The awkward position of BB

Hi!

I'm fairly new to this website, not very new to poker but up until now I've mainly played for fun and now I'm trying to learn how to play to win.

So if I'm BB and it only gets called to me I find it very hard how to deal with my hand. Please note that I'm currently playing play money and will only be playing low stakes once I decide to deposit money.

Usually I just check if I have cards outside of my playable range and if I have a playable hand I usually raise. It gets awkward when either someone decides to go all in and I'm sitting on a hand like AQos, AJos, JTs, JJ etc. or the times where I check and after the flop I'm stuck out of position and usually get called even if I raise to try and steal the pot (which I guess is a bad idea if I haven't raised PF no?)

So what's the best take on this?

I lose the most money in the BB.

I suggest that you stop playing play money to evaluate anything about your game and how you should play. I would at least play free rolls where your opponents have a reason to play for something and therefore are less (not totally) likely to go all in because the all in button just happened to be closer to their mouse cursor than check.

In a regular game and you are sitting on those hands and the board just called around to you, I would stick in a raise and either take the pot, or at least seen who the serious players are. Depending on who my opponents are and what they do will dictate my next decision.

CallmeFloppy said:

I suggest that you stop playing play money to evaluate anything about your game and how you should play. I would at least play free rolls where your opponents have a reason to play for something and therefore are less (not totally) likely to go all in because the all in button just happened to be closer to their mouse cursor than check.

In a regular game and you are sitting on those hands and the board just called around to you, I would stick in a raise and either take the pot, or at least seen who the serious players are. Depending on who my opponents are and what they do will dictate my next decision.

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Thank you for the advice! I'm aware of the mentality behind having nothing to loose or gain but I'm only doing it so I get used to the math and remembering my hand ranges but I will be depositing my first bank roll pretty soon.

Punish limpers - but you have to do it the right way.

If your raise is to small, they will just call you down.
Also note your gonna play out of position (unless its sb limpin) so you
want to make the raise a little higher than if you were in position.
After such reraise, and you hit the board or no, try and check raise the villain,
as they will often try and take the pot if you check to them out of position.
Win or loose - they will feel you arent a player they cant push arround that easy

When a player limp reshove on you, you should consider to fold unless you have specific
reads on the player or you hold a very strong hand.
If its a very active loose player, go take the flip with AQ ect.

I usually add 1bb pr limper and 1-3bb on top of the reraise when im playing
a strong hand out of positon.
Its also fine to just slowplay and potcontrolling the pot with medium hands.
If you dont fell good bout playing that specific hand out of postion just
play it safe untill you get more comfortable with it

If i am BB, i would check because any of the players can limp with a monster. I would raise if I was not a BB.

Almost everyone loses money in the big blind, its best not to make the issue worse by raising with non premium hands out of position.

I'm not sure I understand the problem playing in the BB, there are only two players behind you and all the rest in front. You need to stick to your range, the only time to deviate from it is when all players round to you fold, and depending upon your cards you limp or raise. I'd rather sit in the BB rather than under the gun

rigor mortis said:

I'm not sure I understand the problem playing in the BB, there are only two players behind you and all the rest in front. You need to stick to your range, the only time to deviate from it is when all players round to you fold, and depending upon your cards you limp or raise. I'd rather sit in the BB rather than under the gun

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I see what you mean, as BB you get to see all the action before it comes to you which definitely makes the decision easy if there is a raise in front of you. I guess for me it gets awkward when playing hands like AQo, AJo etc when you have a lot of players limping in.
Since limping in with AA in early position seems like a legit strategy, it makes it kinda scary to raise these hands and I'm more or less answering my own question right now haha. Check and see what the flop is, which in itself punishes the early limper with the AA since he now probably doesn't get as much value as he hoped for.

But what about trash hands? Check to see the flop, but then what?