In this post, we are going to look at how we will play our range of Big Blind hands against different pre-flop action in cash games.
Suited Ace’s in the Big Blind
$1/$2 $200 Deep
Hero is in the Big Blind with A♠ 5♠
MP: Raises to $6
Hero: ?
We are typically going to want to be calling with these hands, 3-betting will not be advantageous as we will be bloating the pot out of position against a fairly early position raise and it may be hard to realise our equity on many run-outs.
Already having $2 invested in the pot gives us a good price to just hit a good flop for our hand, we can look to continue aggressively with pretty much any draw or backdoor door and go after pots where the Big Blind has the nut advantage.
Close Decisions with Decent Holdings
$1/$2 $200 Deep
Hero is in the Big Blind with A♠ 8♣
MP: Raises to $6
BTN: Calls $6
Hero: ?
We are going to want to find a fold here. Our hand have poor playability and it’s going to be even harder for us to realise our equity in a three-way pot. We can easily be dominated with this holding and losing bets.
Pairs in the Big Blind
$1/$2 $200 Deep
Hero is in the Big Blind with J♥ J♦
Cut off: Raises to $6
Hero: ?
We will want to 3-bet with hands this good, we will flop an overpair to the board around 40% of the time with this type of holding and thus it will play very well on these boards.
We can get called from many dominated hands that will call our 3-bet and then we get to play a bloated pot with a much superior holding, hands like AJ, KJ, AT, TT, 99, 88, 77, 66 and lower pairs will all give us action and its going to be easy for us to know where we are at on boards like A K x
Calling is still +EV too, however not at +EV as 3-betting, so we could mix in some smooth calls against tighter opponents opens or with slightly less high pairs like nines or tens.
Squeeze Spot
$1/$2 $200 Deep
Hero is in the Big Blind with A♥ J♥
MP: Raises to $6
BTN: Calls $6
Hero: ?
We have a perfect spot to squeeze raise and put the initial raiser in a tough spot and the smooth call of the button is likely to be a weak hand too, so we could call and just play three ways but this is much more profitable way to enter the pot.
We can take down the money pre-flop or build a bigger pot to stay aggressive and bet many boards we will hit a piece of.
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