Summary Of Positional Considerations
This will be a summary of some of the things you should consider — that is, the general way you should play the various playable hands — depending on whether you're in an early, middle or late position. Early is the first two positions after the high card; middle is the next three positions; late is the last two positions.
In an early position, the first thing you must do is dismiss any thoughts you might have about bluffing or trying to steal the antes.* If you're going to play your hand from an early position. . .you must have a legitimately playable hand (not a borderline hand). Your only thought should be: "how am 1 going to play it — should I call or raise?" The answer to that question is:
You raise with the hands you want to play head-up. With a hand that you'd like to play in a multi-way pot, you might call.. .or you might raise. It depends.
You might want to just call with a "dynamite" hand such as 3-4-5 (suited) in a small or normal ante game — even if your opponents may know what you're doing (slow-playing). However, you shouldn't automatically slow-play a big hand. Exactly what you'll do will depend on the quality of players you're up against. If you're the first low card and you just call. . .and you're up against very good players — they'll know you've got a hand. In that case, you might just as well come in raising because you won't gain anything by slow-playing. More than that, you could actually lose some potential profits by slow-playing because then your hand is an "open book" to a good player. He'd be more inclined to gamble with you when he knows you've got an "automatic" raise. But, if he suspects you of sandbagging, he probably won't give you any action.
Also, in a high-ante game, you should come in raising with any hand you're going to play from an early position.
In a middle position, you should play your hand in basically the same way you would from an early position. The only difference is that, as more and more people fold, you start to consider raising with a borderline hand if you think there's a chance you can steal the antes.
If everybody has folded and you have a low card up, you're in the steal position if there's only one low card
*An exception to this is when there's only one or no low-cards behind you.
behind you. You should usually raise in that spot even if you've got a bad one (a Ten or higher) in the hole. With two bad ones, just give it up.
If there's two low cards behind you, you must have a playable hand. But you can take a shot at the antes with, let's say, a 9-7-5 (if the Nine's in the hole). Raise it. . .and try to steal the antes. If you don't get away with it, it's all right. You've got a playable hand.
If someone has raised before it gets to you, you surely must have a hand. An exception would be when you're the last low card and the raiser is the next-to-last low card. Since he may be taking advantage of his steal-position, you don't have to have quite as good a hand. In fact, you may want to try to re-steal it.
In any re-steal situation, you should be guided by your evaluation of the particular player who does the raising from the steal-position. If you know that he's an aggressive player and you have any kind of a hand.. .it's mandatory that you re-raise. The reason why your re-raise is mandatory is because (if he is stealing) you don't want to give him two ways to win. (The first way he could win it from you would be if he stole it; the second way would be if you just called his raise and gave him an easy opportunity to outdraw you.)
So even if you have a relatively weak hand such as 7-6-2.. .you must re-raise. If he does have a bad one, he'll fold. . .or he'll call your re-raise with a bad one which is O.K. too'. What you don't want to do is give him the opportunity of stealing there. . .and then give him an extra chance to win by outdrawing you on Fourth St.
If you run into a big hand in that situation (which is going to happen once in a while), there's nothing you can do about it. But you can't give him that free shot to outdraw you on Fourth St. If you do that, you've allowed him to gain the full value of his semi-bluff. He'll have gained not only the chance that you'll fold now. . .but also the chance that you'll fold later (which you'll do if you catch a Paint on Fourth). By re-raising, you'll force him to have a hand.. .and you'll have taken away the free chance he'll have of winning by simply out-drawing you. And, if he gets stubborn and calls your re-raise with a bad one. . .well, that's going to hurt him even more.
When you're in the absolute last position with a small card. . .and everybody else has folded. . .you should raise no matter what you have — as long as a Paint had to force it. It's worth going after the antes and you won't be doing much gambling because you'll just have the high card to contend with.
Before going on to discuss strategy at the other stages of play, you should be reminded that how you start in High-Low Split will have a lot to do with how you'll finish. So if you get off to a winning start. . .you'll be much more likely to end with a winning finish.
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