Two costly preflop errors
By: DAVID WHITE

There are two main errors that beginning poker players make preflop... and although, not nearly as costly as the errors made on later streets, avoiding these two errors can save you from continuing to play your made hand on a later street where your odds are worse than 50/50.

1. Playing weak hands out of position, particularly weak offsuit hands.

In early position, your hands need be stronger than at any other time to be playable because you have and will continue to have, on later streets, the least amount of information to act on. This is especially true in a full ring. The more players to act behind you the more players are likely to have your marginal hand beat. If you limp in with a hand like Jc Tc, you're counting on the pot not being raised behind you. If it is, then your call has become unprofitable.

But let's say that everyone else limped in. So, you're thinking great! I got to see my marginal hand to the flop where I can make it big. Wrong. You'll more often than not end up trapping yourself. Let's say the flop is something like Ac Jd 5s Now you have middle pair with a relatively weak kicker, a backdoor flush draw and an Ace on the board. The betting starts at you or near you... what do you do? You want information, so the best way to see where your hand stands it to bet. You make a small bet into the pot. A person in a later position re-raises. You now have to fold, losing two bets in the process for a hand you shouldn't have been playing in the first place.

Weak offsuit hands are even worse. Things like Ks Th are particularly vulnerable to domination. In early position without extra information before you have to make a decision, you're walking into a potentially disaster. Avoid.

2. Cold-calling raises with mediocre hands.

"Cold-calling" is calling two or more bets when you have not invested any money. I see this happen a lot in my home game and online. So this mistake is apparently quite common.

Here's the way it works. Say your in middle position with with a hand like Ah Th. Typically this is a strong hand, but only in an unraised pot and plays better heads up than it does in a multiway pot. If someone raises before you, it typically (and I say typically... cause we play the players not the hand sometimes) indicates that someone has a strong hand. Say they have something like Ac Qc. You're dominated and in a potentially bad situation.

If you have an offsuit Ace-Ten, you are even worse shape. To cold call a raise, you really need a powerhouse hand like AK and sometimes AQ. Throw everything else in the muck. Even against a loose player... The potential to end up in a dominated situation is too common and could cost you a LOT of money.

Unless you are in the big blind, you should usually play only hands that are strong enough to reraise the raiser.I other words, play extremely tightly if someone has raised in front of you.

Later on, I will talk about playing made and marginal hands post flop. But for now, let's just avoid those situations if we can.

David S. White is founder and contributing writer for www.pokerpenguin.net

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