Hands to Play on the Blinds

[TrueBritt]

I play at a 1-2-2 $100 buy-in cash nl game at a nearby casino. The minimum bet is $4. I only play Ax suited, Kx suited, paint cards, and suited connectors with up to two gaps on the blinds. A friend of mine will play virtually anything on the blinds, especially the second big blind. She says I am too tight.

Am I playing too tight? What hands should I play on the blinds?

[Always Rockets]

Its not as simple as saying "oh in the SB, you can play any ace!"
The whole point is that you are getting to see the flop from the SB at a discounted price, so if you are getting good odds on your second dollar, I would call with alot more hands.

[pfkaok]

[ QUOTE ]
The whole point is that you are getting to see the flop from the SB at a discounted price, so if you are getting good odds on your second dollar, I would call with alot more hands.

[/ QUOTE ]

yes, but you could counter that with the fact that you're in the worst position for the entire hand other than the PF action. I would play just as many hands from the button as I would from the SB. I"m not sure what others, who are better players think though...obviously its all very situationally dependant.

[MasterShakes]

I'm not familiar with this structure, and I have never played live in a casino before. What I do know is that despite the discounted price in the blinds in this game, hands like A5 run into the same problems from the blinds as they would on the button... probably even more. While you have the best position preflop, you have the worst position possible for every subsequent betting round, putting you out of position every single time you flop a draw, leaving you to semi-bluff, check/call, or check/fold - none of which are a good proposal in this game. I've heard playing "any ace" from the SB advocated in the .25/.50 games offered online, and I have NEVER thought this to be a good idea. Just know what to consider before you play a hand from this position.

[Gildersneeze]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The whole point is that you are getting to see the flop from the SB at a discounted price, so if you are getting good odds on your second dollar, I would call with alot more hands.

[/ QUOTE ]

yes, but you could counter that with the fact that you're in the worst position for the entire hand other than the PF action. I would play just as many hands from the button as I would from the SB. I"m not sure what others, who are better players think though...obviously its all very situationally dependant.

[/ QUOTE ]You're in the worst position, yes, but no one says you have to commit any more chips to the pot if you don't think you have a good holding after the flop.

If I'm in the SB, it's limped/folded to me and I know the BB to be an extremely rare pre-flop raiser, I'll try to take the cheapo flop almost every time with almost any two cards. It's your second best chance (the best being checking in the BB) to see a flop with ridiculous cards and flop some bulls*** luck. That's not to say that if the BB DOES raise, I'm going to call the raise with any two cards, but I don't care if it's 72o, if I get a read that the BB's just praying for a chance to check, I'm going to take that cheap flop, and use my early position to my advantage for either the aggressive attack from early position to take it down right off, or should I flop a monster, I'm going to check it and let someone try to buy it off.

If I flop nothing, well then my "check/fold" button is mentally checked, unless I think I can steal it away from a weak bettor with a large raise or a push.

But keep in mind, all of the above is ONLY for the completion from the SB with little chance of a raise from the BB. If I know the BB to be a maniac or a constant aggressor who will raise from the blinds all the time, I'm going to tighten up my completing hand list.

Seeing flops for raises from the small blind is pretty much a matter of "is this a hand that I would have called a raise with were I to limp or raise from UTG? No? Then you can have my small blind, and I'll move along." Facing a raise is when I start to worry about my position post flop while still deciding for my cards pre-flop from the blinds.

To summarize:

If I'm in the SB and the action is limped/folded to me, I temporarily become an "any two will do" player.

If I'm in the SB and there's a raise before it gets to me, I'll only call/play back with hands that I would raise/call raises with when sitting UTG pre-flop.

If I'm in the SB, it limp/folds to me, I complete and the BB raises, it's the same as in situation one.

Overall, I don't want to make decisions that will put me out of position post-flop with a crap holding for anything but the cheapest of prices.

[pfkaok]

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You're in the worst position, yes, but no one says you have to commit any more chips to the pot if you don't think you have a good holding after the flop.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well yeah, but with ATC you get into some very tough spots playing from SB... sure you know your hands no good when you miss, but you'll get a lot of TP no kicker, or bottom 2 pairs, or hands that you could easily be getting pretty good +EV if you had position, but from SB its much harder to get full value when your hands are good, and tougher to know when to lay down your moderately strong hands... you never have the option to simply check behind to get a cheap river, and unless you're playing somebody who always bets, Craising will always be a risky option. Maybe I'm just not good enough to play bad hands out of postion, but if you can successfully play J6o and the likes for +EV from the SB then I envy your postflop play.

[Snoogins47]

Alot of this depends on what happened before you, and the type of player the other blind(s) may be.

I think the key here is that we all know you have horrible position. But you're getting great odds on your preflop call.

So, the idea I usually adopt here is to play hands that can turn into huge moneymakers after a nice flop.

By playing more random hands in the SB, you're often going to get yourself in tricky situations. So, I think if the other players in the pot are tight or weak, and there's say, one MP limper, and it folds to you.. go ahead, be aggressive, play random cards, and figure you can often pick up the pot after the flop anyway. Especially if it's just gonna be you and other blinds, being first to act isn't that much of a disadvantage in a sense, especially if he's the kind of weaker player that will often bet to pick up a pot, but is afraid of playing back.

If there's a big multiway pot, or the table is loose and passive, or both, then look for your suited aces, connectors, low pocket pairs, etc. Look for your big flop, or get away. I think Ace-Rag suited is nice here for cheap, not only for the flush potential, but the ace-rag two pair reverse-domination thing is often a big money winner as well. Not that I'm saying Ace-Rag is a good hand, but just that there are a number of flops that can win a lot of money for you with it. And in my mind, those are the types of things you want in the discounted blinds.

So, I think you're closer to correct than your friend, but I don't know anything particular about the way the table plays, etc, and I'm no NL expert. Just my 2 cents.

[ddubois]

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but I don't care if it's 72o

[/ QUOTE ]
I play alot of junk out of the SB for all the reasons you mentioned, but I can't imagine it's correct to get that loose. Do you have PokerTracker results that show a profit with 72o from the SB?

The Sklansky group 8 hands are: 87o,A9o,Q9o,76o,42s,32s,96s,85s,J8o,J7s,65o,54o,74 s,K9o,T8o, and that seems to me like the right area to start cutting off -- with perhaps Axo and a few additional offsuit one-gappers thrown in.