10 Tips to Master No-Limit Hold’em Preflop Strategy

By Jonathan Little

PokerCoaching.com
Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................... 1
Focus on Ranges ......................................................................................... 2
Learn to Count Combinations of Hands ....................................................... 7
Start with GTO Ranges .............................................................................. 11
Use Intelligent Preflop Raise Sizes ............................................................. 16
From In Position, 3-Bet Polarized .............................................................. 18
From the Small Blind, 3-Bet Linear ............................................................ 23
From the Big Blind, 3-Bet with the Best Hands and Strong Suited Hands .... 28
Properly Combat Limpers ......................................................................... 33
Play Tighter in Multi-Way Pots .................................................................. 39
Look Left .................................................................................................. 44
Conclusion ............................................................................................... 46
Welcome! I am excited to share with you 10 tips to master preflop no-limit
hold’em strategy. This ebook is not meant to be a complete guide on how to play
no limit hold’em. It is instead designed to ensure you do not commit the
common mistakes that many small and medium stakes players regularly make
that result in them having almost no chance of winning. For a full, in-depth
guide on how to crush tournaments and cash games, check out my Tournament
and Cash Game Masterclasses in PokerCoaching.com.

1
When playing any poker game, it is mandatory that you stop thinking in terms of
your and your opponents’ specific hands and instead think in terms of ranges.
You should actively make a point to play many hands in the same manner so you
are not easy to play against. Your opponents should be trying to do the same.
Unless your opponent is incredibly straightforward and predictable (which
almost no one is in today’s games unless they are relatively new to poker), you
must accept that you will essentially never know what their specific hand is. You
cannot “put them on A-K”, but you can put them on a range, which may or may
not contain A-K.

2
Suppose someone raises from first position in a 9-handed tournament with a
1bb ante that is paid by the big blind (the current live tournament structure
which will be used throughout this ebook), with an 80 big blind (bb) stack.
Assuming they are playing decently well, they could reasonably have any of
these hands:

3
Your specific opponent may raise with a wider or tighter range, even if they are
playing well. For example, some players play slightly more suited hands such as
K-7s, 9-8s, and 8-7s. Others may raise with a few more big card hands like K-Jo.
Others may raise with all pairs. However, your decent opponent will never play
hands like K-7o, J-6s, 7-2o, or 4-3o because they are definitively unprofitable to
play from first position. If the flop comes 6-5-4, you can be quite confident that
your opponent will rarely have a straight (although they could have other strong
hands like a set, two pair, or an overpair).

4
Suppose your opponent raised from early position when 80bbs deep in a
tournament and everyone folds around to you in the big blind. Here is roughly
the GTO (game theory optimal) defense strategy:

5
You may elect to 3-bet (re-raise) with a slightly different selection of hands, but
you should essentially never have hands like A-A, K-K, and A-K when you call
(because you should 3-bet), and you should also never have hands like Q-6o, J-
4o, and 7-3o (because you should fold).

Because both players have ranges that consist of different types of hands, each
specific flop will favor one player over the other, which will determine their
postflop strategies. For example, A-K-Q is excellent for an early position raiser,
whereas 6-5-4 is excellent for a big blind caller. As players bet or check postflop,
this will potentially impact their range by further narrowing it until all the
betting rounds are complete. At that point, each player’s range will be the
narrowest, but still not one specific hand. While you will have one specific hand
in each exact situation, over the long run, you will play many different hands in
the exact same manner.

6
In order to understand how hand ranges interact with each other, you must
realize that there are not the same number of combinations of each hand in
each situation. They are not all equally likely due to there being a different
number of combinations of pairs and unpaired hands. Also, as cards are
removed from the deck either because they are in your hand or on the board,
that further makes each specific hand less likely.

Let’s first discuss unpaired hands. There are 16 combinations of each unpaired
hand, 4 suited and 12 unsuited.

For example, on Ah-6c-4d, there are 16 combinations of 7-5 available (4 x 4 =

16).

However, if your opponent will only play 7-5s (which will usually be the case
unless they are in the big blind), there are only 4 combinations of that hand
available. If they will not play any combinations of 7-5 (such as when you raised

7
from early position and your opponent is also in early position), then there are 0
combinations available.

If one of the cards is not available because it is either in your hand or on the
board, there are 12 possible combinations. If the flop comes Ah-6c-4d, there are
12 combinations of A-K available because no one can have a hand that contains
the Ace of Hearts because it is on the flop.

You can quickly figure out how many combinations of an unpaired hand are
available by multiplying the number of the first card that is available by the
number of the second card that is available. In this case, there are 3 Aces and 4
Kings, giving you 3 x 4 = 12 combinations of A-K.

8
On Ah-6c-4d, there are 9 combinations of A-6 because an Ace and a 6 are on the
board, meaning there are 3 of each remaining (3 x 3 = 9).

If your opponent only plays A-6 suited, only 2 combinations exist. If instead the
board was Ah-6h-4d, there would be 3 combinations of A-6 suited available, Ad-
6d, Ac-6c, and As-6s.

If the board was Ah-Ac-6d, there would be 12 combinations of 6-5 (3 x 4), 8

combinations of A-J (2 x 4), and 6 combinations of A-6 (2 x 3), assuming all
suited and unsuited versions are played.

Now let’s discuss pocket pairs. There are 6 combinations of each pocket pair.

9
If one of the cards is not available because it is either in your hand or on the
board, there are 3 possible combinations. On Ad-6c-4s, there are 3 combinations
of A-A.

If two of the cards are not available because they are in your hand or on the
board, there is 1 combination. On Ad-Ah-4s, there is 1 combination of A-A.

When someone raises before the action gets to you, many of the best hands to
3-bet (re-raise) contain an Ace. This is because when you have an Ace in your
hand, it makes it less likely that your opponent has a strong hand that will never
fold, such as A-A, A-K, A-Q, or A-J. When you have an Ace in your hand, it makes
A-A 50% less likely and A-K, A-Q, and A-J 25% less likely. A relevant card in your
hand that makes it more difficult for your opponent to have a premium hand is
referred to as a blocker. Blockers are powerful!

That is all there is to counting combinations of hands before the flop!

10
When most players start learning how to play no-limit hold’em, they often think
a reasonable strategy is to play decently strong preflop hands and then try to get
their money in, or to splash around preflop looking to flop a strong hand and
then get their money in. The problem with these strategies is that all your
opponents have to do to crush you is to fold whenever it is clear you want to get
your money in. If you rarely get paid off with your strong hands, you will have a
difficult time winning. So, you have to figure out how to logically and profitably
add bluffs to your strategy. Using the well balanced, fundamentally sound GTO
(game theory optimal) strategy will accomplish this.

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80bbs deep in a tournament against a 3bb preflop raise from the cutoff, a
straightforward, honest player may use this strategy from the button:

12
Notice that when they 3-bet, they almost always have a strong hand, and when
they call, they have a marginal hand. While you often want to 3-bet with your
best hands, the GTO strategy for hands like A-Js and A-Qo is to just call because
when you get 4-bet, you will be in a tough spot with a hand that would
otherwise be in excellent shape against an initial preflop raising range. These
hands play excellently in small pots but horribly in large pots. Calling with all
marginal hands also sets you up to get crushed by a 3-bet from a player yet to
act.

When someone who uses this face-up strategy happens to 3-bet, all the initial
raiser has to do to beat them is fold hands that are likely to be dominated, call
hands that are getting the correct implied odds to try to outdraw the strong 3-
betting range, and 4-bet hands that are strong enough to get all-in profitably
against the strong 3-betting range. When the logical counterstrategy is simple
and obvious, most players will quickly find and implement it.

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Instead of playing this straightforward, honest strategy, here is a much better
strategy (which is much closer to the GTO strategy):

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This strategy is quite robust because when you 3-bet, your opponent will not
know if you have a premium hand that you are happy to play a large pot with or
a bluff. This polarized strategy is ideal when you are in position against a preflop
raiser who plays well.

Of course, if your opponent plays poorly, you should adjust your strategy so that
you exploit the specific mistakes they are likely to make. If your opponent
usually folds to 3-bets, 3-bet more often with bluffs (especially with an Ace or
King, which blocks your opponent’s continuing range). If they call 3-bets every
time, 3-bet with a strong, but decently wide linear range of only the best hands
that crushes their junky calling range. In order to win as much money as possible
from poker, you must constantly adjust to the mistakes your opponents are
making.

Whatever you do, when playing against competent opponents, do not play in a
face-up, honest manner. If you do, they will steal all the small and medium pots
when you have non-premium hands, and they will almost never pay you off
when you actually have the nuts (the best possible hand), which will make it
impossible for you to win in the long run. That said, do not play in an overly
fancy/tricky manner either. Simply start with fundamentally sound GTO ranges
and then adjust to exploit whatever your opponents do incorrectly.

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While some players mix up their preflop raise sizes based on the strength of
their hole cards, their position, or in some other way, I recommend you use the
same preflop raise size based on the effective stack depth (the shortest stack
likely to be involved in the pot) and your position.

Here are my recommended bet sizes from all positions except the small blind
and big blind.

If any bet would put in more than 35% of your stack, you should usually go all-in
instead.

As the effective stack depth decreases, your bet sizes should also decrease. This
is mainly because with a short stack, you do not need to use large bet sizes early
to build a pot such that you can get all-in on the river when your hand justifies it.

When facing multiple limpers, roughly add 1bb more to the raise amount listed
for each limper beyond the first. So, with 80bbs, when three players limp before
you, make it 4.5 + 1 + 1 = 6.5bbs.

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When facing a raise and one or more callers, add the raise amount to your 3-bet
size for each caller. So, if there is a 3bb raise and 2 callers, make it 3 x 3 + 3 + 3 =
15bbs. The same logic applies when facing a 3-bet.

When you are in the small blind or big blind, you should add 1 additional unit of
the last bet amount to the numbers listed above. So, when it folds to you 800bbs
deep in the small blind and you want to raise, make it 2.75 + 1 = 3.75bbs. When
one player limps around to you in the big blind and you want to raise, make it
4.5 + 1 = 5.5bbs. When there is a 2.5bb raise and two callers before you and you
want to 3-bet in the small blind, make it 3 x 2.5 + 2.5 + 2.5 + 2.5 = 15bbs.

Following the above chart will ensure you always use an excellent bet size in all
situations before the flop.

The main time you should adjust your preflop raise size is when your opponents
play especially poorly in a way that you can predict. For example, if you know
your opponents will fold far too often to small raise sizes, raise smaller with a
wider range of non-premium hands, especially from the late positions. If you
know your opponents will call any amount they do not think is “too much”,
perhaps you should raise to 6bbs (or more) with all your premium hands and to
the above recommended amount with your playable, but non-premium hands.
Of course, when you use two obviously different raise sizes with hands of
different strengths, it turns your range face-up, which could result in your
opponents counter-exploiting you. Also, be careful that you do not make these
adjustments incorrectly because if your opponents start folding all their
marginal and junky hands because you used a gigantic raise size, you will lose
substantial value with your premium hands.

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Assuming you are striving to play the GTO strategy, when someone raises before
you and you will be in position against them, you should 3-bet with a polarized
range that includes your best hands that you want to get a lot of money in with
as well as some hands that are not quite good enough to call. Your calling range
should contain all hands that are strong but do not want to 3-bet and face a 4-
bet. This pattern holds true as long as you are not extremely shallow stacked.

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Suppose with 80bb effective stacks in a tournament everyone folds to the hijack
who raises to 2.5bbs. If the cutoff folds, here is an easily implementable strategy
that is close to the GTO strategy for this situation:

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J-J+, A-Qs+, and A-Ko are happy playing for a lot of money. The 3-bet bluffs
either have excellent blockers to your opponent’s continuing range (A-xs, K-xs,
and junky offsuit Broadway hands), or excellent postflop playability (suited
connectors and gappers). By 3-betting with this range, your opponent will have
an impossible time knowing if you have a premium hand or a bluff, which will
make you difficult to play against.

Notice that your calling range is also well protected, containing many strong
hands like 10-10, A-Qo, A-Js, and K-Qs. Calling with these strong hands allows
you to call with a few marginal hands, such as 6-4s and 5-3s.

As stacks get shallower, you should 3-bet with fewer bluffs, and your bluffs
prefer to have blockers to your opponent’s continuing range because they are
less likely to call and more likely to go all-in or fold. By having an Ace or King in
your hand, it becomes less likely they have a reasonable hand to go all-in, so
those hands become the preferred 3-bet bluffs with shallow stacks, as you can
see here in the implementable GTO strategy when the hijack raises and you are
on the button, but this time with 30bbs:

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21
Notice that now you are 3-betting with a smaller percentage of bluffs and most
of your bluffing combinations are high offsuit hands (36 offsuit combinations
compared to 12 suited combinations).

22
Assuming you are striving to play the GTO strategy, you should 3-bet with a
mostly linear range from the small blind. In a cash game with no ante and a rake
(the default small and medium stake cash game structure in most casinos), you
should actually have no calling range when someone raises, resulting in you only
3-betting with the best hands and folding everything else. Many players make
the blunder of calling with all sorts of marginal hands from the small blind,
which will make it difficult for them to win in the long run due to consistently
paying the rake.

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For example, here is the implementable GTO strategy 100bbs deep in a cash
game when the cutoff raises and it folds to you in the small blind:

24
I realize this strategy probably seems extremely tight, but it is the GTO play if
your opponents are also playing GTO (which is quite tight in cash games with a
rake). Of course, if your opponents raise wider and fold too often to 3-bets, or
call 3-bets too often and then fold to small continuation bets too often on the
flop, you can 3-bet a little wider. That said, you cannot call with lots of marginal
suited and connected hands because you lack position and the rake will devour
your stack.

25
In a tournament with an ante and no rake taken out of each pot, you can have a
calling range because the postflop pot will be larger, giving you better pot odds.
Here is the implementable GTO strategy 80bbs deep when the cutoff raises and
it folds to you in the small blind:

26
The actual GTO strategy uses many more mixed frequencies, but this
implementable strategy is close to it and is much easier to use in-game. Notice
how much wider you can play when there is no rake and an ante. While this 3-
betting strategy is not perfectly linear, it is close to it. Most of the best hands 3-
bet and most of the weaker hands in the playable range call.

27
Assuming you are striving to play the GTO strategy, from the big blind, you
should 3-bet with your best hands and your strong suited hands. Because you
are closing the action, you are less incentivized to 3-bet, resulting in you 3-
betting mostly with your best hands that flop well while calling with a decently
wide range. That said, many players make the mistake of only 3-betting with
their absolute best hands from the big blind, perhaps 9-9+, A-J+, and K-Q. While
you should usually 3-bet these premium hands, you should also include an
adequate amount of intelligent “bluffs”/lesser value hands so you are not easy
to play against.

28
For example, in a cash game, here is your strategy 100bbs deep from the big
blind facing a cutoff raise:

29
While you still have a few weak hands in your 3-betting range, most of your non-
premium 3-bets come from reasonably strong suited hands.

30
In a tournament with 80bbs facing a raise from the cutoff, here is your defending
strategy from the big blind:

31
Getting far better pot odds due to there being an ante and no rake, you should
call far wider. As your calling range gets extremely wide, you should ensure it is
protected by calling with some of your strong hands like 8-8, A-10s, and K-Js. As
your range gets extremely wide, most of your bluffs should come from the
medium suited connectors.

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When someone limps before the action gets to you, you have to decide how to
respond. The main overriding factor in how you should proceed is if the initial
limper is tricky or straightforward.

If the initial limper is tricky, meaning they will limp with some of the best hands
looking to re-raise if someone raises, you should raise only or mostly with your
absolute best hands plus some blockers to their premium hands that do not play
too well in multi-way pots. Some limpers will be heavily weighted towards A-A
whereas others will limp with A-A plus a wide range of marginal hands they
think are not strong enough to make an initial raise. It is up to you to figure out
each specific opponent’s range composition.

33
Playing 75bbs deep against one tricky limper who you do not know especially
well from early position, if you are also in early position, this is a reasonable
strategy:

34
This raising range may seem tight, but you have to remember that this type of
player wants you to raise some portion of the time. If your opponent wants you
to do something, you should not do it unless it is actually in your favor. If you
expect someone yet to act to frequently raise (as some aggressive players will),
you should call with a tighter range. When there is a player yet to act who you
know with a high degree of certainty will raise over limps, strongly consider
limping behind with your best hands, looking to put in a re-raise.

If you are in a later position, you can call a bit wider with additional suited
hands. Marginal offsuit hands that are not connected will rarely be playable,
even for 1bb. From the small blind, you can call a bit wider with offsuit
connected hands due to your better pot odds, but don’t get too carried away
against a tricky limper. From the blinds, raise with an extremely polarized range,
and perhaps with only the best hands if you expect to completely lack preflop
fold equity.

If you know the limper’s range is heavily weighted towards A-A and K-K, you
should raise with only A-A, maybe K-K, and perhaps a blocker hand like A-Jo as a
bluff, opting to call and see the flop with all the other pairs (even as strong as Q-
Q!) and suited hands that have excellent implied odds. Do not automatically
assume that just because someone limps that they must have a marginal hand!

Against straightforward players who limp only or mostly with hands they think
are not good enough to raise, you should raise far more often because most
decently strong hands will crush your opponent’s limp/calling range.

35
75bbs deep against one straightforward limper from early position, when you
are also in early position, here is a reasonable strategy:

36
Against straightforward limpers, you should raise with a strong linear range,
opting to limp behind with suited hands that play well enough postflop. You
should immediately realize that this limping range is quite marginal. If the
opponents yet to act will frequently raise over limps (as they should against two
marginal limping ranges), you should tighten up your limping range a bit,
perhaps to the point that you raise with all playable hands in your range. If you
limp behind, someone yet to act raises, and then the initial limper calls, all
hands in the above limping range can call and see the flop as long as the raise is
not too large.

From the later positions, you can raise with a wider range depending on how
often you expect the straightforward limper to continue both preflop and
postflop. Do not get too carried away raising limpers with all sorts of junk
though, because unless they fold far too often, it will be difficult to profit with
junky hands.

Against multiple limpers, the initial limper’s strategy should be your main
concern. Most players who limp behind the initial limper almost never have a
premium hand because they would have raised. If the initial limper is tricky, you
should proceed with caution. If they are straightforward, you should proceed
aggressively. As more limpers enter the pot, offsuit unconnected hands like K-8o
and J-7o become especially terrible, so do not raise them and do not call with
them even when getting excellent pot odds.

Against multiple limpers, be sure to raise a bit larger than the size of the pot to
ensure you have fold equity. Many players make the mistake of raising over
multiple limpers to something like 5bbs only to have all the limpers call. When
someone has to put in 4bbs to win a 20bb pot, they should not fold too often. By
raising far less than the size of the pot, you essentially force your opponents to
play well, even with their marginal ranges. You make money when your
opponents make mistakes, not when they play well.

Recall from the preflop raise chart earlier that if there are 4 limpers, make it
roughly 3 x 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + .5 = 7.5bbs. If there is an ante in play or if you are
out of position, raise a little larger. If you think your opponents will call a
“normal” raise but will almost always fold to a “large” raise, experiment with

37
making it “normal” when you want to get called (when you have a premium
hand) and “large” when you do not want to get called (when you have a non-
premium hand). If your opponents will always call a 7.5bb raise but will always
fold to an 11bb raise, you have found an extremely profitable spot.

As stacks get shallower, you have to be especially careful raising limpers because
they can shove all-in over your raise, forcing you to fold your non-premium
hands. That said, most players who limp with shallow stacks have incredibly
weak ranges, allowing you to raise and steal the pot a large portion of the time
either preflop or with a postflop continuation bet.

38
Many players incorrectly think they should loosen their ranges when someone
raises and multiple players call because they are then getting amazing pot odds.
However, they fail to consider that they are far more likely to be dominated,
resulting in them having a much more difficult time realizing their equity.

39
Suppose 100bbs deep in a tournament, the lojack (the first player to act at a 6-
handed table/the third player to act at a 9-handed table) raises to 3bbs and
everyone folds to you in the big blind. Here is roughly your GTO strategy:

40
You should continue with a wide range due to your excellent pot odds and
closing the action in a heads-up pot. If the lojack uses a smaller raise size or
raises with a range that is too wide, you can defend a bit wider, but even then,
don’t get carried away and call with hands like Q-5o, 7-4o, and 4-2o.

41
Instead suppose the lojack raises and then the button and small blind call. Here
is the GTO strategy from the big blind. Now you should defend much tighter,
perhaps with this range (depending on the callers’ strategies):

42
Notice how much tighter you have to defend. The weakest suited hands become
unplayable, as do almost all offsuit hands that are not connected or have one
gap between them. Also, your 3-betting range becomes almost entirely linear,
with your “bluffs” coming from offsuit hands with blockers, like A-10o and K-Qo,
and decent suited hands, like Q-9s and 10-9s.

This big blind defense range against a raise and two callers is tighter than most
players use, which is why many players squander a ton of chips in multi-way
pots. While you can defend a little bit looser if you know the button and small
blind are calling too loosely, you cannot get too out of line due to your complete
lack of position and high likelihood of being against decently strong ranges that
crush your offsuit hands that are likely to be dominated.

This concept holds true when you are in position too. For the most part, when
there is a raise and a call before the action gets to you, suited Kings, suited
gappers, and almost all offsuit hands go way down in value and you should
usually 3-bet with a much more linear range.

43
The idea that you should “look left” before you act when playing live poker is a
simple yet powerful piece of advice that will win you a ton of money. While you
will often find no useful information, you may be surprised to see that some
players yet to act make their intentions clear before it is their turn to act.

Suppose everyone folds to you in the cutoff. If you look to the left and can tell
that the button is going to fold, it is now as if you are on the button, allowing
you to profitably raise with a substantially wider range. By looking left, you
upgraded the cutoff, the second most profitable seat at the table, to the button,
the most profitable seat at the table.

Suppose instead everyone folds to you in the cutoff. If you look left and can tell
the button clearly likes their hand, you should raise with a substantially tighter
range, allowing you to fold hands that fare poorly against a playable button
range.

Suppose you raise preflop and a player in position calls. On every flop, look left
to see if your opponent is interested in the pot. If they are, you should
continuation bet far less often than normal, usually with only your best made
hands and draws. If they are not, you should continuation bet with all your non-
premium hands and check with your premium hands, which will force them to
stay in the pot, giving them a chance to catch up to a second-best hand or bluff.

Once in a $25,000 buy-in tournament, a loose, aggressive player raised to 2.5bbs

out of his 25bb effective stack. I found A-Ko on the button, which is normally an
easy all-in. As I was about to put my chips into the pot, I looked left and saw the
player in the small blind stacking his chips up as if he was going to put them in.
Instead of going all-in, I called, looking to get my money in as a nice favorite
against the small blind. The small blind put their stack in, as did the hijack after
some thought. It is difficult to know how much equity A-Ko has against these
two ranges in this abnormal situation, but it is definitely more than the required
29.2% equity. Against these two opponents, I thought I had roughly 37% equity.
Some players would have folded A-Ko in my spot, opting to not risk their
tournament life, but this is an extremely profitable spot that you should not pass

44
up. I was happy to see the small blind show Q-Js and the hijack show K-Jo, but it
did not matter when the flop came J-J-3 to bust me. Sometimes you are going to
lose, and that is fine. By looking left, I gained a substantial amount of equity that
I will eventually collect in the long run.

When looking left, also look for signs of extreme interest or disinterest in your
opponents’ behaviors. If someone normally watches sports on their phone when
they are dealt in but not interested in the pot, but you look left and see them
zoned in on the poker action, they probably have a playable hand. If someone
slouches down in their chair when they are not interested, when you see them
slouch down, you should presume they have a weak hand. In general, when the
game is casual and friendly, and as the pot becomes more multi-way, players
become more face-up with their mannerisms. Pay attention and correlate your
opponent’s abnormal actions to the strength of their cards. You will usually not
be able to pick up live tells against world-class players, but most small and
medium stakes players will give off many tells that will give you valuable
information.

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Thanks for taking the time to read this ebook. To continue your journey to poker
mastery, I strongly suggest you go through my Tournament or Cash Game
Masterclasses in PokerCoaching.com, depending on the form of poker you want
to play. After mastering the content in that 40-hour-long interactive course, you
will understand no-limit hold’em and be prepared to have an edge in pretty
much any small or medium stake game you enter. If you want many more tips
similar to these in this ebook, be sure to check out my book 100 Essential Tips to
Master No-Limit Hold’em.

Thanks for reading and good luck in your games!

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