help with blind structure at local B&M...

[djhoneybear]

My local casino has a 3/6 game which is quite loose (6 to 8 handed) but it has a blind structure I'm unfamiliar with. The big blind posts 3 chips, the small blind posts 2 chips and the button posts two chips. My thinking is that given the implied odds there are no hands that you wouldn't post an extra chip to see a flop from the button or small blind. Of course this means that it costs you about $9 to see 10 hands. I have another local card room with a slightly tougher game but a better blind structure of 3 chips for the big blind and 1 chip for the small blind making it $4-$6 to see 10 hands. Does anyone have any thoughts on how this might effect your BB/hour. Which game would you prefer and why?

[W. Deranged]

I'm just going to say off the bat that this is an interesting and, to me, non-obvious theoretical question. We have a couple of competing theretical factors, which I'll expand on later.

And you have to complete the 2/3 blinds with any two cards.

[W. Deranged]

Okay, so here's why I think this is interesting:

In bigger games like 15/30 and 30/60, a 2/3 blind structure is often employed, and this is generally seen as desirable because it generally encourages more action. At higher levels, where the play can get tight and nitty, action needs to be generated, particularly because many players at these levels play reasonably soundly pre-flop but badly post-flop, and so a blind structure that forces them to play more post-flop is good.

The problem in this situation, though, is that there is plenty of action anyway. It doesn't take a weird structure to get 6-8 people to every flop. They're going to put their money in with bad hands anyway. Most won't even adjust for the blind structure, and even those who do (and decide to play 85o in MP instead of just 85s as they usually do or something) are likely not making mistakes that are so much different as to really affect your bottom line.

And the problem for our hero is that any slight increase in action comes with two major costs:

1. You have to put in almost twice as much blind money in the 2/2/3 structure as in the 1/3 structure. Even the best players lose money from the blinds because they are forced to play undesirable situations.

2. Because the pots will be inflated with more dead money, your opponents bad, loose play actually becomes closer to being correct (even though they'll still lose money in the long run). You lose a bit of your edge against your opponents because you have to open up your pre-flop game and make it closer to theirs. In turn, some of their bad plays on later streets will become slightly less bad in the big pots.

So it would seem to me that the 1/3 structure is probably better given that the opponents in both games are equivalently bad. If the 1/3 players are nitty types who don't want to have to pay a lot of blinds, then you should play the 2/2/3 game simply because the table will be so much better.