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i need some help with my play from the small blind. i feel as if im not seeing an adequate percentage of flops from this position (10-17%) :club: . on average, what is the percentage of flops i should be seeing? and what kinds of hands should i consider playing to open up my game a bit? any advice would be appreciated.

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6-Max or FR?I think playing pretty tight from the SB is a good plan as you will never have positional advantage, so you need to make up for it with card advantage.And then you need to tailor your ranges to differing opponent types and the action in front of you; much different ranges vs EP opens and button opens.

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6-Max or FR?I think playing pretty tight from the SB is a good plan as you will never have positional advantage, so you need to make up for it with card advantage.And then you need to tailor your ranges to differing opponent types and the action in front of you; much different ranges vs EP opens and button opens.
well, right now while im still deciding on an alternative to pokerstars to place my US dollars (and it's looking like its gonna be LOCK) ive been trying to work at various aspects of my game at the kiddie tables (play money). the last few days ive been messing around with ZOOM Poker trying to get through a ton of hands, push through some variance, and try to get a read at where i really am. i know play money is a poor substitute, but its as good as i have right now. and i haven't been donking down. ive been trying to play as if it were any real money cash games. i've always felt that i played a little too tight, and maybe i could raise my profits by opening up my game a bit and seeing more hands. my thinking was that sometimes from the small blind you can see the flop for very little extra money when the blinds are called and not raised. i had THOUGHT that this might be a spot where i could open up a bit for very little investment. i see your point about not having a positional advantage though. perhaps i need to revisit broadening my spectrum of hands from later position. and you made awesome points about opponent types and action in front of me, but at the play money tables both those factors are sometimes muted aggressive, loose, and sloppy play. but this is also true at the micro stakes games, just to a lesser degree. i know i keep saying things to myself like "but they're not supposed to do THAT, especially from THERE, with THOSE cards"...lol. i think the best thing for me to do is this week pick a site, put a deposit down, and then you and i can have some more intelligent conversations about where my game is and i'll also be able to give you some better info. i should be able to get a deposit together in the next two weeks or so. thanks for replying my friend. i have played some live tourneys in my area and have done fairly well, moneying 2 out of 4times i played. thanks for responding, my friend. also, one last question-should the way i play from the small blind differ when i play cash, as opposed to sit n go's and mtt's. how bout short-handed as opposed to full tables? i've been basically playing from that spot the same in every different game type. sorry for all the questions, but i've been seriously considering starting to take poker semi-seriously due to some health problems that limit my ability to earn money outside my home, so i've sort of put myself on a fst-track to improve my knowledge of the game and set realistic goals for myself.
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well, right now while im still deciding on an alternative to pokerstars to place my US dollars .
please use paragraphs. It is easier on the other posters eyes. FR vs SH is an important distinction. Since there are more opponents, when they fold due to bad card combinations, the remaining opponents are more likely to have a good hand. Completing the small blind in a limped pot will 100% depend on the opponents that are limping. Limping hands like Ax suited and small pocket pairs will be a reasonable strategy against players who become too attached to their Top pair hands and weak flush draws. If they are the type that are trying to hit a big hand or exit the pot, then raising pre flop and c betting will be a better strategy since they will probably be folding too much for us to playing bingo poker profitably. You have to have a good idea on the type of hands they are limping with and how commited they become with certain hand strengths because one of the biggest issues with limping certain hands is reverse implied odds. Limping hands like 56s and 67s can be good, however it could be horribly wrong. You don't want to be placing yourself in a situation where you are over flushed or have the under straight against people who only stack off with a stronger range. Talking about the theory of SB play is difficult because unless it folds around to you, it should really be talk about player tenancies.
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gotcha, fighter. your points make alot of sense. so i guess i will start LOOKING to try to open up my range from there and pick spots according to who's doing what with what kind of hands. sounds like a simple enough plan. when i went back and checked the percentage of hands i play from there, it SEEMED really low to me. maybe im trying to correct something that doesn't need correcting. lord knows there are plenty other areas of my game i can work on.sorry about the paragraphs. please bear with me. this is the first forum of any kind i have ever posted on. have a great weekend!

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I added "fold BB vs SB raise %" to my hud recently solely for this purpose. If you do have a hud and we're only talking about playing the SB when it's folded to us, it's such a useful stat to have. When there's limpers involved it can become a lot more complex based on who's in the BB, who has limped, and how many have limped. I think overall if you aren't sure, tighter is better since the mistakes that can be made postflop from playing too wide a range can be a lot more costly than folding half a bb. But I do think that this is a very small thing to focus on. Most microstakes players have flaws in their game that if fixed, will make a much better difference than figuring out what hands to open in the sb. Posting specific hands would allow for much better disection than posting vague questions about game theory.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Don't play much Internet poker, but you can use the SB to your advantage in many pots regardless of your holdings ... against the right opponents. This could apply also to a Zoom poker type session also since the assumption is that most players in this setting are only playing strong cards or moving on to the next hand.You are almost last to act in the SB so you know what the other players have done and can react to them based on your knowledge of their history (hopefully). I like to play the SB with tighter players since you are supposed to have junk and if they miss their Flops, then you can bet them out of the hand enough times (on Flop or Turn) to recover from the wasted money you put in with your junk holdings. They are basically playing with only 40% of the deck at best, where as you are playing with what ever hit the board, right!!Conversely, if you are in the SB against loose players, then you go for the steal pre-Flop and end matters. If they call you, then you really have to be cautious since their range is as wide as your's and you are now OOP.The SB play in tournaments is WAY different than cash ... fold, fold, fold ... as chips are a valuable commodity. You want to apply the same principals as above, just way less often (more like the 10% you are at now). You see way less Flops deep into tournaments, so the advantages you use in the cash game when they 'miss' the Flop are less in a tournament by that default stat.Good luck ... best thing as always ... if you aren't comfortable doing something, don't do it very often ... once you get used to it, then your 'patterns' will be less obvious and your results will follow ...

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  • 2 weeks later...

If you never play from the SB, you will come out money ahead. Seriously, unless you can "check dark" against people all night without them catching on that you are stealing the button, it's really hard to play out of the SB.

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