The Preflop Poker Quiz Answers and Explanations
Here are the answers and explanations for The Preflop Poker Quiz.
Question #1: How should you adjust your opening strategy when limpers have entered the pot before you?
A – Open a tighter range for a larger sizing
B – Open your standard range for a larger sizing
C – Open your standard range for a standard sizing
D – Open a looser range for a larger sizing
The correct answer is A.
For every player that limps into the pot, you should increase your sizing by around 1bb and tighten your raising range. When it comes to your range, a good rule is to raise somewhere between one or two positions tighter for every limper.
For example, if you are on the Button against one limper, you should raise somewhere between a Cutoff-Hijack opening range. If you are in the Cutoff facing 1 limper, you should raise a range somewhere between Hijack-Lojack.
Further Reading: The Ultimate Guide to Crushing Open Limpers
Question #2: In general, how does the value of suited connectors and low pocket pairs change when stacks go from 100 big blinds (bb) to 150bb in a live cash game?
A – Their value increases
B – Their value decreases
C – Their value is the same
The correct answer is A.
Hands like suited connectors and middling to low pocket pairs can actually be played at a higher frequency as stacks get deeper because they have greater implied odds.
Flopping a set and winning someone’s stack nets you 50% more money at 150bb compared to 100bb. However, this doesn’t mean you should always play these hands every time. Instead you should slightly and incrementally increase how many of these hands you play as stacks get deeper.
Question #3: Which of the following positions correctly has the widest calling range facing a raise?
A – The Button
B – The Small Blind
C – The Big Blind
The correct answer is C.
The player in the Big Blind will always have the widest calling ranges facing a raise. This is for two reasons:
- The Big Blind has already posted 1bb and therefore is given better pots odds than all the other players at the table
- The Big Blind is always last to act preflop and, therefore, can call without the risk of being 3-bet from a player behind him
Question #4: In a $2/$5 game at 100bb, you open on the Button and get 3-bet by Small Blind. Which hand should you 4-bet the most often?
A – Pocket Nines
B – 76-suited
C – A5-suited
The correct answer is C.
A5-suited is one of the best hands in a Button opening range to use as a 4-bet bluff. Suited connectors like 76-suited usually play well as calls but sometimes can be used as a 4-bet in deeper stack games. Pocket Nines are almost always just a call, as it does very poorly against a potential 5-bet from the Small Blind.
Question #5: You are playing $1/$2 with $200 stacks. You raise to $6 in the Hijack and the Button 3-bets to $18. Which of the following hands is the highest expected value (EV) call?
A – A8-suited
B – KQ-suited
C – 98-suited
D – AJ-offsuit
The correct answer is B.
Generally speaking, you should always be folding A8-suited, AJ-offsuit, and 98-suited to a 3-bet from these positions at 100bb.
KQ-suited is one the best hands in your range to call with. In addition to having strong pair potential, its’ ability to make more straights and flushes gives it much more value than hands like AJ-offsuit.
Hand #6: You are playing $2/$5 with $500 stacks. You raise to $15 from the Lojack with Pocket Jacks and the Button 3-bets to $45. What’s your play?
A – Fold
B – Call
C – 4-bet to $90
D – 4-bet to $120
The correct answer is B.
Pocket Jacks are a strong hand, but they are in really bad shape against the hands Button might 5-bet us with — so you can take away his option to 5-bet by simply calling. Generally, playing “jiggities” cautiously from these positions is a good way to avoid getting it all-in preflop with terrible equity against a range mostly consisting of AK+.
Additionally, Jacks tend to play very well in 3-bet pots, but things tend to get fairly dicey if a 4-bet or 5-bet has gone in. Better to keep the pot smaller and your hand under-represented.
Hand #7: How should you adjust your preflop calling ranges in cash games with high rake?
A – Play looser
B – Play tighter
C – Play standard
The correct answer is B.
It’s very important, especially at low-stakes live cash games, to be mindful of the rake. Higher-raked games give you worse pot odds every time you put money into the pot, and this has an especially notable impact on the expected value of your calls.
Because of this, the lower parts of your range go from being breakeven to losing money. Cut these hands out, and you’ll be saving a lot of money over time.
Hand #8: You are playing $5/$10 with $1250 stacks. You raise to $30 from the Hijack and the Button 3-bets to $90. Which hand should you call with most often?
A – K8-suited
B – AT-offsuit
C – 76-suited
The correct answer is C.
K8-suited and AT-offsuit should generally fold to 3-bets when you are out of position. 76-suited does not have much high card value, but it performs much better against a Button 3-betting range than the others. Expect to check-fold a lot on high cards boards, but play aggressively on the middling-low boards.
Further Reading: 10 Fundamental Tips for The Most Common Types of Flops
Hand #9: You are playing $1/$2 with $200 stacks. You raise to $6 from the Cutoff and the Button 3-bets to $18. Which of the following hands should you be least likely to 4-bet?
A – AQ-offsuit
B – KQ-suited
C – KT-suited
The correct answer is B.
AQ-offsuit and KT-suited can make for good 4-bet bluffs in a merged range. However, KQ-suited is a special hand when it comes to facing 3-bets because against most opponents, we will always want to call.
It performs really well against all the weaker broadway hands our opponent might have 3-bet us with. And by keeping KQ-suited in our calling range, we have protection from being run over on high-card boards.
On top of that, if we 4-bet KQs, we run the risk of folding out hands we dominate while also opening the door for our opponent to 5-bet us with a range that has us crushed.
Hand #10: In a $2/$5 live game, you begin to suspect the opponent immediately to your right is limping the weaker-middling parts of their range. How should you start to adjust when they open a pot for a raise?
A – Slow-play strong hands
B – Call with more low-pocket pairs
C – 3-bet light more frequently
D – 3-bet light less frequently
The correct answer is D.
Casual players in live games will often make the mistake of limping their weaker hands and only raising their strong hands. You can start to exploit this by folding more to their opens and 3-betting them with fewer bluffing combinations. Another great exploit is to start raising the opponent’s limps with a wider range when you’re in late position.
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