foal
08-24-2007, 02:20 PM
This is my strategy for opening from the SB. Feel free to criticize, because I'm by no means an expert, but I'm posting this, because I've noticed from watching many uNL videos that I play this situation differently than a lot of players. I'm not sure about higher stakes, because I haven't played higher than .25-.50, but I find that in the micro games I've played in it is effective. I've only played on Poker Stars so there's a chance it's less effective in other micro poker niches, but my guess would be that it's still a good play elsewhere. I realize no one is going to want to read all this crap, so I'm making use of the bold feature.
Here's my line and most common result by far with any two cards (except strong hands, which I raise with) and any flop.
Hero completes --> BB checks --> Hero minbets --> BB folds
If the BB calls it is usually because he caught something like mid pair or a draw. Top pair if he's passive. Don't double barrel unless you're ahead of that range, just give it up.
If he raises it's usually top pair+ and you should fold without a strong hand.
Why is this a good line? When the table folds around to the blinds you're in a heads up match essentially (except with the positions reversed after the flop). But most microers are not going to play it that way. They simply aren't going to be interested in getting in a blind vs blind battle most of the time when they haven't voluntarily put any money in the pot and have shown no interest in their hand.
What if the BB likes to raise when you complete? My line relies on the fact that most players don't. You will run into some players who raise frequently, though, maybe even ATC. If you're up against a player like this you can start folding a lot of hands, but you might want to consider limp-reraising with a strong hand and simply raising or folding with a medium hand.
Why min-bet? That's all you need to take the pot and it will work a high % of the time. If they call you then they usually would have called the full pot (which is only 2x a min-bet) or 2/3 pot. Since they will fold a high % of the time you should be most concerned with losing as little as possible on the hands that they call or raise.
Why not raise with ATC instead? You risk less money by limping and min-betting, while still maintaining lots of fold equity. Also, if the BB has a strong hand you may get 3-bet preflop and will have to give it up. If you just limp and get raised you will only lose half a big blind rather than two or three and a half.
What if they catch on? Usually this situation comes up infrequently enough that you don't have to worry about it. But occasionally you'll be in a game where it comes up a lot. If you've done this to a player a couple times in a relatively short period of time they may start playing back or floating you. This is a good time to slow down. However, if you're lucky and you actually hit a good flop it could work to your advantage. I was once to the right of the same guy on two different tables and I'd done this to him two or three times before I started flopping some strong hands in my blind battles with him. He stopped respecting my aggression right as I was hitting these good hands, got quite tilted and wound up getting stacked on one of the tables.
Here's my line and most common result by far with any two cards (except strong hands, which I raise with) and any flop.
Hero completes --> BB checks --> Hero minbets --> BB folds
If the BB calls it is usually because he caught something like mid pair or a draw. Top pair if he's passive. Don't double barrel unless you're ahead of that range, just give it up.
If he raises it's usually top pair+ and you should fold without a strong hand.
Why is this a good line? When the table folds around to the blinds you're in a heads up match essentially (except with the positions reversed after the flop). But most microers are not going to play it that way. They simply aren't going to be interested in getting in a blind vs blind battle most of the time when they haven't voluntarily put any money in the pot and have shown no interest in their hand.
What if the BB likes to raise when you complete? My line relies on the fact that most players don't. You will run into some players who raise frequently, though, maybe even ATC. If you're up against a player like this you can start folding a lot of hands, but you might want to consider limp-reraising with a strong hand and simply raising or folding with a medium hand.
Why min-bet? That's all you need to take the pot and it will work a high % of the time. If they call you then they usually would have called the full pot (which is only 2x a min-bet) or 2/3 pot. Since they will fold a high % of the time you should be most concerned with losing as little as possible on the hands that they call or raise.
Why not raise with ATC instead? You risk less money by limping and min-betting, while still maintaining lots of fold equity. Also, if the BB has a strong hand you may get 3-bet preflop and will have to give it up. If you just limp and get raised you will only lose half a big blind rather than two or three and a half.
What if they catch on? Usually this situation comes up infrequently enough that you don't have to worry about it. But occasionally you'll be in a game where it comes up a lot. If you've done this to a player a couple times in a relatively short period of time they may start playing back or floating you. This is a good time to slow down. However, if you're lucky and you actually hit a good flop it could work to your advantage. I was once to the right of the same guy on two different tables and I'd done this to him two or three times before I started flopping some strong hands in my blind battles with him. He stopped respecting my aggression right as I was hitting these good hands, got quite tilted and wound up getting stacked on one of the tables.