Completing in the Small Blind

[jason1990]

I recently noticed that my VP$IP From SB was about 44%. I wanted to know why it was so high compared to the suggested range of 25-35. So I checked some preflop charts and I am completing in the SB with more hands than recommended. Here is the "junk" I'll complete with that goes against the charts:

A8o-A2o, K9o-K2o, any offsuit connectors

If I recompute my stats as though I'd folded all of these, then my VP$IP From SB drops to about 32% and my VP$IP goes from 20.9 to about 18.

But should I start folding all of these? Out of 12073 hands, I encountered one of these junk holdings in the small blind in an unraised pot 283 times. My average result on these 283 hands was -0.09 BB. If I had thrown them all away, my average result would have been -0.25 BB.

My feeling is that this is a relatively unimportant issue in terms of overall winrate, but I just thought I'd throw this out for discussion and comments.

[TwoShedsJackson]

I might complete A8o, K9o and unsuited connectors 87 and up at very passive tables. If more than a few pots are being raised preflop I'd bin the lot. I bin the remainder anyway.

[Buckmulligan]

Mine is kind of high too, but I have limited it to these guidelines...

1. Any two broadway
2. any two suited connectors 78s and above
3. Any one gappers and connectors 57 and above (including 56), given that the you are getting 7:1 on the call (2 limpers)
4. Any two suited cards with the same guidelines as 3.
5. Axs and Kxs.

Note: I think playing any Ace or and King here leads to some weak tendencies, and I Try to avoid it.

[MrWookie47]

I'm gonna cite sample size and say fold them, especially the junk kings and off suit connectors. Connectedness is the least valuable feature your cards can have (behind high card value and suitedness), so if that's all they got going for them, fold 'em. I might reconsider the connectors with an obscene number of limpers in an unraised pot, but the K's and A's will get you no where in a huge multiway pot.

[__Q__]

Well in addition to completeing sometimes with some of these hands, I'll often try to steal with them if folded to me. Ofcourse, its almest never folded to the sb, so this wouldn't change your stats much.

Even if there is a limper, depending on who the limper is, I do think that there are times to raise preflop with A8 and A7 (heck any Ax and some of the Kx ones). Its certainly not a standard play. You have to pick your spots and do it against the right opponents. But attacking with weak cards and out of position is what makes poker fun /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[__Q__]

[ QUOTE ]
Connectedness is the least valuable feature your cards can have (behind high card value and suitedness), so if that's all they got going for them, fold 'em. I might reconsider the connectors with an obscene number of limpers in an unraised pot, but the K's and A's will get you no where in a huge multiway pot.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a great point. When deciding what to do with a hand in the SB, the first thing you need to consider is how many people entered the pot. If there are a lot of people that entered the pot, then connectedness and suitedness gains value and your reads on each of the players in the pot become less important.

If you looking at one limper in the pot, then suitedness and connectedness aren't that important. The hands high card stregnth is what counts and you need to think about who the player is that limped.