Introduction to Preflop Play

The foundation of a winning poker strategy is based around a strong preflop game. For this series of  articles, we will be focusing on preflop play in 6 max or shorthanded no limit Texas Holdem games.

With the ever increasing popularity of poker training sites and poker coaching, most players are improving their preflop game. It is very important to understand how the preflop strategy sets up the rest of the hand.

Currently, online poker players have an abundance of information available to them about the other players at the table. They obtain this information using datamining software, tracking tools and heads up displays (huds). A player's hud will show statistics on every player at the table. We need to be able to use and manipulate this information to force our opponents into making mistakes.

Firstly, let's take a look at 3 important statistics that are displayed in a hud: 

VPIP – Voluntarily Put in Pot

This is the % of hands a player is playing. It is the % of times a player elects to put money in the pot preflop.

The higher a person's VPIP, the more hands they are playing and of course a lower VPIP means they are playing less hands. 

PFR – Preflop Raise 

This is the % of times a player raises preflop when they are entering a pot. When VPIP and PFR are close together, it means a player is cold calling very little preflop and is either raising or folding when they enter a pot.  

WWSF – Won When Saw Flop 

This is the % of times you win a hand when you see the flop.

These 3 statistics are all closely related and can be used to garner valuable information about a player.

As VPIP gets higher, WWSF will intuitively get lower. A higher VPIP means we are opening a wider, thus weaker range of hands preflop. As a result, it will be harder for us to make hands after we raise. Because of this, we will win less hands postflop.

By contrast, as our VPIP gets lower, our WWSF figure will get higher as a result of playing a stronger hand range.

It is said that the true skill of a 6 max poker player can be determined by multiplying his VPIP by his WWSF figures. 

These articles will discuss preflop starting hand ranges and how to exploit the tendencies of the other players at the table in order to devise a winning preflop strategy.

 The best way to approach this is to start in the first position, more commonly referred to as under the gun (UTG) and work around to the big blind, constructing a perfect preflop opening range for each position based on game conditions.