blinds

[krakajak]

One area I need to improve on is playing from the blinds. I understand that since you aren't paying full price to see the flop, you should play looser. But I have trouble with it. Here's how I normally play:

LB, unraised pot. Any halfway decent hand. Axo, Kxo, any pair. any connectors, Qxs, gapped suited connectors, any 2 face cards.

LB, raised pot: same as a regular raised pot.

BB, raised pot: Axs, Kxs, any pair, suited connectors, any 2 face cards.

But I have problems with Ax and Kx. When a pair flops, I either try to scare everyone out of the pot, and end up getting taken, or I get scared out of the pot, only to find out that I could have won it. It seems like every time I play these cards, I get beaten, and every time I fold them, it turns out I would have won.

How do you play your blinds?

[RATTZ]

LB unraised: You DEFINETALY want to get rid of that Kxo and Qxs. As for Kxo, you're only going to run into kicker problems. As a general rule for flushes, you should only draw with the A or K high. Usually, only more advanced players can successfully play Qxs and know when to give it up. Plus, if you hit a Q are you good? What about a 9?

BB raised: This is a very loose selection and I would assume that these are generally many limpers in the pot; even so, you may be playing TOO loose. You probably aren't losing much by mucking K3s or QJo. Hands like 67s need MANY limpers to play. Play with ANY decent hand in a raised pot if you think the raiser's trying to steal the blinds.

hope that helps
~sand_man808