Been grinding a fair bit of hold'em lately and this is still the leak I keep seeing over and over: blokes opening way too wide from early position, then talking themselves into calling down because they "already put chips in". UTG isn't the hijack, mate. If you're first in and the table behind you is full of sticky callers and one or two 3-bet happy punters, opening stuff like KJo, QTo, small suited gappers and all the pretty-but-dodgy offsuit broadways just turns into headache poker.
I reckon a lot of players get obsessed with being "active" preflop and don't think enough about what the hand actually does postflop when you're out of position for the rest of it. Top pair weak kicker spots, dominated two pair combos, second-best flushes, ugly turn decisions... that's where the stack starts leaking. Same hand on the button can be mint. Up front, not so much.
I'm not saying nit it up and wait for rockets all night. Table matters, 6-max is different, stack depth changes things, and if the lineup is passive as anything you can definitely pinch a bit wider. But the default I see in lower stakes is still too splashy early, then too honest late. Feels backwards. I'd rather be tighter early and do my nicking from cutoff/button where life is easier and you get to print off the players who hate defending properly.
Curious where everyone else lands on this now. Are you keeping your first-in range pretty disciplined from UTG, or have the games changed enough that opening wider there is just standard? And what hands are you happily mucking early these days that a lot of players still can't let go of?