Smooth-Calling your Button: Always a Mistake? NL

[Collin Moshman]

Hi Guys,

I just watched jsnipes's video (from the Sticky) -- excellent analysis and highly recommended. One thing I noticed, however, is that his pre-flop button strategy was strictly raise/fold (with all raises to 3 BB except the misclick). So weak top pair hands such as Q 5o or J 2s were folded. Part of this may be the two-tabling, but from what I've seen on this forum, the consensus seems to be that smooth-calling your button is a weak play. (Please correct me if this is wrong.)

In HOH Vol II, Harrington's first rule of head's up button play is: "At least call with any two cards." (He does, however, qualify this statement by mentioning that if Villain reraises consistently in response to button limps, you should discard the bottom 20% of starting hands.)
(p. 377)

I tend to agree. Getting 3:1 odds with position, it seems to me that a chip investment of 1 SB is nearly always +EV.
This is particularly true when the stacks are deep. So consider a hand such as T 5s, J 2o, and similar hands where you don't want to play a big pot despite having position. I am usually smooth-calling here.

He also states: "With two high cards, I strongly prefer a bet of twice the big blind. I'm not committing many chips, and I'm trying to encourage action from a player holding ace-x, king-x, or queen-x, whom I may have dominated."

I tend to agree that min-raising or 2.5 BB raises with non-premium top pair hands, such as Q 9o, is often a decent play.

Thoughts?

-- Collin