Quote:
Originally Posted by jaroot
Ok so I haven't been playing limit all that long, so maybe I'm missing something here.. but if it's folded to you on the button, the blinds sometimes get a little upset when you raise, and call you out for "chop blocking".
Sometimes it's in jest, but on occasion people actually huff and puff about it.
This is a low limit phenomenon as you suggested. It does also matter what the rake structure is. In the Bay Area cardrooms, there's a $4 drop for 3/6 and 6/12, and a $5 drop for 8/16 and up. In other words, once there's a flop, $4 comes out of the pot. In the 3/6 game, it pretty much means there's no reason to try to steal the blinds. There's effectively no pot if it's folded to you on the button!
You occasionally even hear stories about the small blind completing in a 3/6 game. When that happens, he puts in $2, and the pot is.... $2.
If the table is otherwise good (loose), I'd pass up on some marginal steal hands with a drop instead of a rake. It keeps the table happy, and everyone wants to move on to the "real" hands. Your edge (position plus cards plus postflop play) is going to be really diminished by the drop if the house is taking out 20% of the pot to start with. I would not pass on hands that had substantial advantages like the ATs. YMMV.
If you're seeing this situation a lot, sure, go ahead and play your normal steal game. It won't last that long anyway, because presumably you're on the table change list.