People talk about position on the poker table all of the time such as early, middle, and late positions. One position on the poker table that rarely gets discussed is the small blind, which leads to a lot of poor play from this spot – especially when making calls. Fortunately, you don’t have to fall into the trap of making bad plays from the small blind since this can easily be overcome by using a little strategy.
Making the Call
It’s tough to lay down your cards when a pot is full of limpers and you only need to call half a bet to stay in the hand. In fact, many people almost always make this call no matter what cards they are holding. However, a big problem arises when you start calling half bets with such a wide range of hands. Just because the call is only half a bet doesn’t mean you should throw away chips with 2-7.
And even if you do make the call then it’s always possible that the big blind could raise which makes this a really bad bet when you’re playing out of position the rest of the hand. If you do call then make sure that you actually have a chance to hit a big hand in a multi-way pot.
Hand Range
It is tough to really create a good range of cards to call with in the small blind. Obviously with a half bet call you can use a little wider range than normal. But you don’t want to be making calls with 10c-3c just because there is a possible flush opportunity available.
Suited connectors are always gold in this position (especially in multi-way pots), any hand with an ace will do, and regular connectors are also good to make calls with from the small blind. As long as you’ve got something which could turn into a solid drawing hand then you should use it.
Tags: Betting, Online, Poker Hands, Tips
