Play in the Blinds

I play $50 NL Ring games at Full Tilt, and occasionally Pokerstars

Have got records of my play over the past 8000 hands on Poker Tracker, and am coming out at appox 15 BB per 100 hands. Which I think is pretty good. Well it has boosted my Bankroll over the past few months.

After spending a few hours studying my stats on Poker Tracker, I noticed my biggest downfall is in the Blinds. Well more so the BB. I rarely play the small blind , unless I have a real hand, or a decent drawing hand if there are plenty of limpers giving me odds to call.

I am not losing lots in here, in fact I have done pretty well getting away from some big hands, and also flopped a few monsters and took big pots, against people who limped with premium hands.

However, there are lots of times I am confused what I should really do on the flop, so I have a few questions I hope you can help me with.


(1) Say i have K4, and I flop top pair. Against one player, I am almost certainly going to bet. Any big resistance then probably fold, however, if there are lots of players in the pot, and say there are no real draws on the board, should I still bet ? Or just Check and accept I am done with the hand if someone else takes a pop at it ?

(2) In BB, if I have KQ AJ etc those kind of problem hands, Should I bet out to rid the limpers ? Or Check. The problem I have found is, the more limpers, the more trash hands in late position will join in. By the time it gets to the SB, Hands such as q3 will limp in . So I hit my Queen top pair, good kicker, on a harmless looking flop, and someone just hits two pair with q3. Of course I can let go of it, but it costs me money to find this out, where as maybe a bet pre flop would be cheaper ?

(3) Defending and Stealing Blinds. All down to observations I know. What kind of hands do you use for these purposes. As a rule, I don't defend my BB to often, I don't think it is as neccesary in a ring game as a tournament, however if someone is constantly stealing my blind, I will make a counter attack with pretty much anything. It is more the when to steal, when it is folded round to me in the SB. This is the problem I have, I will more often than not steal with a drawing hand like 78 89 etc, as I know where I am more often than not on the flop if called, and is an easy fold if re raised. It is when it is folded to me and I have like , a6 a7 a8 all the way up to aj. I Hate these hands, and it is difficult to give them up when you hit an ace. I feel like I should be raising with them in, but really feel like throwing them away

(4) Calling a raise for pot odds in the BB. This is another concept I kind of understand, but not sure I do correctly. Again if I have drawing type hands, I will usually call. Although I am not sure how much odds I need to do so, I usually go with about 5-1 then I will call. Say for Example I have A6 and the pot is raised and called up to odds of about 7 to 1. I really want to fold this hand, as it is rubbish. Am I playing it wrong if I fold 7-1 odds with an Ace in my hand ? Is it correct to call in the BB with any kind of junk with real big odds ? I also understand the concept that if there has been a limper before the first raise, I have to be careful of live players, being able to make another raise.

Thanks for taking the time to read

BS