The pretend (preflop) blinds and the real (position based) blinds

[Dan BRIGHT]

Ive done some thinking, not a lot, but a little bit and here are some of those thoughts. BTW This post is a little long, but if you dont wanna bother reading it or want the "short form" then ask soemone else to do a write up for you. However if you want to learn/improve then maybe try not to info handed to you on a silver platter.

In nl the blinds are fairly trivial. They are more like a guideline than anything else. If you are playing 5/10nl and everyone has 1k stacks, the game is significantly different than if everyone has 2k-3k stacks. Often when ppl get deeper, they will still open to $40 (4bb), which is actually sort of silly. In essence they are minraising in a 10/20nl (except some playing in this "deep" 5/10 game might be "underolled" for how big their game plays). The standard open isnt always standard.... like the raw monetary number might happen to be the same, but if its expressed as a % of stacks, the number does change. That phenomenom is obv a boon to some and a bane to others and their respective play styles or tendencies.



Moving along, so if the blinds are more of a guideline, then why do we follow it? Well I suspect its moer out of habit than anything else, or even just lazyness in not wanting to make constant minor adjustments based on the stack sizes around the table.

I think we are really only pretending to fight for the blinds in nl cash game play. What we are really fighting for, is edges based on a % of stack sizes. For example, if I make almost all my money on the CO and the Button, why am I folding 58s to a raise in that position? On the button and in the co you ARE paying a blind. That blind is the money, as expressed as a % of stack sizes and modified/altered based on both the relatively quality of your opponent and lastly the quality of your hands, that you give up by folding it.

Look at it this way, if someone "defends" jts in their bb vs a button open, what exactly are they defending? They are defending an extremely miniscule amount of the final pot - an amount that doesnt even matter. The equivalent of what happens in such a hand is that the blidns are really just UTG limpers, and the guy on the button raised them. Hand ranges aside for each preflop play (call in teh blinds vs limpcall utg 6max), the way the money goes in is the same (not that the money really mattered that much!).


You guys should go to pt, open up your positional stats, and look at how much money you make (and lose) from each position. You'l notice that the closer you are to the button, the more you make. The reason for that isnt b/c you have to pay a blind, its bc you have to pay an "imaginary out of position" blind that not only charges you money preflop for your initial call, but also *taxes you every single street in the amount of money that you can make*. Often times, the amount that being oop *taxes* certain hands (ie k5o) is so much higher than the hand can *earn*, that the hand actually loses money.


So now that you know that button = moneymoneymoney, what does that mean? Well ive talked to a few peeps who are very good players, and despite many of them having diff styles, they all agreed that on the buton you should be cold calling more preflop and 3betting less. Now to me this at first seemed a bit backwards, since I assumed that in position I wanted to play bigger pots.... but i was misaplying that idea. On the button I have a great deal of control of the pot size. By 3betting preflop,. I inflate the pot which ends up giving me less control postflop of the hand as its played out. You know how I mentioned when new streets come for certain hands they are *taxed* for being out of position? Well, the less they have being, the less those hands have to give - It hard to use your position to make money when the guys decision on the turn is either call a psb for his stack or fold. By 3betting preflop in position, I am effectively diminishing my positional edge (much like how ppl 3bet button raises from their small blind both for initative nd to decrease the buttons edge by giving him less room to manuver postflop.... the money goes in preflop in both cases, how it got there isnt that important once its there). Of course, if you have ever played with shortstacks, you know this b/c with them its so often you either hit it or you miss it, and you cant (and they cant) draw to it (it being the best hand in a showdown that takes place).



All of this is pretty interesting to me after I changed my preflop ranges. I run about 25/20/3.5 now, which I guess is lagtag to some, but really, its not for everyone. For the most part I stopped opening scs and friend until the CO, and added more hands (ie 58s 6ts etc) to the CO and Button. As a result, I open frequently, pretty much playing the lions share of mey hands in position. I think some tags (2p2rs) look at my stats and have all the wrong assumptions about my play. They seem to expect me to be a lot more aggressive preflop than I really am and generally play back far too much postflop in 3bet pots given my range (Whihc against many ppl, in most situations save for hu in the blinds is almost always something silly-tight like jj+ aqs+). I guess thats sort of a reminder that pokertracker stats only tell you the numbers, they dont tel you what they mean.


Anyways guys, cold-calling in position + raising flops = free money in midstakes games vs tags. enjoy