PLAYING THE BLINDS QUESTION.. XPOST FROM BEGINNERS FORUM

[jesse8888]

I'm not sure I quite understand your question. Could you re-phrase it?

Lots of people can attest that the picture is not as simple as I'm painting it. Many hands (Ace-rag type hands come to mind) suffer severely from reverse-implied-odds. Imagine you held A4o and an ace flopped. If lots of money went in, how much would you like your hand? Probably not much. The problem with A4o is that if you hit your ace and nobody else has one, you're not likely to get much action. If anyone else does have an Ace, you're going to chop or lose.

[Scal007]

Jesse...

The simplest way to rephrase the quesiton would be....

If you're in BB/SB position with a hand you are not supposed to call with, does the size of the pot (pot odds?) determine if you if you should call in the sb and call a raise in the big blind? If so what is the min. odds before you can justify calling?

Using the example you mentioned A4rag.... is there any reason ever to call in the SB position and call a raise in the BB positon, if so please show how...

Thanks....

[James.]

pot odds combined with implied odds dicate every decision in limit hold em.

a good rule of thumb for when you're in the bb facing a raise(esp a late position raise) is that you want at least 35% equity against your opponent's range to play. the later the position of the raiser, the wider a range has this amount of equity.

the most important thing to watch out for when choosing what hands to call with is the effect domination has on your holding. typically, i would rather call a steal raise with 89o than K9o. this is because we are drawing to 3 outs more often with K9o than 89o. one card poker is a losing proposition unless you get very, very lucky. of course the raiser has alot to do with the decision as well. an aggressive raiser has a wider range and offers better implied odds than a tightpassive raiser. so know your man, avoid domination, and play well postflop and you are on your way.

it should be noted a different strategy should be employed from the sb. very rarely(except when the hand is going to be 5 handed or something) shoudl you be coldcalling raises from teh sb. against an open raiser your strategy from the small blind should almost always be to raise or fold. also, because you are getting worse odds and you are in worse position(BB could still wake up with a hand)you should play tighter from the sb(this is also influenced by the structure of the game: 1/3 vs. 1/2 vs. 2/3).

literally an entire book could be written on blind play in LHE, and maybe someday it will happen. until then, analyze your situations as best you can and play within yourself and you will get better.

[jesse8888]

First of all, James said it all quite well. Thanks!

[ QUOTE ]

Using the example you mentioned A4rag.... is there any reason ever to call in the SB position and call a raise in the BB positon, if so please show how...

Thanks....

[/ QUOTE ]

Two situations:

In the SB, if you're playing a 2/3 structure, I think you can call A4o.

In the BB, if you think you're heads up against a very loose and aggressive steal raise from the button, I could see continuing with A4o

Folding A4o from the blinds every single time you're asked to voluntarily contribute can't be bad.