[ohnonotthat]

They say you won't get much action if you don't give some but that is not meant to suggest you should be the one "hosting the party".

There are quite a few hands you can splash around with even in raised pots but even with the tiny blind structure of NL if you do too much splashing you'll wind up having re-bought 3 or 4 times before you finally drag that monster pot.

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With one and two dollar blinds, playing 8-7/s for $10 is correct only if the following conditions are met . . .

1. You and all (or at least most) of those who take the flop with you have at least a few hundred on the table.

2. They don't have to be calling stations but they must not be afraid to call a large bet.

3. Your call closes the action OR there is nobody other than the blinds left to act.

- If the there is a limper (or two) and then a raise you face the danger of a limp/reraise; if UTG raises and gets a few callers your hand is still marginal at best if you're not the button. Your fear is not so much a raise from your left as it is a CALL from your left - and having to act before the caller for the remainder of the hand.

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If these two conditions are met this hand becomes playable - even for a 4xBB raise - but hardly spectacular.

You are seldom going to flop a made hand or a HUGE draw and will often be priced out of the pot on the flop or turn when you flop a weak draw such as a gutshot or an open-ender with two to a suit (not your suit) on board.

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Change the hand in question from a suited-connector to a pocket pair - even deuces - and you'd have a hand that plays well in this situation . . . 1-2 blinds, raised to 10, with a few other callers.

However, if you do flop your set, be sure to remember to price the drawing hands out of the pot on the flop; in other words, do to them what you do not want done to you with the 8-7/s from above.

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Now, to sum that all up in one sentence:

If you see players calling 10 cold routinely they are playing poorly; the fact that it has worked for them over the course of the ten sessions you've been in the game means little or nothing - if they continue they'll go broke.

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I hope that helped.