Limit Poker Pre-Flop Expected Value
Pre-flop play skills are good to hone and in fact fun to do when we play a lot of limit poker. Yet few players understand the importance of being good at pre-flop plays. It doesn't take a genius to be skillful with pre-flop hand plays but we do need to have a limit poker positive expected value.
Starting hands in limit poker have an expected value that is determined by certain conditions. It depends on things like our position at the table, how many players playing at the table, if the pot has been raised yet, and the players' skills quality, and other factors. We choose starting hands which are potential hands to have positive expected value eventually. This maximizes our limit poker winning odds later, whether we raise or limp to the pot.
Hence, we stress here the selection of limit poker hands that have the capacity to grow in strength or be developed as the play progresses. These hands have the potential to turn out very competently in the end against majority of the hands present at the table. Thus, included in the development of a positive expected value is how we develop the hand in relation to present game conditions as earlier mentioned - the type of players, the type of the game situation (tight or loose), how many players, raised pot, how many are in the pot, plus the kinds of poker tells apparent.
With a balanced assessment of these factors, we give added value to our limit poker hand, be it the best or second best hand in that particular game, and our starting hand ends up with a positive expected value with a potential of winning the pot. How our limit poker hand gradually gains or earns a positive expected value varies each game - there's no set formula for a positive expected value.
The error of most players is to select starting limit poker hands loosely or play too many hands pre-flop and later end up with no substantial hand at all. This, too, is a loose pre-flop play, though we may feel very busy with many hands and interpret that as playing tight. The thing here is to decide the highest possible hand play at the start (the card or cards that have the most potential of developing into a strong limit poker hand later) and go on with that through the game.
A starting hand with a positive expected value is decided pre-flop in limit poker games.