MTT starting hand requirements by position and playing style

Which starting hands you play in a tournament is decided by three things, in this order: your position, the price, and the player who raised in front of you. Premiums (QQ+, A-K) play from any seat. Everything else needs late position, a cheap price, or both before it turns a profit. The style that ties it together is tight-aggressive (TAG): enter with a selective range, then play it with bets and raises instead of checks and calls. That is the whole framework, and it is why the same K-J that is a fold under the gun is a clear raise on the button. Get position and the gate right and most of your post-flop spots become easy. Get them wrong and you spend the tournament playing dominated hands out of position for stacks you cannot afford to lose.

The two axes: tight vs loose, passive vs aggressive

Every player sits somewhere on two independent scales. The first is how many hands you enter with, running from tight to loose. The second is how you bet the hands you play, running from passive to aggressive. Cross them and you get four styles, and they are not equal. The loose-passive calling station bleeds chips paying off with second-best hands. The tight-passive rock folds too much and never gets paid when it finally wakes up with a monster. The loose-aggressive maniac manufactures variance without a foundation of strong holdings underneath the bets.

Tight-aggressive takes the best of the other two. You enter pots with a range that is ahead of your opponents on average, and you play it with initiative, so you win two ways: at showdown, and by making better hands fold. Aggression with the right hand also means betting when you are ahead instead of slowing down out of fear. A strong made hand in position should charge value on every street a blank keeps it in front. Flop top pair top kicker, watch the turn brick, and bet again, because worse pairs, draws, and floats still call. The chips you leave on the table by checking are gone for good. Initiative is not aggression for its own sake; it is the discipline of betting your good hands while worse hands can still pay you.

Starting hand requirements by position

Position is the gatekeeper. The hands that clear the bar in early seats are a narrow set; the bar drops the closer you get to the button, because acting last on every street is worth real money.

• Premiums (QQ+, A-K): open or three-bet from any seat. They want money in the pot and they do not need position to be profitable.
• Medium pairs (roughly 22 through JJ): these are set-mining hands against tight early raisers. Call cheaply, flop your set about one time in eight and a half, and stack them when they commit with an overpair. The implied odds justify the call, not the pair's raw strength, so you need enough chips behind to actually get paid when you hit.
• Suited connectors and small speculative hands: these want cheap, multiway flops in position. You are playing for implied odds, the big pots you win when you flop a flush or straight, not for any pre-flop edge. Pay a small price, see a flop with several opponents, and fold without a second thought when you miss.
• Trouble hands (A-J, K-J offsuit): these flop top pair with a kicker that is regularly dominated. They want late position or a clear price advantage. From early position they are reverse-implied-odds traps that win small pots and lose big ones.

The thread running through the list is that position converts marginal hands into playable ones. A hand that is a fold first to act is often a raise on the button precisely because you get to act last on every street that follows.

The gap concept: why it takes more to raise a raise

There is a sharp difference between the hand you need to open a pot and the hand you need to play back against a raise. This is the gap concept: it takes a stronger hand to call or re-raise than it takes to be the first one in, because the raiser has already announced strength. The practical payoff is that three-betting is not always your most profitable line. With a hand that plays well after the flop and the advantage of position, flatting the raise and outplaying your opponent on later streets often beats bloating the pot before you know where you stand.

Even your biggest hands respect this. A big pair facing a three-bet is a clear four-bet for value pre-flop, but it is not unfoldable once chips go in deep. If the board and the line both smash the range your opponent would three-bet and barrel, a coordinated run-out plus multiple streets of conviction from a player who does not bluff that spot, then even kings can be a laydown. Aggression and discipline are not opposites. The gap concept tells you which one the moment calls for.

Read the player before you choose a line: maniac vs rock

The correct response to a bet or a raise is meaningless until you know who made it. The same all-in is a snap-call against one opponent and an easy fold against another. Two archetypes anchor the spectrum and pull your strategy in opposite directions.

• The maniac (loose-aggressive): his range is full of air, so his aggression makes your strong hands worth more, not less. Widen your value bets and call him down lighter. A pair you would check-fold against a tight player becomes a profitable bluff-catcher, because so many of his bets are nothing.
• The rock (tight-passive): when a player who only bets strong hands finally bets, believe him. Fold your marginal made hands rather than paying off a range that is almost always ahead. The rock hands you a free read every time he puts chips in.

This read also governs how you handle your own trouble hands. Flop top pair with a weak kicker, say K-J on a king-high board, and your plan against a serious bettor is pot control, not a three-street value mission. Keep the pot small, look up a bluff or two, and fold to real pressure rather than stacking off into a better kicker. The read tells you whether that pressure is a bluff to catch or a value bet to dodge.

Drill the requirements until they are automatic

Style and starting requirements are reflexes, not calculations you rebuild from scratch each hand. The hands in this part put you in each spot one at a time: betting a strong hand for value in position, set-mining a medium pair against a tight raiser, choosing position over a re-raise, playing a speculative hand for implied odds, widening against a maniac, respecting a rock, four-betting a big pair and then folding it to a board that beats you, and controlling the pot with a vulnerable kicker. Work through them as drills. The goal is to reach the table able to name your style, your range, and your read before you ever touch a chip.