Playing hands from the small blind

Playing hands from the small blind is something that inexperienced players do. If you are making a call of a raise from the small blind you can get yourself badly stuck in a pot and lose a big pot. In reality you shouldn’t have even played the hand before the flop and could have been easily avoided. If you are playing a lot of hands from the small blind your game plan needs to change. You want to be folding a great deal of hands from the small blind because you will be stuck in pots if you play too many. To avoid hands like KJ or QJ from the small blind is for the better. Sometimes you will hit flops and win pots, but in the long run you don’t want to see flops with these hands from the small blind unless the pot was limped in front of you.

If the table folds around and it is just yourself and the big blind a lot of the time you should be putting a raise in before the flop. This is more so the case in tournaments rather than cash games. In a cash game you are better off folding hands from the small blind because there is not much of a profit in taking one big blind down. Also, if your opponent re-raises or calls and you don’t have anything you are throwing your poker bonus money away. In a tournament the view is different though because especially at a later stage of a tournament you can shove all-in a good deal of times and make your opponent fold. If you are collecting these pots this is a better strategy. One thing you almost never want to do is limp in to a pot before the flop if no other players are involved in the pot. You either want to try and win the pot or fold it to your opponent. If you are limping in to a pot you are giving them the upper hand, and if they are good they will put a decision to you. You will be playing a pot completely stuck with no opportunity at winning unless you make a hero call or get very lucky.

Playing hands from the small blind will never be that profitable, and will leave you stuck more times than not. If you can pick spots from the button to win pots rather than the small blind you will be better off and be able to win more pots. If you are in the small blind the player from the button or someone who has position on you will look to bet and win. If you do float one street with a pair they will probably be betting the turn also. One thing you will tend to look at more from the small blind is your hand and not what your opponent could have. They could really have any two cards from the button, but unless you raise them you will never find out if you are good or not. If you do raise them and they go all-in you are in bigger trouble than you should have been. It is better to not play hands from the small blind because you will be left stuck more times than you will make hands, and have them hold up.