Another question about the SB?

JL,

I think you,Twizzy and FP all made great points. I am not much of a numbers gal so I can't say I understand all the Neg/pos EV stuff really.

I tried playing this way today when I was at Jetset at the tourney that I was playing before we started the sitngo. I know I was playing similiarly the way you suggested in your post and didn't know it. I thought I was trying more the way Twizzy said at the Ultimatebet tournament yesterday after I had read his first post.
But I know playing this way saved me alot in chips overall in the tournament. I know I was looking at my SB stats from Jetsets stats since I don't have pokertracker myself. I know I have called alot more in the past from the SB since this thread and the conversation on Ultimatebet with Twizzy.
At one point I had my SB down to like 20% or so before I got to the final table. I think I did call and raise from the SB several times over the course of almost 3 hours. With decent SB hands. J9suited comes to mind, several suited connectors and non suited also. small PPs worked but if I didn't flop a set I let go of it if someone bet it. If the flop hit fine, if not fine. If the betting didn't get out of control depending on my cards, community and the players I might have seen the turn and maybe the river with them. I didn't just call any two cards out of the SB and I didn't call too many raises from that position either.

Again I am not a numbers gal or a pockertracker. Sometimes I just go on gut feeling and I know how my BBs can look half the time (very very lousy) SO why can't others look be as bad as I have seen? LOL

I got to the final table on this one and placed 5th out of 106 players.

In my opinion, unless it's late in the tourney and the blinds are becoming sizable, I don't play the sb much different than any other hand, except for the fact that it is a powerful raise position pre flop. If everyone is playing tight, I'll try a limp in from time to time in just about any position just to throw a false trail on my playing habits. I have a lot of respect for the fact that you hate to just donate money for a peek, and I agree that those extra chips come in handy if you didn't waste them, but I feel it's important to my game to mix up my play and try not to be too predictable.

LOL I found it .. makes for an interesting read as well.

I'm going to give my piece on this small blinds issue :

As already pointed out in this thread, alot of the new players have the mentality of, "Man I already put in my SB, I may as well stay in! I might flop top pair!" This mistake is made so often it is painful to watch...and people lose a tonne of money due to this! General rule of thumb is to either fold your hand or raise if you think you have the best hand. Calling is pointless, you give everyone a chance to look at the flop and to make hands. Why not raise if you have a strong hand and force out those weak hands to ensure they do not have a change of making hands? If you dont have a hand capable of accomplishing this..fold your hand. Simple rule of thumb but will save you huge cash.!

Some people do lose alot like this, but they probably also lose in similar non SB situations. I think there's room for debate here. When playing OP you always must consider the pot odds, the number of players behind you, and thier aggressiveness. Most people are disciplined enough to throw away poor hands from the BB after checking, the difference between the BB and SB is mostly psychological. Because you've voluntarily put money into the pot, you're more likely to want to play out the hand. This is the mistake. A disciplined and experienced player knows how to take advantage of their favorable pot odds by showing aggression in favorable situations, and folding, or slowing down in unfavorable ones.