Blind defense at small limits?

Since low limits are typically loose, is it proper to call from the SB by default to a non-raised, multi-limper pot?

How about the same from the BB to a raised, multi-caller pot?

Seems like I can go many, many orbits giving away my blinds waiting for proper cards to play from the blinds.

Is that just part of the game at this level?

[Harv72b]

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Seems like I can go many, many orbits giving away my blinds waiting for proper cards to play from the blinds.

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Excluding metagame plays (which you shouldn't even be thinking about at the microlimits), it is never correct to play an improper hand from the blinds. I think what you're looking for is a definition of which hands it is correct to play in these situations.

Generally speaking, when you're on a loose table where 4 or more players typically see the flop, what hands you can play from the SB in an unraised pot and what hands you can call a single raise from in the BB are the same: pocket pairs, two broadway, suited cards, and your higher unsuited connectors. How low you can go depends on how many players are already in the pot--if there are 8 limpers to you in the SB and it's a 1:2 blind structure, you should be completing with almost any two cards (if you're confident in your postflop play, that becomes any two cards). You are playing these borderline hands because of the pot odds and implied odds being offered to you--if four players limp and the button then raises, it's correct to call that raise in the big blind with two suited cards because, probably getting 11:1 on your preflop call, you will win the pot with a flush, two pair, trips, or even a one card straight often enough to make the call +EV.

Understand that these are not truly blind defense situations--blind defense occurs when it is folded to a player in late position who then raises; he does not necessarily have a strong or even good hand, but he could be gambling that none of the players yet to act (the blinds in particular) have a good hand. By definition, a player raising from late position behind several limpers, or several people limping to you in the SB, is not a blind steal--unless the raiser is a particularly bad LAG, he has a strong hand.

In an unraised pot, I typically loosen up a little from the SB. I'll play hands I would play from late position and add all suited hands as well as connectors. A sample grouping might be:

All pocket pairs, anything suited, any two cards higher than 10, T9-76.

You can throw some 1 gappers in there too. You just don't want to be in a situation where you're playing hands like Q2 offsuit. These hands will not show a profit, even in a multiway pot, and they are very difficult to play correctly post-flop.

From the BB against a raise. I typically follow the advice in SSHE. Play the same hands you would play from late position without a raise, but take out some of the weaker offsuit hands such as KT, QT, JT, QJ. The threat of domination is too much with these hands. If it is really multiway, you can throw in some suited hands as the implied odds if you hit a flush draw will be there for you.