blind battle discussion

[timmay28]

Assuming it is folded to the blinds,

1. from the sb in 25 and 50nl, what range are you generally completing and what are you raising versus a standard oponent at this level? (loose caller pre, will call flop&turn bets with almost any pair)

2. as the bb, when you see a donk constantly complete with trash and you're sure he'll insta call a raise, what range are your raising?

ty

[matrix]

1. I *rarely* complete anything. I don't want to play OOP if I can avoid it. If I gots a read that the BB will call off lots of chips with any pair postflop Then I tend to raise any hand that I'd raise from MP + any Ace.

2 I don't let people complete my BB I raise them with ATC and then CB ANY scary looking flop or any flop where I make a reasonable hand. I *want* to play raised pots in position with donks - it's how I make money. After a while IME villains tend to adjust to this (badly) by folding most of their SB's to me without a fight and then if they raise I get out of the way unless I have a hand.

A a general rule SBvBB hands play much like HU poker. Pairs are goot and even Ace High will win quite a few pots as just one pair is quite hard to make. I will felt TPGK+ on almost any board - also as the BB I have position in everyone of these hands that SB plays against me this is a GOOD thing cos I have control over how big the pot gets so I'll get my MP/BP hands to SD frequently in small pots and beat their trash hands often. I can get out of the way if the board comes 4flush or 4straight and villain wakes up and bets big if I choose to.

These situations are much much less about what hand values to do x with preflop and much more about reading hands and calling/raising if you are ahead of his range - or folding if you think you are behind postflop.

[Antinome]

[ QUOTE ]
1. from the sb in 25 and 50nl, what range are you generally completing and what are you raising versus a standard oponent at this level? (loose caller pre, will call flop&turn bets with almost any pair)

[/ QUOTE ]

I am raising 100% to 3BB until he's calling me and calling my 3/4 pot cbet enough to be unprofitable, about 1/3 time, or 3betting me more than 1/4 times. It is an exploitive strategy that works so often that finding a 'folder' in my BB has become an absolute requirement for me to remain at a 25/50NL table. This isn't a tough requirement, 90%+ fold BB to a steal over and over without fighting back at all.

I should mention that I think raising 4BB in this situation is a leak. Consider how often he needs to fold preflop and on the flop for a 4BB bet to turn a profit. Assume you never have a hand. Hands are for nits who secretly hate poker. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

When combined with the other half of my SB strategy- raising almost any limper- I raise a lot from the SB with a lot of marginal hands. I'm almost embarrassed to admit- my VPIP from the SB is about 38%, almost as much as from the button. I almost never call from the SB, and never, never, never in a BvB situation. But I've been well into the green from the SB for more than 100K hands doing this, so I'm hesitant to mess with it too much. I certainly won't take [censored] from anyone who can't say the same thing.

[ QUOTE ]
2. as the bb, when you see a donk constantly complete with trash and you're sure he'll insta call a raise, what range are your raising?

[/ QUOTE ]

I really need a better BB strategy. My current one is based on the idea that:

a)I'm in position
b)I can outplay him postflop and take it away a lot when he loses interest
c)he's obviously bad, he'll stack off to my hidden monsters, while the probability of me doing the same is pretty small.

so I check a lot of hands. Like up to A-low-off.

Results are so-so. Obviously I'm doing (way) better than open-folding the blinds, but I'm pretty sure I could do better with a more aggressive BB BvB strategy. Only thing holding me back really is that my VPIP is already embarrassingly high. Totally dumb reason, I know. Maybe after I finish cutting down on my UTG and MP raising. (now at 6% and 9% VPIP respectively, and dropping. I will get those solidly and regularly into the green, dammit, if I have to fold 99% to do it.)

Edit: combine my SB strategy with Matrix's BB strategy and you will crush BvB play, IMO.