Big blind play

[TallBrad]

Round two of the tournament 200/400 blinds, 9 person table. Stacks sizes are all still in good shape.

What kind of cards do you play from the BB?

Player A first to act raises to 1,200. He is a solid player who at times will try to make plays from any position. He is called by player B who is loose pre-flop. It folds around to me in the big blind. There is 3,000 in the pot and I have to call 800. I am getting 3.75 to 1. I have 97o. I folded

My question is at what pot odds do you call with anything or with the odds that I have what kind of cards do you call with. I feel that sometimes I play too conservative and don't make the odds based calls that I need to.

Of course the flop came 586. I don't usually worry about flops I have hit after I have folded, but this one made me wonder if I do need to loosen up a little bit based on the odds presented to me. I know most times I won't hit it hard enough, but the times I do will it make up for the lost chips on the other calls.

Thanks for your help.

[jimmer]

What are the stack sizes of the other two players and yourself?

[TallBrad]

What are the stack sizes of the other two players and yourself?

I think I still had about 14,000. Player A was around 12,000 and Player B around 10,000.

[UrAteUp]

If you go by books that say play odds then your priced in to play this hand. If you go with your guy...then your smart to not even get involved with it.

It's probably not good to ask what hands someone likes to play from the blinds. A better question I think would be what hands would you play from the blinds given a 4xBB pre-flop raise was made ahead of you.

I say that because some people will limp with any 2 from the blinds. Some even raise with trash. However, in your situation there was a decent raise pre-flop from a decent player. Then I would say I like gapped connectors (Q9, J9, Q10, K10..etc), AX-Ax, pp and connectors. Also the standard top hands play well here.

[golddog]

I know this is a real weakness in my game too. What I think jimmer's getting at is you have plenty of stack to get away with (too) much damage. (i.e., it's not a push-or-fold).

So, 90+% (?) of the time, you call/fold, still at 13K ish.

On rare occasions, you hit and scoop a nice pot, especially if one of them is on something like 10s.

A problem is what to do if the flop's something like 9 6 4. Great, I've got top pair bad kicker. Somebody betting out could easily have 10 10, A9 and I'm way behind or A Q, and I'm somewhat ahead.

But something around the ease of getting away makes it seem like a more attractive call.

Of course, I know the outcome...

[MrDarling]

This is actually a very good question.
Have just watched to WSOP and I see people protecting their blinds with some silly hands I will not even complete with in the SB if everyone limped (ie have seen someone call a raise with 92s).

I'm very tight playing MTT's. I hardly call raises from the blinds, if I choose to play or think someone is making a move I'll reraise most often.

As a side note, against a loose player toss small SC or worse away. If you miss, you'd have to fold it (unless you know you can steal it away regardless) and if you do hit, chances are his hands is not strong enough to pay you.

[jeffonline]

This is always a tricky call, I believe your right on the odds to be able to make this one, I would be looking for over 4-1, I like the odds to be more in my favour so I would toss this one. My reasoning would be not quite on the odds I want, an UTG raise always must be considered as a big hand, with a big c-bet to come, this pot could end up enormous. If there was more money in the pot pre-flop, maybe from an early limper or another caller I could call, but I do want over 4-1 and every thing else to feel right.