In chapter 4 of Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, Jonathan Little explains how to approach preflop play when very deep-stacked (125BB+), emphasizing a loose-aggressive, position-focused style that stays balanced, avoids huge preflop confrontations without premium hands, and adapts to opponent types and table dynamics.
Core Preflop Philosophy When Deep
Little argues that deep stacks allow many viable lines, but the most reliable winning approach is to play a solid mix of hands aggressively and in position. This keeps you out of the worst reverse-implied-odds traps while letting you build pots in situations where you tend to realize your edge.
He also stresses balance: you should not take the same action every time with the same hand strength. Mixing calls and reraises with strong hands prevents opponents from reading your range too easily and exploiting predictable lines.
Avoid Inflating Pots Without the Very Top Hands
A major warning is that when a lot of money goes in preflop in deep-stacked tournaments, you generally want to be holding the very strongest pairs. With deep stacks, getting pulled into a massive preflop battle with hands like queens (or similar) against a tight, straightforward reraiser can put you in tough, tournament-costly spots. His preference is to keep those situations under control—often by calling rather than escalating—because even if a call-off is mathematically defensible, the tournament value of preserving your stack and future opportunities matters.
No Open-Limping, and Tighten Up When Conditions Worsen
He rejects open-limping as a default strategy, arguing that raising has built-in value through immediate fold equity and initiative. He also notes that while almost any hand can be raised in theory when stacks are deep, you should tighten up when:
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stacks get shorter (fewer ways to outplay postflop),
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opponents are strong (less dead money, more resistance),
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players behind are loose/aggressive (you’ll face more postflop pressure and reraises).
Opening Ranges by Position
Rather than a rigid chart, Little presents guiding ranges and the logic behind them:
Early Position
He advocates a relatively tight range, focusing on hands that either play straightforwardly or have strong implied odds. He avoids certain “trouble hands” (notably broadways that often make dominated top pairs) and includes enough suited connectors and pairs to ensure he can credibly represent strength across many board textures.
Middle Position
He widens considerably, adding more broadways, suited hands, and additional suited-connector families, while still avoiding the weakest offsuit junk. The idea is that fewer players remain behind to punish you, so you can profitably open more hands.
Cutoff and Button
He expands further, opening many aces, more kings/queens, and more connected hands, while trimming the very worst disconnected low-card holdings that create awkward postflop spots. He emphasizes that button play can be very wide, but it still benefits from removing the most problematic trash.
Small Blind Opens
He opens similarly to late position but tighter than the button because you’ll be out of position. Your opponent in the big blind matters a lot: open extremely wide against tight blinds, and tighten when the big blind defends or reraises frequently.
Facing a Raise: Call, Reraise, or Fold
Little breaks the response to an open raise into the three standard options, with strong guidance on which hand types fit each:
Calling Raises
He prefers calling with hands that realize equity cleanly—especially pairs and suited connectors—because you quickly know when you’ve connected strongly and can win big pots through implied odds. Calling becomes far more attractive when you’ll have position and stacks are deep.
He cautions that making one pair with weak kickers can become expensive, so even when you call with suited connectors, you should be ready to release top-pair/weak-kicker situations when pressure indicates you’re behind.
Folding “Trouble Hands” Versus Strong Ranges
Hands like KJ or QT are presented as classic examples of holdings that perform poorly against early-position raising ranges because they often run into domination and reverse implied odds. His rule of thumb: play these types more as the aggressor (when opening) and less as a caller versus strong ranges.
Reraising (3-Betting) and Range Construction
He argues that reraising is essential in modern games, but it must be balanced. If you only 3-bet premiums, opponents can play perfectly against you. To prevent that, he includes some non-obvious hands (including suited connectors and other playable-but-not-premium holdings) in his reraising range, especially against opponents who open wide and fold too much.
He also highlights a practical principle: reraising is particularly useful with hands you don’t want to take postflop passively because of reverse implied odds (many weak aces, marginal broadways). With these, he prefers a “reraise or fold” approach rather than calling and walking into dominated top pairs.
He warns not to overuse light 3-bets: once opponents adapt by calling wider or 4-betting more often, the bluff portion of the strategy deteriorates fast.
Limpers: Identify the Type and Punish Correctly
Little treats limpers as two broad archetypes:
“Trappy” Limpers (Premiums Early)
These players limp strong hands hoping to induce a raise and then reraise. Against them, he advocates more limping behind with hands that have strong implied odds (pairs and connectors) to try to smash a board and win a large pot when they overcommit. He cautions that you need to be confident they truly limp premiums; otherwise you lose value by not raising your strong hands.
“Weak” Limpers (See-a-Flop Range)
These limpers enter with mediocre hands they don’t want to raise. Little recommends attacking them aggressively with raises from late position even with many marginal holdings, because much of the profit comes from picking up dead money preflop and then using continuation bets against wide, weak ranges.
He also notes a common pattern: some weak limpers respond to raises by jamming pairs. If you’re confident in that read and stacks aren’t extreme, you can call off wider than you would otherwise.
When You Get Reraised
Little says reraises are inevitable if you play aggressively. His adjustment depends on:
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what your opponent believes about your opening range (image + position),
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whether the reraiser is passive/trappy or actively trying to exploit you.
Against passive reraisers, he tends to continue mainly with premium hands and hands with strong implied odds, while avoiding dominated one-pair hands that create ugly postflop commitment decisions. Against opponents who are actively attacking your looseness, he is more willing to 4-bet (with hands that make later decisions simple) and to continue postflop with hands that can connect well.
He also notes that ultra-aggressive players exist, but you need reliable reads before making wider stack-off calls.
Blind Play When Deep
Small Blind
He advises playing notably tighter due to positional disadvantage and the risk of investing chips only to face a squeeze/reraise from the big blind. His default is “reraise or fold” versus opens unless you have a hand with strong implied odds (especially pairs). Multiway pots make calling more viable because of improved price and clearer implied-odds paths.
Big Blind
He suggests defending somewhat wider than the small blind because you get a better price and you can’t be reraised preflop once you call. Still, he warns against “defend too much and hope to hit” thinking, since it leads to dominated top pairs and tough folds. He reraises more selectively, aiming to stay balanced and to discourage frequent stealing.
Blind-versus-blind is treated as a special case: as the big blind you have positional advantage postflop, so you can defend and reraise wider—but should still avoid going off the rails against opponents who escalate aggressively.
The Squeeze Play
Little introduces the squeeze as a profitable tool when there’s an open raise and a call. The logic is that the opener often isn’t extremely strong and the caller often doesn’t have a premium (or they might have reraised themselves), so a reraise can win the pot immediately.
He cautions that squeezes are well-known in modern poker, so you can’t spam them, and you must choose good targets (especially loose openers). He also describes counterplay: 4-betting the squeezer or trapping by slowplaying strong hands when you expect a squeeze behind.
You Don’t Have to Raise Every Button
He finishes by pushing back on the idea that you should automatically raise the button whenever folded to. Over-raising makes you predictable, increases variance, and forces you into difficult postflop spots with trash. Tightening slightly—folding the weakest holdings—can improve profitability by:
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increasing the average strength of your raising range when you get called,
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earning more respect,
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reducing avoidable messy situations.