Positional awareness is one of the most important strategic skills you need to develop in poker. Understanding how your game plan changes depending on the situation is vital to your long-term success. In this particular article, we will focus on how to play “Under the Gun,” or UTG.

The term “under the gun” is a fairly common poker term and is used to describe the player who acts first before the flop. This is where you’re under the most pressure, as you don’t have any information about what other players might do, hence the name.

There’s a lot to learn about how to play under the gun, but your fundamental approach to this position needs to be very solid and clear. Stick to playing only very good starting hands and avoid fancy tricks. These are much better suited for later positions, such as the cutoff or button.

The problems of playing “Under the Gun”

When you’re the one who initiates the action in a poker hand, you have absolutely no idea about your opponents’ assets or their plans. Poker is generally a limited information game, but if you are UTG, you have no information at all.

The only thing you know for sure is that there are eight (or five, if you play 6-max) players behind you.

The chance that at least one of the eight players has a very good hand is quite high. Of course, it could also happen that everyone has been dealt a bad hand and would like to fold and give away the pot, but you just don’t know.

Another major issue when playing from behind the gun is the positional disadvantage. If you get called or 3-bet by anyone other than the blinds, you must play out of position for the rest of the hand. As you probably know, this is not ideal.

In short, the biggest problems when playing from the blinds in poker are the lack of information and the positional disadvantage that you can easily fall into.

Structuring your UTG hand selection

The first thing you need to do to develop a solid UTG strategy is figure out which set of hands you should be playing. I have good news and bad news here.

The good news is that you won’t have any trouble remembering your UTG ranges. The bad news is that you really can’t afford to play too many hands from this position. You have to be pretty tight, especially when you’re in a game with competent players.

You should stick to playing very strong hands first and foremost: pocket pairs to pocket 8s, the strongest of your unsuited aces (AK, AQ), well-fitted aces (AK, AQ, AJ, and AT), and fitted Broadway cards such as KQs and KJs.

With some experience and to avoid becoming too predictable, you can also include some weaker hands such as TJs, TKs, smaller pocket pairs, and maybe T9s. However, this doesn’t mean you play these hands every time you get them under fire. Normally, you should fold them and sometimes raise with them to balance your range somewhat.

However, you shouldn’t worry too much about balancing your UTG ranges.

Due to the nature of this position, it is normal that you usually have very strong hands when you come in for a raise. It may feel a bit transparent, but unlike late positions, you don’t have to worry too much about this. UTG will never be your most profitable position, and that’s fine.

Playing UTG in 6-Max

If you play shorthanded, i.e., in 6-man games, your UTG range will generally be larger. Since you don’t have to go through that many players and there are only three players who could potentially have position over you after the flop, you don’t have to be that tight.

You can expand by adding more aces of the same suit, up to A8s; unsuited aces to AT; and pocket pairs up to 55. You can also occasionally add a few more fitted connectors and minor aces of the same suit (A2 through A5) to get a better balance.

You shouldn’t go too crazy, but in games with fewer hands, playing under the gun isn’t as bad as it is in full ring.

Under the Gun Strategy: Tournaments vs. Cash Games

Tournaments and cash games are two completely different forms of poker. While some strategies are interchangeable between the two, there are many aspects that are quite different. Playing from UTG is definitely one of them.

With cash games, you usually play deeper. With a stack of 100 big blinds or more, you can afford to get involved in more hands. You can always reload too, so you have some freedom to experiment with wider UTG ranges. This may not be the best idea, but if you try to get a feel for the table and maybe use some exploitative plays, there may be some merit.

In tournaments, however, you almost never have a big enough stack to afford such adventures.

If you have between 20 and 40 big blinds, you really can’t afford to open big ranges from under the gun. Very often, you will meet resistance and be forced to fold, and you could lose half your chips without even seeing a flop.

In tournaments, your UTG strategy should be very conservative. Stick to playing only good hands, especially as your stack shrinks. Try to open only with hands you enjoy playing the stacks with.

Again, this may seem too weak or too transparent, but don’t worry about it. You have a plethora of other positions from which to open further and steal the pot.

Prior to the flop, play

If you open from under the gun, the rarest scenario that happens is that everyone folds and you pick up the blinds, especially in full ring games. Usually, you will encounter some resistance from at least one player.

If they just call, you’re on to the flop, which we’ll cover in the next section. But what happens if they 3-bet?

Your decision on how to proceed depends on two main factors:

• how good your hand is, and
• What position does the 3-bettor have (in the blinds or not)?

The first speaks for itself. If you are faced with a 3-bet, you should probably fold the weaker hands from your UTG range and only continue with the strongest.

How you decide to continue with the stronger part of your range again depends on the opponent and your table image. Sometimes you want to 4-bet and get the chips in the middle; sometimes it’s better to call, even with your strongest hands like AA and KK, to trap your opponent and maybe give them a chance to keep on bluffing.

The second part is just as important. There are two things to consider if you 3-bet by one of the blind players.

First of all, you have the position after the flop. This means you could call with a larger range to try and hit a favourable flop. Since you have the position, it will be much easier to realise your equity when you hit.

On the other hand, if the player you’re playing against is skilled, it’s not very likely that he’ll 3-bet you lightly from the blinds. They know you’re in rifle range, and they’re aware they’ll be out of position for the rest of the hand. Based on that, you can expect them to show up with some very strong positions in these situations.

These things become increasingly complex as the level of the players you play against improves. A recreational player may feel like he should 3-bet his 56s in the small blind against your UTG raise because he wants to “haunt” the pot and feel good about his hand.

A good player will never do this. They may have some (albeit very few) bluffs in their repertoire, but don’t count on them too much.

UTG strategy after the flop

If you raise UTG and hit the flop, it’s usually one of two scenarios. Either you raised and picked up one or more callers, or another player 3-bet, and you decided to call and see the flop.

Play UTG against callers.

If players just flatten your raise, they usually won’t show up with a monster. Occasionally you might come across pocket aces, but generally they want to 3-bet with their strong hands because they expect you to have a decent hand yourself so they can get you to bet more chips pre-flop.

So in some ways, their range will be limited, meaning they won’t have many super strong hands.

Whether you make contact with the board or not, you want to continue on flops that favour your opening range, i.e., boards with high cards and especially aces. Even if you are out of position, it will be very difficult for your opponents to float you on these types of boards and try to bluff you later.

On the other hand, certain boards are just not good candidates to pursue. If the board is about 8 or 9 T, bi-color, that’s much better for calling range. They have all the matching hands of the JT, QJ, and 9T types.

That’s why it’s good to have some non-premiums in your UTG range too, so you can still keep playing on these textures and surprise your opponents with the occasional flop monster they just can’t put you on.

That said, don’t get too involved with these boards if you don’t have a strong hand, and be careful even if you do have a preflop bounty like kings or aces. It’s not just that the flop is bad for you; there are a lot of turn and river cards that you are going to hate, so keep that in mind as well and try to exercise pot control.

Participate in 3-bet pots.

If someone 3-bets your UTG open, they are actually saying that they have a very strong hand. It may not be true, but that’s the kind of story their 3-bet is trying to convey.

As mentioned earlier, it is much more difficult to deal with 3-bets from players who have the position on you after the flop. They have it all: the advantage of their position, the initiative, and a strong hand.

It would be beyond the scope of this article to go into all the intricacies of 3Bet pots in these scenarios, so we’ll stick to the basics.

If you don’t have a very strong hand, e.g., AJs or better, and you get 3-bet by someone in position, just fold and get on with your life. If they are super aggressive and do it all the time, you may need to adapt, but against an average, solid player, you really don’t need to worry about problem hands like weaker aces and broadways.

With your strong hands, it’s fine to sometimes see the flop rather than a 4-bet. Keep in mind that you’re not doing this just to avoid encountering monsters. You also do it so that your opponents know that you are capable of it. If you flatten their 3-bet, they cannot automatically place you on the weaker part of your range. You could still have a hand like Aces or AKs.

Check for them on the flop and let them continue their story. Depending on how well you make contact with the flop, the stack-to-pot ratio, and your reads, you can decide whether to call, fold, or raise their continuation bet.

The most important thing to remember is that you should generally let the 3-bettor keep up the aggression. This allows them to bluff away some more chips or perhaps bet for a pot, so they can’t get away once you pull the trigger and raise.

Playing Under the Gun in Poker: Summary

Playing under the gun isn’t the most enjoyable part of poker, but it’s something you just have to deal with. As long as you accept the reality of the situation and understand that you can’t play 50% of your hands from UTG, you should be fine.

For the most part, stick to playing very strong hands and try to avoid getting into trouble with weak hands. There is very little anyone can do to exploit you if you use this strategy. They may know that your UTG range is very strong, but it is still not easy to outflop you or bluff you from your premium positions.

So if you’ve had trouble playing under the gun before, this article should give you some useful, practical tips to incorporate into your game. Narrow your ranges, don’t be afraid to play your big hands fast, and forget about fancy tricks and big bluffs from this particular position, and you should be much better off.