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There are a number of strategies around pre flop poker and post flop play however the two are very different. Understanding the right range of hands to get involved with, whether you're in early, middle or late position. It is important not to overplay hands and not to get involved when the cards or the skill of your opponents makes it a bad play.
Here will will take a look at the difference and considerations on both pre flop and post flop play.
Pre flop, you main consideration is getting involved with the right hands. Of course it depends whether you are playing low limit or higher limits. In lower limit games, pre flop you should be looking to start with the best hand, call when you have a quality draw (with enough outs) and fold everything else. The reason for this is that players in low limit games like to play anything, pairs, suited cards any ace, you name it. Additionally they find it hard to fold when they have any draw, so bluffing is not a good move. It therefore makes sense to get in with the best and let them call away their chips.
In higher limit games, you can afford to extend the range of hands that you play. In early position, it is advisable not to get involved with anything other than premium hands like A-K, A-Q, A-A, K-K and Q-Q. You may want to try to get in to see a cheap flop with any small pair or suited cards but against a raise it is advisable to get away from the hand. In middle position you can loosen up even more and you get the benefit of seeing what the players in early position do before you act. In late position you are in prime position to pick up some blinds and can generally play almost anything as you get to see the whole table act before you make your move.
Post flop play is where you can really get into trouble, particularly if you have entered the pot with a marginal hand and picked up second or third pair. There is a good reason for not playing any old junk. Lets look at an example, you call a raise pre flop with your 2 3 with 4 other player in the hand. The flop reads 6 K A . You are first to act, what do you do? Let's assume that you put in a bet and the player behind you raises. The problem with A 3 is that the kicker is weak and you are likely behind against any other player with an ace. If you checked the flop and a player behind you raised, would you call? The point i am trying to make is that you really don't know where you are and when entering the pot, by calling the raise, what did you expect to hit? Better than an ace? Probably not, and you would have known then that your kicker was weak. You should therefore not have got involved as calling more raises will likely set you back a chunk of your stack.
If you are playing with a small to medium par, you really should try to get in on the cheap and see if you hit your set. If not, if you face a raise and there are any over cards, you should get away from the hand.
You will also have to start basing your decisions as to whether you call any bets on the number of outs that you have. In other words, how many cards are there that could make you the winning hand. For more on this, read out introductory guide to outs calculation.
So with pairs and suited cards, see what the flop brings. If there is potential stay in the hand but don't stay in trying to catch miracle cards as this will cost you in the long run.
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