A bit of a weird hand. I am not too comfortable playing from the small blind. My strategy now is to limp some of my middling hands and suited connectors, raise some garbage and raise some strong hands. What range do you guys have for limping the small blind? And what for raising? Also, what kind of boards do you guys stab when it's a limped pot? In this hand I felt I could stab with the gutshot and the backdoor flush draw, and I'd be able te barrel on any heart, a 4, and a Jack as he probably doesn't have too many aces so I figure I can get him to fold most of his hands by double barreling. However on the turn I don't think I get him to fold anything so I check. When he bets this small I call to either hit a 4 or J or to make a move on some rivers as I don't think he has much with this line. Thoughts?
My SB limping range is virtually nothing, especially when it's folded to me. Playing oop against a villain who could literally be holding any two cards is extremely difficult, and limping hands like J5s makes it even more difficult. I'd rather take the initiative early and then give up later if necessary than limp and play through no-man's land.
The only time you limp vs the small blind is vs an aggressive player who you are trapping with KQ+ 88+. By only limping you are playing out of position against a hand for which you have no information about. Avoid doing that.
I see most players that play higher/are better than me limp a very wide range blind vs blind. But maybe that is something for the players with better postflop skills than me. So say I have virtually no limping range. What range do you guys raise and what range do you fold from small blind if folded to you?
I see most players that play higher/are better than me limp a very wide range blind vs blind. But maybe that is something for the players with better postflop skills than me. So say I have virtually no limping range. What range do you guys raise and what range do you fold from small blind if folded to you?
Raise hands that have better showdown value, like Ax/Kx and Broadways. Dump the rest. When you get more confident in your postflop skills then you can open up your SB play.
I agree with this. I quite often do this and I know of other players (successful ones) that limp nearly their whole range BvB
Interesting, I may have to play around with this approach. Seems so exploitable though - it wouldn't take long for people to figure it out and float widely.
I'm a SB limper with all my range between 15-50BB unless the villain folds too much to raises. This has the advantage that the BB can't just randomly attack you with ATC because you'll be 3betting him quite frequently - sometimes for value, sometimes as a bluff.
This also allows you to see the flop with your crappier hands at a cheaper price and keeps the pot smaller which is good as you're OOP.
You have to be confident with your post-flop play to do this though.