Defending Your Blinds

[uuser]

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I usualy asume a player is bad until otherwise proven.

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QFT

[barryc83]

What do you mean by button is unknown? Is this his first orbit at the table? If this guy is raising his button liberally and I know it I'm def repopping. This is also dependent on my current table image. If I've been super aggro lately and people are starting to think I'm FOS I'll just fold. Playing AJs OOP against people who cant fold sucks. If its the guys first orbit at the table and I've never seen him before I'll fold.

[Speedlimits]

[ QUOTE ]
What do you mean by button is unknown? Is this his first orbit at the table? If this guy is raising his button liberally and I know it I'm def repopping. This is also dependent on my current table image. If I've been super aggro lately and people are starting to think I'm FOS I'll just fold. Playing AJs OOP against people who cant fold sucks. If its the guys first orbit at the table and I'v
e never seen him before I'll fold.

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Yeah Unknown is a little vague. Basically you have no PAHUD stats on him and he hasn't stolen the button before.

[matrix]

fold.

this is NL blinds don't matter (unless we are stealing them)

if villain is raising my blind lots THEN I'll play back but not until and AJ is garbage.

calling sucks - where can we get value unless we flop a flush/straight or great draw - and how often do we flop one of those compared to totally whiffing?

whats the plan if an ace flops?

easy fold.

I think calling here is a leak - raising is an option if we have a read that buttons range OTB is wiiiiiiiiide (and he's an unknown so we have no clue about that)

save yourself the headaches and just fold these preflop.

Playing OOP *sucks*

[betafemale]

Exactly what I thought! Although my answer was shorter [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Jay Riall]

I prefer calling since I'm confident in my ability to play oop now. AJs is a nice hand and is ahead of the range of anybodies button open. Raising is an option but I wouldn't do this at 25NL because no-one ever folds and I don't want to take this hand oop in a big pot vs. someone who doesn't fold. I would reserve raising to TAGs. Folding is fine also obviously.

[Speedlimits]

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fold.

this is NL blinds don't matter (unless we are stealing them)

if villain is raising my blind lots THEN I'll play back but not until and AJ is garbage.

calling sucks - where can we get value unless we flop a flush/straight or great draw - and how often do we flop one of those compared to totally whiffing?

whats the plan if an ace flops?

easy fold.

I think calling here is a leak - raising is an option if we have a read that buttons range OTB is wiiiiiiiiide (and he's an unknown so we have no clue about that)

save yourself the headaches and just fold these preflop.

Playing OOP *sucks*

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Wouldn't AJs (suited does matter) be ahead of a random button's rasing range? I actually think it is between folding/raising and calling is the WORST option. I like to 3bet these for a few reasons.

1) It shows the button your aggro and he might raise on the button less.

2) A cbet on the flop will take down the pot the majority of time.

Note though that AJo I would fold. I do think it is that close.

Matrix, AQo you raise I presume?

[Imrahil]

There's this guy who like 8 tables and plays 37/30 or something crazy like that. His steal % is around 66 so I've started raising his 3xbb raises liberally from the SB and BB.

[matrix]

nah I fold AQ as well here to an unknown button raise.


vs an unknown my raise range in the SB is AK and TT+ I call with 22-99 and fold everything else. Call me a nit I care not.

Yeah we crush his range most likely now - but we have no clue what kind of hand we are up against after the flop comes precisely because his range is so damn large.

it's 25NL - these guys call way too much so we need to make the best hand and showit down most often to win the pot. A few times he has AQ or AK and we are killed and pay him a hefty chunk of our stack - all the dinky pots we win when he has nada don't make up for this in the long run.

at $100NL+ (and perhaps a few times at 50's I'll 3bet) if we're the BB and are closing the action (very important) calling is OK quite often once we have a read on the button.

What type of player is he postflop? whats his calling range on a ragged board if we lead into him with a PSB on the turn after calling his almost inevitable flop CB?? if an Ace flops will he take AT to the felt?

vs an unknown we know none of this stuff - and all of it could sway our decision here.

Stop thinking about your cards so much and focus more on the players you are playing.

Don't think " I can raise with AJs but not AJo" think "I can raise this guy and then win the pot on the flop 70% of the time no matter what flops" or "I can call pre and flop vs this guy and lead the turn and he'll always fold without a top hand"

Calling in these spots is fine IF you know the villain and IF you think you're a better player post. Given the table stakes and calibre of opposition (people generally call too much and overplay bad hands) it's not worth the marginal EV.

Play pots in position with big hands and value bet hard.
Play less marginal hands OOP - especially when as in the OP we are the SB and might well end up OOP to 2 villains.

What happens if we call pre and the BB calls pre? - usually people check to the pfr so we check BB checks and then button bets - now what? What kind of player is the BB?? will he raise if we call? will he overcall again or just fold?

I think we are setting ourselves up for trouble if make loose calls preflop and thisleads to us bleeding away 6-8BB on a hand often which decimates our winrate in the long run.

also Why do you want to make the button raise less often?

[betafemale]

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Wouldn't AJs (suited does matter) be ahead of a random button's rasing range?

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As I see it: poker is not about having the best start hand, it is about winning in the long run. The fact that we do not know the villian, our pos and we have a person after us to act means more.