Preflop strategy from Early Position is probably the most straight forward and easy to play position in texas hold em. Basically if you don’t have a great hand (Ace ace, king king, ace king, ace queen, etc) then you fold. Ace Jack is even a problematic hand in early position, at least at full tables, because someone may have you beaten in middle or late position with something along the lines of Ace Ace, Ace King, or Ace Queen. If you’re playing at a table filled with “rocks” then you definitely want to raise preflop with any of the hands above to ensure that no one sees a free flop to out draw you. If the table is looser then you can add a few hands to the list such as Ace Jack or Ace Ten to, hopefully, eliminate a few of the players from taking a flop.
Being that you’re in early position, you’ll be first to act on the flop, turn and river. If you raised pre flop and didn’t hit its typically safe to bet unless you have a lot of loose players at the table who will call with just about anything. Your pre flop raise and bet at the flop will leave opponents believing you had a pocket pair pre flop and are continuing to bet at it. Of course if you wind up re-raised and didn’t hit anything on the flop its best to muck your hand.
Pay attention to the types of players at the table before deciding how you want to play your hand. Loose players may be calling you all the way to the river with something along the lines of Ace seven offsuit thinking their ace is good. Others may be making a play at you after they pick up on a betting pattern or tell.
As long as you don’t play many hands out of early position you should be able to pick up a good amount of pots on the Button (in late position) or from free flops in the blinds. Early position is always a difficult spot to be in unless you have an incredibly powerful hand that can stand being raised or re-raised throughout the flop, turn, and river. If you start playing poor hands out of early position opponents will drain your stack by raising the pot, forcing you to surrender. Avoid anything that (at worst) isn’t Ace Ten suited or above. Ace Ten suited, Ace Jack, Ace Jack suited, Ace Queen, Ace Queen suited, Ace King, Ace King suited, Jack Jack (which can land you in a world of hurt if the flop has a Queen, King, and / or Ace on it), Queen Queen, King King, Ace Ace or even King Queen suited. Even hands like Queen Jack suited can be trouble in early position when faced with a large raise from an opponent in late position if the flop doesn’t hit for you (or worse you make a pair but are up against King Queen or Ace Queen if the Queen hit.)
Fold, fold, and fold again in early position unless you have one of the best starting hands in texas hold em otherwise your bankroll will start to shrink and your head will hurt from all the “bad beats” you took.
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