Playing in Blinds at Limit Holdem
A blind bet is a forced bet you have to place before the round starts and cards are dealt. Poker is a battle for blinds. Without them everyone would be waiting for premium holdings and there would be no action. The blinds are there to force the action and get the game going. Because of the nature of a blind bet you, in the long run, everyone is losing money in these two positions. Learning to play the blinds correctly is a vital part of strategy in winning players arsenal.
When you are in a big blind you basically have three options
Give up and fold ( assuming you are not let to play free )
call a raise and defend your blind
re-raise and defend your blind with you having the edge of putting the last bet in
Give up and fold:
You should be giving up the weakest part of your holdings. It's just not profitable to play those trash hands. However tempting it might be to see the flop and see if you hit it hard and flop two pair or better, you are just not going to flop good often enough to make it profitable. Even if you hit, it's not guaranteed that you will get any action and win enough money to overcome the times when you call the raise and end up giving up after missing the flop.
Call a raise:
You should be calling that extra bet more often when facing a raise if there are already more than one people in the pot. The more players there are in the hand, the bigger the pot is, and the better your odds are. A perfect place to play hands like suited connectors, suited aces, suited kings and small pairs. Any hand that has the potential to flop big is a good hand here. Be careful with a hand like weak ace. If you flop that ace the chances are you are already beaten by a bigger ace. I personally like to discard the smaller non-suited aces here.
re-raise:
Naturally you re-raise with your premium hands but this is the place to use your imagination and play back even when the cards don't justify it. When you re-raise with hand like 7-8 against a single opponent here and an ace flops. When you make a continuation bet, your opponent is going to muck pretty much all hes holdings that do not have an ace, and there will be lot of them. Most of the time you can just pick up the pot right there. Second scenario is a small flop that hits your 7-8. Now your opponent is not going to believe that this flop is good for you and might be calling you down with very weak holdings or even bet the whole way with nothing trying to get you to fold. Make your opponent's life harder by re-raising frequently. Do not over do it though or you are going to be facing a lot of 4-bets if your opponents are playing good and adapting. Balance is the key here.
A blind bet is a forced bet you have to place before the round starts and cards are dealt. Poker is a battle for blinds. Without them everyone would be waiting for premium holdings and there would be no action. The blinds are there to force the action and get the game going. Because of the nature of a blind bet you, in the long run, everyone is losing money in these two positions. Learning to play the blinds correctly is a vital part of strategy in winning players arsenal.
When you are in a big blind you basically have three options
Give up and fold ( assuming you are not let to play free )
call a raise and defend your blind
re-raise and defend your blind with you having the edge of putting the last bet in
Give up and fold:
You should be giving up the weakest part of your holdings. It's just not profitable to play those trash hands. However tempting it might be to see the flop and see if you hit it hard and flop two pair or better, you are just not going to flop good often enough to make it profitable. Even if you hit, it's not guaranteed that you will get any action and win enough money to overcome the times when you call the raise and end up giving up after missing the flop.
Call a raise:
You should be calling that extra bet more often when facing a raise if there are already more than one people in the pot. The more players there are in the hand, the bigger the pot is, and the better your odds are. A perfect place to play hands like suited connectors, suited aces, suited kings and small pairs. Any hand that has the potential to flop big is a good hand here. Be careful with a hand like weak ace. If you flop that ace the chances are you are already beaten by a bigger ace. I personally like to discard the smaller non-suited aces here.
re-raise:
Naturally you re-raise with your premium hands but this is the place to use your imagination and play back even when the cards don't justify it. When you re-raise with hand like 7-8 against a single opponent here and an ace flops. When you make a continuation bet, your opponent is going to muck pretty much all hes holdings that do not have an ace, and there will be lot of them. Most of the time you can just pick up the pot right there. Second scenario is a small flop that hits your 7-8. Now your opponent is not going to believe that this flop is good for you and might be calling you down with very weak holdings or even bet the whole way with nothing trying to get you to fold. Make your opponent's life harder by re-raising frequently. Do not over do it though or you are going to be facing a lot of 4-bets if your opponents are playing good and adapting. Balance is the key here.
