Preflop Play

Every hand starts here, and most are shaped before a flop is ever dealt — not by the cards, but by which hands you chose to play and from where. Opening ranges, 3-betting, 4-betting, and blind defense are the grammar of the preflop game.

The biggest preflop variable isn't your two cards — it's your seat. You can play far more hands when you'll act last on every later street, because position is the right to receive information before you have to give it. Tighten up out of position; widen up in it.

These pages give you the ranges and the hand guides. The why underneath them — why the same hand is worth more in one seat than another — is the force of Information.