15-30 blinds HU

note that 15-30 has a 2/3 sb structure

Suppose its folded around to you and you are in the sb and the BB is moderately aggressive (ie- 2 AF). You know you can play 2-7o here, but if the bb raises you are pretty [censored]. How do you approach these situations? Does the at-first-greater implied odds make up for the risk of being raised and being out of position the entire hand?

[sweetjazz]

I'm still trying to figure out how to play with the 2/3 blind structure, but I am pretty sure that you can't play 72o here because you will be OOP and you are really getting much closer to 2-to-1 odds on your money, as most players will (correctly) raise most of the time you limp your SB.

I'm trying to figure out if hands like T6o, 94s, Q3o are playable in this spot. I suspect they are right on the border of profitability, and right now I play them if I know of weaknesses in opponent's postflop game or have reason to believe he is bad postflop, but generally fold against good players here. Maybe limp-folding is right here with the weakest hands (including 72o), although once you do that once, you are basically getting raised every future SB-BB confrontation, and you end up inducing BB to playing a pretty good strategy.

I am still trying to figure out whether open raising in general is best with playable hands or limping is better (3-betting better hands in general, with some variation against opponents with whom I have a history).

So I doubt I am very helpful, but I suspect that if BB is playing properly aggressively in this spot, then you should probably be folding your worst 10-20% of hands. This is because you have reduced immediate odds and still face the prospect of a weak hand out of position.

[Drontier]

i think you can only limp these kinds of hands if you limp some stronger hands for deception. overall i dont think its worth it. just fold those Q3o 27o.

I hate limping strong hands for deception. Id sooner be raising A2o, K6s, 22 etc than having to sometimes limp in AJs - especially when I'm not expecting to be playing a lot of hands with my opponent headsup.


That being said, if my opponent is passive in the blinds preflop and they dont really raise me much, I make a huge profit limping in for 1/3 SB, and betting the flop 100% of the time if they are capable of folding on the flop a decent % of the time.

As it stands though, against somewhat aggro opponents ive been either raising or folding preflop here, since Id rather just skip the variance associated with playing 8 hands of HU with someone.


Further thoughts:
If you are willing to limp 2-7o because of your implied odds, it makes no difference what the structure is once youve paid and the other guy raises. His raise effectively makes a 1-shot hand where you both have to pay the same double big blinds and he's in position. So it seems that by limping in, you give him the option of eliminating your good implied odds, which is the very reason for you being in the hand in the first place. If he can exercise that option liberally, I would rather not give it to him at all.

[wackjob]

I have no need for deception in the blinds. My raising range is huge. Limping a decent/good hand when facing the blinds is a flat out crime: why let a random hand see the flop for free? The only time limping in a blindwar situation would be correct for me is when I know I can get in a limp reraise due to an aggro blind. Other than that, I will NEVER limp my blinds.

[daisyglaze]

How often are you folding?