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Statistically, over the lifetime of your play, an A2 is worth less than the value of the blinds.
[/ QUOTE ]Hi Dave - You have the data and I believe you. I'm not always enamored of hands containing A2.
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Even a nice suited one.
[/ QUOTE ]This one is nice one. Not great, but nice.
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So if you could, every time, trade that A2 into the Poker Gods for both the blinds, no hassle, then you should so that, every time.
[/ QUOTE ]But you cannot do that. And now the question is, how can you optimize your profit with this fine starting hand.
There are risks involved in both raising and limping. Raising has a greater risk of losing a potential customer (and also costs more up front). Limping has a greater risk of losing all or part of the pot and requires more card playing skill on later betting rounds.
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In general, in limit games with blinds, it is very rare that a hand is worth more than the blinds.
[/ QUOTE ]I can see how you might interpret "to me attempting to win only 0.75 big bets seems a waste of this fine starting hand" to mean I think this hand is worth more than the blinds.
But that is not what it means.
There is a difference between
collecting the blinds and
attempting to win the blinds. Do you see the difference, now that I have pointed out there is one?
Assuming we do not fold, we are either
• (1) risking 1.00BB in an attempt (requiring less card playing skill to be successful) to win 0.75BB, or
• (2) risking 0.50BB in an attempt
(requiring more card playing skill to be successful) to win more than 0.75BB.
It's subtle, but hopefully you recognize that it's not a matter of trying to be more clever with words.<ul type="square"> "attempting to win only 0.75 big bets seems a waste of this fine starting hand" does not mean "this hand is worth more than the blinds."[/list]Buzz