It is difficult to find a chart for what hands to play from each position (a No-Limit Holdem chart anyway).  This is because No-Limit is a postflop game.  You can play poorly preflop and if your postflop play is very good, you will turn a profit.  This is true in No-Limit more than in any other game.  For that reason a very specific hand chart detailing starting hands from each position could potentially curb a player’s natural style and even harm his or her play.  It’s just more complicated than that.

Your preflop play should be tight from early position, a little looser late, and loose-aggressive first in from the button and cutoff.  However a chart that is too specific will prevent you from mixing your game up based on the table conditions.  For instance if your table is very loose you’re going to want to modify your strategy to play tighter preflop and value bet alot, if the table is very tight then you should get aggressive and put them to the test, if the table is very aggressive then look to trap, if there is a maniac who is trying to give his money away, you might want to take some flops in position on him (he’ll be more likely to give it away postflop).

Fortunately, it doesn’t take too much experience before you will develop your own style and get a feel for what starting hands are appropriate.  You will also develop a sense for when the table is loose and when it is not, when to take advantage of tight play and run your opponents over, and when to wait on a hand to bust the maniac.  I still think a few specifics about how to play different types of hands are in order.

So, I have put together a hand chart, but I think you should use this chart only as a starting point when you first enter a game. Once you have had a few rounds at the table to watch the other players and form a strategy, you can begin to adopt whatever style you are most comfortable with. This should NOT be used as a hard and fast preflop system. If you find yourself using it as such, then you should work on adapting to your opponent’s game.

You can find the hand chart here. I still have the excel sheet, so let me know if you guys want it.

(This portion of the article refers to NLHE 6-max cash game play, SNGS/ Tourneys are further down)

Generally you will be opening with only the very strong hands from UTG and early position, adding in the medium to high strength hands from mid-position, and then you can open some of the marginal and weak marginal hands from the button.

However you should think about the different groupings of hands in different ways.  The suited connectors are in the same category with AQ, however these hands play very differently.  AQ is a hand that hits the flop very obviously whereas 67s is a sneaky hand with the potential for lots of implied odds.  This means that your suited connectors and your small pairs play alot better versus a raise up front than an AQ does (assuming the player is raising only very strong hands up front), even though AQ is a better starting hand than 67s.  With a small pair and a 67s you want your opponent to be strong preflop so that you can get his whole stack after the flop, whereas with AQ you would rather your opponent have a marginal starting hand like JT or even better QT so that you can outflop him and extract value.

Your two big card hands can be very tricky to play and are usually considered to be trouble hands.  Hands like AT, KJ, and QJ can get you into tricky spots.  These hands are better when used to play small to medium size pots in position.  Ask yourself if you would put all of your money in on a queen high flop with a hand that is worse than QJ and you will see why these types of hands are better in small pots.  Typically these hands are best played versus loose calling station types, and then you are just looking to extract value from a worse hand (if a calling station raises you, run and hide).

Most of the marginal and weak marginal hands are trash except for on the button and in blind versus blind play.  And at a low limit NLHE cash game you shouldn’t expect players to get very creative in late position or in the blinds.  For this reason I prefer to avoid most of the weak marginal hands except from the button.  As always be willing to adjust to the play you see at your table.

(The rest of this article deals with SNGs and Tournaments)

In SNGs and Tournaments, excluding the first couple levels where the blinds are still small, your small pocket pairs and suited connectors will go down in value, and your two big card hands and medium aces will go up in value.  This is because the blinds are much larger relative to the average stack.  In cash games, players buying for the maximum will have 100 big blinds.  In the late stages of a tournament, the average stack will be more like 20 big blinds, and in SNGs and even moreso turbos, the average stacks are much shorter relative to the blinds.  This makes your top pair hands much much stronger, and therefore your big cards go up in value.  SNG and tournament poker is mostly played preflop and on the flop, if you watch the last two tables of a big online tournament, you will rarely see hands taken to the river unless the two biggest stacks are clashing.

This also means that your semibluffs will be often be allin bets.  Your value bets will also often be allin bets.  In the late stages of STT (Single Table Turbo) SNGs you will be forced to make allin blind steals in order to stay alive.  These games become much more about preflop selection, stack size, and strategy.  Whos stack is small enough that they can’t take unnecessary risks, but still big enough that they can afford to fold.  A stack fitting this description is a stack that should be targetted for steals (provided he’s not a crazy person).  Sometimes it will be the right play to give up a slightly +EV (expected value) situation in favor of holding on to those extra chips for the fold equity that they give you.  Other times it will be the right play to shove allin with 62s given your stacksize, position, and who is in the big blind.