Premium hands in Early Position

In ring games, most everyone will agree you have to be selective with your hand selection. So what to do when you do catch a 'premium hand'? As a general rule I bet 4-6x the BB pre-flop, trying to remain consistent for the position so as to not give away the exact hand strength.

So what if you're first to enter a pot? (eg. left of the big blind)

I don't always like raising that big amount, because of a few things. One, I have absolutly no feel for the table strenght. Two, there's little to gain (1.5 BB) if I do take down the pot then and there. Finally, if I do get a caller, I have to act first and defend my hand, often times investing way more into a pot than I'd like to.

The Solution?

Well, I'm here to ask for suggestions. So far I've tried only raising a minimal amount 2-3 times the BB (keeping consistent throughout the game regardless of strength, of course). Also, I never thought of slow-playing very strong hands in early position, until someone used it on me. Say you're holding pocket KK first to act, you just limp in and hope for a bet. Then you re-raise them and put them to a tough decision.

What are your thoughts on this?

Really it comes down to the type of table you are at and your table image with the other players. With a very strong pocket like KK or AA you really only want to be in the hand with one other player or maybe two tops. Any more then that and you significantly diminish the strength of your pocket unless you improve it on the board. So you want to bet in such a way as you think you'll be able to isolate one or two opponents. Sometimes this means that you'll only get the blinds, but usually at a full table someone will have a hand that they want to play. So that comes back to what type of table you are at and what your table image is to be able to find the bet that will make most of the players fold but keep one or two in.

I play limit ring games, but I project a tight table image. Most of the time when I raise from early position, everyone at the table will fold. Sometimes there will be one or two people that really like their hand who will stay in. I know this, and when I catch a really strong pocket in early position I'll raise. When I catch a hand that does better against multiple opponents, then I'll just call because I know that will generate a lot more action.

Even though I play limit, the same type of strategy applies in no limit. If you've been at the table for any length of time then you should have a feel for what size bets scare people and you should have an idea of what your table image is. This will give you an idea of what kind of bet you can throw out that will scare most people off the hand.

You hit on the real key though, you want this bet to not be so different from a bet with a lesser pocket that people will be able to put you on a monster pocket. This is where knowing what your table image is really becomes necessary. Have you been caught bluffing? Do you raise with ace rag? Do you generally just call or do you raise most of the times when you come into the pot? Setting up a table image will determine how well you'll be able to play the big hands when they come while getting the action you want.

One thing you don't want to do is become consistent with your bets. If you get AA one time and raise 6x the big blind, raise it only 3 or 4 times the next time. Varying how you play the sames hands really makes it difficult for someone to put you on a hand.

Just a Note: Raise on AA, limp on 86s, limp on AA, raise on 86s

How about KQ suited? AQ? How would you play these hands, and when would you mix up your play with these?

OK there is lots I want to comment upon on what has been said so far. I never play NL ring games - only tourneys so not everything applies. In ring games you can table hop so you dont need to worry about other people's reads on you as much but here is my views....

OK 1) bet real big if you think there is a decent chance someone will call AND you will be a big favorite - thus go all in with aces if you think someone will call with KK, Ak, KQs, QQ, JJ, 1010, AJs etc but otherwise dont play it that way.

2) if you think you have a good chance of being favourite (KK, QQ) etc and are not risk adverse then go all in.
Otherwise the following applies - I have several styles that i play but as a general rule I dont bet in early position WHATEVER I HOLD. Generally speaking you don't want to bet big in early posiiton because you are investing a lot into the pot where you have a positional disadvantage post flop and where you could get raised and reraised and end up either calling when you are behind or folding whereby you have just tossed some chips goodbye. Flat calling or small raising with MONSTERS also makes people less likely to raise you big preflop and that enables you to see more hands in early position for a profit. It works both as a deceptive play and a protective play. It depends on the kind of table though if you are playing against floppers (players who call much more than they bet preflop) then generally I would never just call a bet preflop I would raise or fold and I would generally raise more in mid position than I would in early position. I will often tend to do as Homeville suggests and bet the same amount what ever I hold. it would normally be about 3*BB in mid position. If there have been other callers then I am generally more inclined to call but I still take the view that one is often best to fold or raise preflop (except in early position). This isnt a strategy I always employ but if i am worried about people getting reads on me (i think they might be trying to) it is a good solid strategy - it makes you fold a lot of borderline hands but also allows you to play those that you do more aggressively. People cant place you on hands if you do this - you must be wary of what hands you do it on and be sensitive to early and late position play - you must also re-evalutate hands in the light of the action of other players and be willing to apply the gap concept etc. Also you should play different hands than you would otherwise play if you adopt this strategy. Hands like AJ for instance should not be played after a call if you are in a earlyish position very often, hands with nearnut potential such as Axs become more playable etc. People are far too willing to call rather than reraise preflop and that makes this kind of strategy much more playable than it would otherwise be. At higher stakes tourneys more players have the sense to reraise (20 - 50$ buy ins) and this means that if you adopt this strategy you have to be untraselective on when you do it as otherwise it could be costly. It is a strategy that you should generally only employ when you have at least moderate reads on the table.

I used to think that slowplaying premiums in late position was the best way to play them but IN tourneys where the blinds are increasing and defending blinds becomes more important then I am not sure that the same rules apply. I have been caught out calling SB all-ins in the BB with QQ etc to find i am facing AA - there was a broad range of hands that the player could have had for the bet as blinds were very high but knowing that I would be advised to show that i protect my blind and the fact that everything had been folded to the SB and ANY bet could be read as a blind steal (both of us held 20*BB in chips at most) going all in with aces was actually quite a good ploy... AND me calling wasnt too bad either. Still in a general cash game I just think people would fold here and it wouldn't be profitable.
So in tourneys I would consider fast playing premiums once the blinds start getting high if the player/s immediately after me OR me myself have sub 15*BB - otherwise I would consider slowplaying them (BUT this means raising * eg 3 if I am playing my "conformed betting" strategy

Grumbar you are wrong when you say you want only 1 or 2 opponents. In Limit this is probably true but in limit that is not the case at all. However you want to be either near all in or the cap (if you are playing with a cap) before the flop is seen if you have pocket KK or AA and are fast playing them. AA will win against 9 other hands over 30% of the time - that is excellent odds!!!!

Now in a tourney that may mean that a lot of the time you will leave with nothing but SO WHAT - 30% of the time you will be VERY VERY happy. Still if you have excellent reads on the field it might be a poor decision to risk a 30% on winning 10* your stack but 90% of the time for 90% of us it is something that we want. However it is very hard where you stand with AA on any flop the only cards that help you are cards that will almost guarentee a fold from the others .. in short it can be tough to read someone as catching two pair or trips etc on many flops and the more people seeing the flop the greater the chance that someone will catch 2 pair or better. Still if you can get multiway action on AA that is EXCELLENT but if you aren't near either your all in , their all in or the cap then you want to have excellent reads on your opponents to play it this way.