Are you obligated to call a min raise in BB with any two cards midway

[Vetstadium]

My question is say blinds are 25-50 or 50-100 and there is a min raise are you obligated to call with almost any two cards especially if it is a min raise from small blind?

[ColdestCall]

No.

I'm guessing you are thinking that you are getting 3 to 1 on your bet, and hey, 10-5 offsuit is only a 2 to 1 dog pre-flop versus AK, so what the heck, I'll take my 3 to 1.

I lost a bunch of chips that way before I realized that the problem with calling raises with garbage hands, even getting 3 to 1, is that you get outplayed on the flop so often that the extra pre-flop money is just throwing good money after bad. Fold trash and wait for at least a marginal holding before seeing a flop.

[syka16]

exactly.

1. You're behind preflop
2. You could be dominated
3. You probably won't flop top pair
4. You are heads up so you don't want to be drawing
5. You're out of possition

[Vetstadium]

Thats what I thought and have played tons of SNG's, but after reading recent article on EV and pot odds was starting to doubt myself.

[texasrattlers]

ahhhhhh ... No.

[Cleveland Guy]

No your not obligated. But at times you do have to defend or else you will be gettng your blind raised against you almost every hand. Once the blinds get big, that can cripple you.

[bigredlemon]

If it's not good enough to bet with, it's not good enough to call with.

The problem is that you need to get very lucky to know if you are ahead or not. If you flop bottom pair 5s and he bets 1/2 the pot into you, what do you do? Re-raise and hope he folds? You're looking at winning small losing big.

[morgan180]

[ QUOTE ]
But at times you do have to defend or else you will be gettng your blind raised against you almost every hand. Once the blinds get big, that can cripple you.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll let people take my 15/20/50 blinds with out any fight, and if they build up their confidence thinking I'm easy to pick off in the blinds I'll wait till we're at the 100 level and up and pop them back.

My feeling is that without premium hands there is absolutely no reason to be in the pot in any of the early levels unless you get a free or half price play out of a blind and flop a miracle.

Mixing it up early, taking down a couple of 200 dollar pots doesn't really mean much in terms of who is going to win the thing. It might be nice for the confidence, but SNGs don't *really* start until the blind/stack ratios start to close.

Of course, take easy early money but there is absolutely no need to put a chunk of your stack on the line for insignificant chips.

[burningyen]

In the later stages I think you have to call quite often. If your opponents know they can minraise you off your BB at will you are in trouble. And if it's the SB then that's the best of all possible worlds: his range of raising hands is extremely wide and you have position.