Part Five - Betting Before the Flop

Pre-flop is where most of your edge is made. Opening ranges widen as you move toward the button (and wider still with antes in play), and your raise sizing sets up the pot. When someone has already raised, the gap concept governs your response: three-bet your best hands for value and your blocker hands as light re-steals; flat hands that play well in position (medium pairs, suited connectors); and four-bet premiums for value rather than slow-playing them. Special spots recur: the squeeze (for value and as a bluff) against a raiser-plus-caller, isolating weak limpers, defending the blinds and playing blind versus blind, cold four-bet bluffs with ace-blockers, and adjusting to stack depth (short stacks shove and call jams instead of set-mining). And know when to let go - fold dominated broadways to three-bets, and give up a light three-bet that gets four-bet. These hands drill the pre-flop decisions that matter most.