starting hand guide

[seven5eleven]

Hi,

I'd like to ask something about the starting hand guide in ITH. For certain hands it mentions calling, for example, if one other player is already in the hand: Call 1, Call 2, etc. Does this mean that for these hands there must already be a player in the hand for you to call or is it if you expect the required number of players to call? If say I'm in EP2 with A8s which the guide says should have a player in before you call and UTG folds, do I fold?

Thanks,

seven

[ciaran]

Strictly speaking, it's the number of players already in the hand when action gets to you, so you should fold A8s in the example you quote.

That said, if it's a loose-passive table you can make adjustments for the likelihood of it being limped behind you for hands like suited aces and pocket pairs (at least). If the table's been routinely seeing unraised flops with multiple players in the hand, Ax suited is playable from pretty much anywhere (note, I'm not a limit expert, so if someone who is comes along and contradicts me, believe them )

[taz115]

In order to strictly follow the charts Call 2 means that there should be 2 callers, in addition to the BB already in the pot for you to play the hand.

But please do realize that the starting hand charts are a static guide for tables that have constantly changing conditions. They are still very useful for a beginner/novice player to implement discipline in their preflop hand selection but in order to maximize your profits slight adjustments need to be made to reflect the conditions of your table (ie. Loose, passive, tight, aggressive, specific tendencies of the limpers or players yet to act).

Once you get the starting hand charts down correctly you should participate in the threads to refine your approach and increase your understanding of what adjustments are profitable ones.

[seven5eleven]

Thanks guys. I appreciate your time.