Calling from the small blind

I'm wondering,.. how often do you call from the small blind (ie. if say just the button has limped in, do you call with any 2 just about?).
I'm thinking that this is a leak in my game because I'm probably folding from the small blind too often (it's all game dependent of course, who's on the table, what game I'm playing, where we're at in the game, my image, playing styles of other's, stack sizes, etc. etc.). But generally speaking, what percentage of the time are you calling from the sb and what requirements do you have for making the call (if any).
ie., I just started playing some turbo sngs for a change the past couple of days and have been ITM 70% of the time (yah.. a good thing for a change as I don't play alot of sngs anymore and have always stayed away from turbos but have recently been enjoying them). It was still fairly early, 7 left in it, button a very tight player (TAG) limps from the button, I fold Q-6o on the sb,.. flop comes Q-6-6 (groan... ). Is it an auto-call here or do you figure on having something that will play decently on alot of flops (gappers, std.A-x, sm prs., 2-broadway cards... something.... say top 50%?.. idk?). In the turbos I'm trying to conserve my stack as much as possible and not wanting to donk off any chips unecessarily.
So.. what percentage of the time do you call from the sb or what pot odds do you want to be able to make the call? I hate playing out of position so in a raised pot I'm folding obviously almost all hands unless I've got something I can play back at them with (or a re-steal, etc. depending upon.. ).
Question though is (I guess?), what do you need to call.. and approx. what % of the time are you making that call?(I've read stuff like 65%,.. or from others who are actually calling almost 100% of the time).

... I suppose I should really be much more specific here with the question (ie. in a sng, what stage of game, or ring, or mtt... etc.),.. but just a general question here.... tks!

Depending on how aggressive the big blind is, I'm gonna make that call 80% of the time with any two, raise 15% and fold the other 5%.

I would tend to call with a very large number of possible hole card combinations. 72o folding, 43o ummmm yea most times, 98 or better almost always.

I wouldnt say any 2 cards but mid-high suited connectors, gapped suited connectors and up would definately get a call...depending on bb style of course, but being out of position after the flop sucks so not to much chasin goin on. If I dont connect, usually get out asap.

I play mainly cash games and used to auto call with any two cards in an unraised pot. I found that, in the long run, I was bleeding chips doing this. To defend your small blind, you have to have something to defend it with. So, while these guidelines might still be pretty loose, here's are my minimum holdings to call...any two suited cards, any two cards 10 or higher, any Ace, any two connecting cards.

I've recently learned that in tournament play, playing out of the small blind is a huge leak. Why would you continually play pots OOP with weak holdings? Unless you have a big enough hand that you can legitimately put in a raise with, just fold.

I usually fold my small blind if its not a big enough hand, cause I found out in tourneys on the long distance its a loss.

I usually fold my small blind if its not a big enough hand, cause I found out in tourneys on the long distance its a loss.

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Short and sweet, and yes.

There's really not that much you can do about a flop like that. I honestly would have folded it too.. and even though it sucks that you would have nutted the boat.. you have to look as it as.... "If I starting making that call.. really.. how many times is something like that going to happen?"

For me, everytime I think it's a good idea to limp in and play those hands it comes back to kill me when the flop comes up q 9 9 and some guy hits trips and slow plays it and i get sucked in or something. It's not that good of a hand.. i would continue folding it.

Don't play out of the SB. It's a huge leak for many players. In general raise or fold from this position. You need a legitimate hand like small pp, good suited connectors, KQ, Axs. I'm definitely folding A6o in the SB.

You are out of position with a weak holding most of the time. The times you flop monsters don't compensate for the number of times you'll check-fold the best hand cuz you're out of position, or bleed away chips with Q6o when the board comes Q 5 2 and you're up against KQ or AQ. And if you're going to fold on a Q-high flop to aggression, what was the point of playing anyway?

For every two orbits you fold the SB, you can limp on the button once. You're way way better off playing 87s on the button behind 3-4 limpers than playing A6o in the SB.

Without a lot of other hands in the pot I would play my small blind like early position. With a lot of players I'll play a bit more, probably too much. At the .02/.05, where I enjoyed some success, I VPIPped from the small blind about 1/3 of the time. I recently read an article, I think it was by caro, advocating with non-premium hands calling or folding only from the small blind. And I quite like the idea. Too many players will re-raise your transparent steal, which of course makes it great to raise your premium hands so you can pop them back, but will cost you a lot of money in foolish chases with your weak hands out of position. I just try to remember that small blind may be half priced, but you're UTG for the rest of the hand.

Like Shrog said, I rarely play my sb's, unless I'm hu against the bb and stealing or I have a big hand

This is hard to accept though. Because your getting a half price discount to play your hand and you know something about everyone's hand at the table except the big blinds at this point. Sure you dont know for sure what the Big Blind is going to look down at or if he's going to bump it... but say theres 3 limpers and it gets to you.

You are looking at odds that just scream that you have to call with any two here arent you?

Sure youre out of position and if you dont hit the flop hard you are done with the hand, but if I'm getting better than 3-1 on my money its hard for me to fold much here, especially if my M is high.

I read Colin Moshmans book on SnG's and he advises that generally play anything above Q5-6 in the small blind because the pot odds are so good.

DKnight10 said:

I read Colin Moshmans book on SnG's and he advises that generally play anything above Q5-6 in the small blind because the pot odds are so good.

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Too bad your reverse implied odds are greater...

c9h13no3 said:

Too bad your reverse implied odds are greater...

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touche, just stating what he said though...

If you track your results I'm sure you will always find you're losing money from the SB.

If you play something like Q6s from the SB, you will flop two pair (as in Q6 on board) or trips less than 4% of the time. You'll flop a flush 1% of the time. Now these are very strong but not nut hands; I don't know if I'm in love with Q6 on a KQ6 board in a multiway pot. And of course your trips are very strong but you could be facing better trips or a boat.

Now there are plenty of other times when you might want to continue on the flop, when it comes Q-high or when you flop a flush draw. One of those things will happen about 25 percent of the time. Your flush will come in maybe 1/3 of the time (depending on how many players are on the flush draw) and unless you're up against a lower flush, you're implied odds are honestly not that great. But that is another 25% of the time we like our hand yet it's dodgy whether or not these are profitable situations.

Instead of thinking that 3-1 pot odds are so great, try plotting your hand against a wide range of limpers; small pocket pairs, Ax, KQ, QJ, SC, etc. Your equity is rarely going to be very high; you probably need something more like 8-1 to play here oop.

Cobryn said:

This is hard to accept though. Because your getting a half price discount to play your hand and you know something about everyone's hand at the table except the big blinds at this point. Sure you dont know for sure what the Big Blind is going to look down at or if he's going to bump it... but say theres 3 limpers and it gets to you.

You are looking at odds that just scream that you have to call with any two here arent you?

Sure youre out of position and if you dont hit the flop hard you are done with the hand, but if I'm getting better than 3-1 on my money its hard for me to fold much here, especially if my M is high.

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It's really not about this to me though as it is to playing the hand out of posistion. Say I flop top pair with a weak kicker, this is def not the spot I want to be first to act. Alot of other hands will fit into this spot as well.

Learn how to steal a pot from late position with 27o every 3 rounds. You will never have to worry about folding a 1/2 blind ever.

This has probably been a leak for me. I'm going to tighten right up on the small blind. It'll probably help me take down a few pots preflop from the small blind also if I'm playing it tighter there too.

You have to consider the situation you are in. For example if no one has raised the pot and it is a multiway bot you might wand to enter only with premium strong hands or with the ones that play very well multiway. However in case the the BB is about to call for sure your possible raise bet only best hands. On the opposite if you folds a lot you might wand to consider to go for a raise if anyone else has fold.

When in a sng i tend to fold my sb early when the tax is low with anything not worth the bother getting into trouble over.. Later on ill only play the small blind with a high pair or high card and good kicker.. especially when the bb is short stacked, as they tend to steal from you when everyone else has folded. Show weakness and they take advantage.

So overall.. go in..go in strong, or fold.

In ring games, my VP$IP is 30% from the SB. I think even that's too high, but it's probably because I raise from the SB if it's checked around. I don't see much point to limp if it's folded around. I either raise or give the walk 85% of the time.

Despite the great price to see a flop, playing marginal hands from the SB has cost me a lot of money in the past.

I am a sucker for a half price look at the flop. I would say I'm around 75% in calling the BB and small raises there. But it's losing for me most of the time. I rarely get a hand that I want to aggressive with in that position.

So this is one of my leaks that I'm trying to learn to curtail.