Smaller Blinds vs. Bigger Blinds ($$$) in PL

We play a home game, 5-10 blinds, can bring it in for $35. Our buy in is only $300. Its a very loose, but aggressive, game.

Would it be more advantageous for a solid player to have a smaller blind structure (say 1-2, or 2-5)? I like to see a lot of flops (implied odds) but also like to punish the fish when I have quality (they will call). Unfortunately, even a $35 opening bet doesn't really protect one's hand in this game. Like many loose games, when people see a big pot developing, they NEED to be involved...no matter how weak their holdings (ie. 5-7-10-10 rainbow in Omaha8 - I'm not joking)

Tim

Tim

[Greg (FossilMan)]

It's not a question of the size of the blinds, it's the relative size of the blinds compared to the stack sizes. Of course, since your group isn't likely to all start showing up with 5x the money, reducing the size of the blinds five-fold is what you would need to do.

It is definitely true that the deeper the money is, the more play there is to each typical hand, and the more skill is needed to play the hand well. Essentially, the deeper the money, the more decisions you are likely to end up making throughout each hand, and more decisions means more application of skill.

As an aside, forget the entire concept of "protecting" your hand. There is no such thing. All that matters is who wins at the end, and how good you put in your money on each street. There just isn't any reasonable purpose behind thinking things like my AA would've won if it had been NL and I could've raised more preflop to protect it. What, you want to raise the 5,10 blinds to $200 preflop so everyone folds and you win the blinds with your premium hand? I hope not. You have to assume some risk in order to maximize your return, so think about reading their hands, disguising your hands, and putting your money in good.

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

The concept of "protecting hands" came from TJ's book on PL/NL Holdem or Omaha, can't remember which.

He states that he wants a high blind structure to "protect" his good hands.

Tim

[Greg (FossilMan)]

When it comes to concepts, I don't think TJ is the right guy to listen to. He's very good at putting you on a hand, but not very good at explaining himself, IME.

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

[thebroker]

Gotta go with Greg on that. If you want to reread that book Tj talks about buying in for $500 in a $10 blind game and I believe $1000 in the $25 blind game. Therefore by playing short stacks(compared to the blinds) he could get most of stack in preflop on a reraise with big pairs. He also credits his tourney sucess to the fact that he has always played short stacks well. However as Fossilman said the real fun doesn't start until you're playing in a deep stack Pot-limit game. With deep stacks you make deceptive raises with hands like 7-4s preflop and if you hit and get played back at you can take down a pot 500x the blind or more. If you miss you dump it.