Blind Theory

[Amerretto]

Done a search but couldn't find anything. Is there any articles on playing the blinds, and when to let go. At the moment I'm in the money, but getting mudered when I'm in the blinds. I seem to be protecting them way to much, and going to far with them when I get a weak draw / mid pair, would apprecaite a pointer to any articles out there.

[Falcon1511]

At least when I am in the big blind I tend look at calling a single raise like I am playing the hand from the middle position. Would I call this if the raise came from my right in the middle position? Which means I still call with premium hands from the big blind.

[Pov]

You will lose money from the blinds no matter what you do. What do you define as "getting murdered"?

Also, what limit do you play? At the lower limits the rake is pretty tough on those heads up type pots. Then again, I can't recall being heads up at the lower limits all that often.

More details please.

[Amerretto]

Playing $1/$2 only 2k hands, for the blinds lost $79 VPIP 38%, Wtsd 33%, don't know if this helps. TO be honest thought it was a lot worse, BB/hand (0.09)

[Pov]

Well obviously you don't have enough hands blah blah blah, but I'd say it doesn't look like you have much cause for alarm at all. When you compare with your "Diff w/o Blind" column what do you see for a loss?

In the blinds you are forced to put in money with terrible position and a hand you didn't get to choose so expect to lose money. But always be analyzing just like you are now. There is always room for improvement.

With each limit you move up blind defense becomes more and more important as you'll end up against a steal raise many times per session as opposed to the probable rarity with which you're facing it now. I know I still have a lot to learn in this area as well.

[Disconnected]

Looking back at the original question about whether to call a raise from BB is the same as playing a hand from MP, and I'm not sure it was answered. I think that it is not the same at all for two reasons.

One, you're at more of a position disadvantage post-flop from BB than from MP, so you'll always be acting with less information, subject to raises behind you, etc.

Second, the fact that someone has raised indicates that they have a better hand than random. In other words, if you're in MP and call a marginal hand, you're doing so not knowing whether someone behind you has an especially strong hand. When in the BB you find that someone does, the chance of your hand being the strongest (your pot equity, if I'm using that concept correctly) goes down. It's compounded by point #1 above, you'll be out of position against the strong hand post-flop.

I'm still pretty much a beginner, so take this analysis in that context.

[Amerretto]

I think my main problem with playing the BB is that, if it's say:
called by 2 players EP,
then raised by a MP player,
SB completes,
then I think (assuming the EP limpers complete) that there is 7 bets in the pot, therefore I am putting in a bet on that basis, ie betting with a less than premium hand hoping to hit lucky. I think that is problem 1.

Problem 2 is that I then hit mid pair, with say a weak kicker, and I then continue to play the hand to far, because at that time I'm starting to see a huge pot, and reason that even with a 3 or 4 outs I am starting to get the correct odds, to try and hit my long shot.

Is this a leak in my game, it feels it, but the figures I'm getting back weren't as bad as I first feared.

[Disconnected]

With problem #2, if you have the pot odds to call and you're the last to act, I don't know that it's a leak. You can be the last to act if you check and the player behind you bets. If it comes around to you without a raise, you can call or fold based on your outs/pot odds, knowing that you end the action. However, if the person behind you bets and it's raised, even if you have the pot odds to call, you have to take into account that you may be trapped between some raisers.