Making the SB less unprofitable (Ring Games)

As you probably know playing from the blinds over the long run is a losing game. Because the bets are forced everyone will be a longterm loser from these positions.

What I'm interested in talking about is ways to play the blinds to make them less unprofitable. I'm talking mainly about the small blind as it is the one where you have more of a decision usually.

I think I find myself completing the small blind in a limped pot too often and it is costing me money. Especially when there are a couple limpers and I have a hand like say Q5 or something like that. I think I should be calling in this spot much less as I have terrible position and, therefore, won't be able to pick up many pots with bluffs, my implied odds aren't very good because I'm really never going to win a big pot unless the stars are alligned or something, and the times when I get a marginal hand like top pair, it can become very difficult to play as reverse implied odds seem to come into play all the time.

I'm just interested in hearing what other players, specifically ring game players, find themselves doing from the small blind and other blind situations in limped pots etc.

I agree, most of the time the SB is a looser. To defend your blind, you have to have something to defend it with. I won't complete the SB in an unraised pot unless I have a semi-playable hand. Obviously, with a good hand I will complete or raise. Otherwise, I will usually only complete with two suited cards, two unsuited cards 10 or higher, any pair, and usually any Ace rag. Since these requirements are pretty loose, if you hit, you must play carefully after the flop. Complete rag hands hit the muck and I consider it money won.

3-bet like a total monkey.

Look at your stats, if you're losing at worse than 25 PTBB/100 from the SB then just fold every hand and you'll be more profitable (or just fold all but AA/KK and just open shove those )

zachvac said:

Look at your stats, if you're losing at worse than 25 PTBB/100 from the SB then just fold every hand and you'll be more profitable (or just fold all but AA/KK and just open shove those )

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Most of us aren't that terrible... and if you are, you probably have bigger holes in your game, like you suck at that "flop" thing.

If it's folded to me in the SB I'll raise about 30% of the time. Additionally, I'll limp w/ Ax and Kxs with the intention of betting the flop. Plenty of players will call a pre-flop raise but fold to a limp/bet with the same hands.

When facing limpers I'll raise with JJ+ and AK. That's tight but when you suck as bad as I do you can't play raised pots out of position with much less. I'll limp along with pairs, bways, Axs, Kxs, and SC's.

In raised pots I'll 3bet QQ+ and AK and call with pairs. If the raise got multiple callers then I'll stick around w/ SC's.

I'm still a loser from the SB but adopting the above plugged some leaks.

I dont know how to say this without sounding like a noob. However, I am a noob, so here goes. In the early goings of a tourny I will limp in with any A,K or Q, SCs, PP or any 2 suited cards. As the blinds go up or when Ive lost 1/3 of my stack I start playing tighter. If I have been winning I will continue to do this further into the tourny. I believe that if you sit around waiting for premium starting hands you could be waiting awhile and the cards on the board may not help. Also, when you play goofy cards and they hit you get paid off very well. This is just a snapshot of what I do and to go into full detail would take alot of space.

zachvac said:

Look at your stats, if you're losing at worse than 25 PTBB/100 from the SB then just fold every hand and you'll be more profitable (or just fold all but AA/KK and just open shove those )

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I think you need to check your math Zach (never thought I'd be able to say that). Either that or you need to check your "." key.

I can honestly say that i am somehow a slight winner from the sb in 6max over 50 and 100nl (had some big pots from the sb in nl100...plus fishy tags/nits let you steal alot). 13BB/100 loser from the BB tho (and most of that is from 100nl for some reason...only lost 4BB/100 from bb in nl50).

Btw WV, nothing wrong with zach's math. 25BB/100 = 50bb/100 = 0.5bb/hand = sb

feitr said:

I can honestly say that i am somehow a slight winner from the sb in 6max over 50 and 100nl (had some big pots from the sb in nl100...plus fishy tags/nits let you steal alot). 13BB/100 loser from the BB tho (and most of that is from 100nl for some reason...only lost 4BB/100 from bb in nl50).

Btw WV, nothing wrong with zach's math. 25BB/100 = 50bb/100 = 0.5bb/hand = sb

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I see the issue now. I was thinking BB/100 hands (posting the SB ~10 times) not BB/100 times in the SB. Should have known Zach wouldn't be so careless. Sorry.

What I've been doing alot lately is looking at my stats and how many times I folded in the SB and how many times I folded in the BB. Then I look at how many hands I played and won while in the blinds. Then towards the end, I try to tailor my game with this info.