluff 4-bet range that can hit the flop well and have the potential to make strong combinations, such as suited connectors.

I have selected the following range in the matrix:

Next, in the Hand2Note 4 reports, I filtered for situations where I opened with these hands from the Cutoff, Button, or Small Blind positions and then called an opponent’s 3-bet:

My expected win rate in this scenario is -141 bb/100.

Now, let’s change the filter and indicate that instead of calling a 3-bet preflop, I made a bluff 4-bet with these same hands:

As we can see, the expected win rate improved to -24 bb/100. Thus, bluff 4-bets from late positions allow for much more effective loss minimization when facing an opponent’s 3-bet.

When applied correctly, the bluff 4-bet strategy will significantly improve your preflop results and make your play more aggressive and unpredictable.

Consider SPR

SPR is an important factor often overlooked even by regular players. Depending on how large the pot will be postflop and what the effective stack will be, you should adjust your preflop strategy.

You already know that a bluff 3-bet is a powerful weapon which gives you the chance to win the pot without a showdown through aggression, both immediately preflop and later postflop.

But if the open raise comes from a short-stacked player, you should refrain from bluff 3-bets, especially if the opponent’s statistics indicate they are a fish.

After your 3-bet, the pot on the flop will already be large, and the opponent will have too little money left in their stack. If they catch any piece of the board or have a pocket pair, they won’t fold. This greatly reduces the effectiveness of the bluff. In such situations, it’s better to stick to a tight range and avoid playing marginal hands.

A fish with a VPIP of 42% and a PFR of 6.8% opens from the Button, and we have 76 suited in the Small Blind. By default, I would 3-bet bluff with our hand. However, considering we are dealing with a recreational player with a short stack, I would abandon this idea.

Firstly, taking into account the fish’s tight PFR, their hand is probably strong, and they are unlikely to fold to a 3-bet.

Secondly, if we 3-bet to 8 BB and the opponent calls, the pot on the flop will already be 17 BB, while their stack will be 28 BB, and we won’t have enough stack depth to apply pressure postflop. Therefore, in this particular situation, I would prefer to simply fold our hand.

Improving your preflop play is a crucial step to advancing your poker skills. Building effective strategies at this stage helps avoid difficult postflop situations, minimize losses, and maximize the use of favorable situations.

Using reports in Hand2Note 4 provides you with powerful tools to analyze your database. You can identify the strengths and weaknesses of your play, improve your strategies, and choose the most profitable preflop decisions.