UTG Starting hands

[Boilermaker]

Just curious, what kind of hands do you play from UTG.
alot of situations come into play, like chipstacks and how many players are left, size of blinds,etc.

so lets say a full 9 man LOW stakes table with the normal loose nutts blinds 50/100 with pretty equal stacks of around 1500, what kind of hands do you play or fold.

I find myself folding folding and more folding from under the gun, and rarely do I raise from that position without a strong starter.
For me in that position starters are AK suited or not, AQ suited or not, AJ suited and suited connectors like J10, KQ . pocket pairs 9 or better (AA or KK will usually get a raise out of me here).
but i fold ALOT of stuff like A10 , KJ small suited connectors. Should I be limping in more with these hands or keep playing like rock from UTG.

Thanks for any advice!

[gamer4life27]

Kenny Tran wrote an article for FTP about early position cards. I think this also applies to UTG, so here it is:

Online Poker at Full Tilt Poker - Kenny Tran Pro Tips: Pro Tip 152

[blade1984]

what type a player are you tight loose ?

[gamer4life27]

I'm whatever player my opponent is not. If my opponent is Tight, passive, I'm loose, aggressive. If he's Loose, Passive, I play tight, aggress, etc. Poker is not about your style, but about your opponents.

[Wyte22]

Since I play heads up poker mainly, my starting requirements are lower than Paris Hilton's morals.

But in 9-max, I consider myself aggressive if I am seeing 29% of my flops and playing ONLY group 1 hands from UTG.

[liladypokerpro]

That is true, it is my understanding that a typical rock (Tight Passive) player will see between 15% - 20% of flops......anything between 20% - 30% can be viewed as Tight Aggressive.......and anything over that is Loose.......can't remember for the life of me where I read this, but it seems to hold true more often than not.

[Fictive]

Originally Posted by liladypokerpro That is true, it is my understanding that a typical rock (Tight Passive) player will see between 15% - 20% of flops......anything between 20% - 30% can be viewed as Tight Aggressive.......and anything over that is Loose.......can't remember for the life of me where I read this, but it seems to hold true more often than not.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the flop% something that you can only state if a player is tight, semi-loose, or loose. I don't think it has anything to do with being aggressive. For example, if a player's flop% is, say, 18%, but he tends to limp a lot, it makes him tight-passive, but if he bets most of the hands he enters, that makes him tight-aggressive. What I'm trying to say is that two players could both have a flop% of 18, but still the other player can easily be passive and the other one aggressive. Same goes post flop, naturally. You are passive if you just check/check-call, and aggressive if you bet/raise/or check-raise.

[liladypokerpro]

Yeah Fictive I was trying to remember what I had read thanks for clearing that up but for the most part I got most of it right Thanks!

[emoneypitt]

Well, assuming you have a stack of 1500 and blinds are 50/100, that means your M is already down to 10. Therefore, I'm only playing something really good from UTG like TT and up, AK, maybe AQ or a lower pocket pair depending on a table read. If the blinds are lower, maybe you can gamble a little more but you're almost entering a critical situation with the example given.

[Vito_Nuccio]

Originally Posted by emoneypitt Well, assuming you have a stack of 1500 and blinds are 50/100, that means your M is already down to 10. Therefore, I'm only playing something really good from UTG like TT and up, AK, maybe AQ or a lower pocket pair depending on a table read. If the blinds are lower, maybe you can gamble a little more but you're almost entering a critical situation with the example given.

I agree, it is almost critical time. Say you are a 4XBB raiser, that leaves you with 1100 to bet post flop to a pot of more than 800.

I also agree about playing big hands from UTG. But you must (better chip stack vs blinds) play some junk here. Now I am talking a very small percentage of the time. The saying, "beware of the early limper" can be expanded to include the early raiser. Do not be too predictable from this or any position.


Later,

[irishpkr]

You can't even raise to 3 or 4times the BB with the given stacks/blinds. With an M of 10 its pretty much shove or fold pre. UTG I'm probably gonna go with TT+,AK

[Boilermaker]

thanks for all the input , I'll keep on keeping on the way I have been playing from UTG.
When blinds are lower, I may start seeing a little more.

I also have a problem folding instead of limping from the SB with so-so cards, even with no raises and blinds low
I think I play way to tight and am trying to find points in my game where I can afford to losen up a lil.

thanks again for the replies!

[Wyte22]

Originally Posted by Boilermaker thanks for all the input , I'll keep on keeping on the way I have been playing from UTG. When blinds are lower, I may start seeing a little more. I also have a problem folding instead of limping from the SB with so-so cards, even with no raises and blinds low I think I play way to tight and am trying to find points in my game where I can afford to losen up a lil. thanks again for the replies!

In late position (CO, Button, Blinds), if no aggression is shown or really no limpers before you, and you have the people after you as weak tight or, passive players. This is a really good spot to not even look at your cards but raise a good 4-5x the BB and steal that pot. If you have a good hand, people might view it as stealing and move in on you, if you don't, hey you tried and didn't work this time, but most of the time it will work.