In this post we are going to look at some hands played from the Blinds, it can be one of the most awkward places to play from even when we have good holdings, so we have a few examples of how to play with certain hand types in different situations on a final table.
Weak Hands in the Small Blind
1000/2000 with antes
HERO (small blind) – 35,000
Player 2 (big blind) – 42,000
Player 3 (button) – 150,000
Player 4 (cutoff) – 200,000
Player 5 (hijack) – 38,000
Action Folds to us in the Small Blind with Q♥ 4♦
What action is best for us to take in this spot…
We can look to limp in with this hand, the reason is we are getting a good price to complete here and look to steal post-flop.
We will have some strong hands which we can look to limp in also, so we will be balanced in the long run here.
We would ideally look to move all in here with a wide range of holdings being the shortest stack but we don’t want to do this with an offsuit Queen high, we would prefer to move all-in with hands like 97s+, T8s+, J8s+, Q7s+, QJo+, K6s+, K9o+, A2o+
Small Pair Out of Position Facing a Raise
1000/2000 with antes
Player 2 (big blind) – 44,000
HERO (small blind) – 155,000
Player 3 (button) – 210,000
Player 4 (cutoff) – 38,000
Player 5 (hijack) – 127,000
We get dealt 4♥ 4♣ in the small blind
Action is folded to Cutoff position and they raise to 4,400
What should we do with our small pair here…
Well, I think the only viable option is to move all in, we are second in chips so even if we run into a big hand we will still be in a comfortable position, typically speaking this is when we want to be pretty risk-averse.
We have a pretty strong hand so we don’t want to just fold, but at the same time our hand doesn’t play well with this SPR and out of position, therefore calling is out of the option.
We will have a coin flip against even some of our opponents strongest hands when they do call all in, so pushing with this type of hand in this spot is a good option for us.
Suited Ace in the Big Blind
1000/2000 with antes
HERO (big blind) – 84,000
Player 2 (small blind) – 36,000
Player 3 (button) – 105,000
Player 4 (cutoff) – 55,000
Player 5 (hijack) – 27,000
We get dealt A♣ 4♣ in the Big Blind and the action is folded to the Small Blind who limps in…
What do we do with our suited ace with our opponent having around 18 Big Blinds effective…
I like to see a check behind here, I think many players would just smell weakness and look to press the all-in button, however if our opponent is balanced they will have some check calls in their range too that have us in bad shape.
The other thing that is good about checking back in this hand is that it allows us to have strong hands in our range in the Big Blind long term, so we won’t always just be checking back with our weak hands that aren’t going to be able to call bets in limped pots in the long run.
This is a huge part of an overall strategy that we will need to implement to be a solid player in the long run.
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