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Playing From The Blinds
The small blind and the big blind are the two least profitable positions at a shorthanded table. When we're in the blinds we no longer have the luxury of position. Unless we're in the big blind against the small blind, we're guaranteed to be out of position postflop. For this reason, it's essential to play much tighter out of position.
When flat calling a late position raise from the small blind, we should be aware of the tendencies of the player in the big blind. Against a frequent squeezer we should fold more of our flatting range from the SB.
If it is a limped pot, we should raise a tight value range from the blinds. In general our raising range should be something like 88+/AJ+/KQs. It's usually better to complete or check with the rest of our range. Hands such as weak suited aces are much better to complete so that we have the chance to stack players who have limped dominated suited cards preflop.
Raising from the blinds with a marginal holding such as a weak ace will just serve to inflate the pot preflop and can cause more difficult decisions on later streets. We'll be forced to play in situations that are neutral EV and will only serve to increase our variance.
Blind vs Blind Play
When it is folded to us in the small blind, we should raise a very wide range in an attempt to steal the blinds. We should do this until the big blind gives us a reason not to.
It is important to know how the big blind plays versus a steal from the small blind. We should know how tight or loose he is, his range for defending against a steal, how many tables he's playing, his postflop tendencies and any other information we feel is relevant.
Against tighter players and unknowns, we should continue to raise a huge range of hands from the small blind until they start playing back at us. Against more competent players who 3bet or call and play back a lot postflop, we should stick to a tighter range of premium hands together with a small amount of weak hands in order to maintain a balanced raising range.
When facing a limp from the small blind limp in an unopened pot, we should raise the majority of hands. A small blind limp is almost always a very weak hand so they will fold a large percentage of the time preflop. When they do call the raise, they will check fold most flops or will otherwise play their hand in a very obvious manner. Furthermore, we will have position and the lead so we can dictate the size of the pot postflop.
Raise Sizing
When stealing from the small blind, our open raise size should just be three times the big blind. A lot of players open to four times the big blind, but this is usually a mistake. When we raise bigger, we tighten the big blinds calling range as he will be less inclined to call with weaker or dominated hands. At the same time, we widen his play back at and 3betting range because there is now more dead money in the pot to win. For these reasons, the smaller raise size is much better. |
