Idk man, I don’t think I’m good enough to make 92o profitable even with the dead money and position. Unless there were some exceptionally nitty blinds in which case raise away.

Yeah, I mean technically it's all live money, but if I was as good as UG I might open 100% too.

OP said the 1/3 blind is posted which makes me think it is already in the middle before the cards are even dealt. If it is a live blind and it only costs us 1 2/3 blinds to raise, then open folding 72o would just be a punt.

If the blind is already out in the middle and it costs us 2 BB to open raise, then the extra 1/3 blind is indeed dead money. The hand plays the same as if a random stranger walked past the table and tossed $5 into the pot.

Oh wow... ya, I think OP might mean that there is a live blind on the button lol. That is so goofy if so.

If that is the case, then ya... opening any 2 should print against all but the most loose-aggressive blinds. And I would overlimp any 2 suited, offsuit 2-gappers down to 53o, any Axo that I don't iso raise, and some offsuit stuff like K7o, J8o, Q8o.

It is definitely a live blind just like the other two.

That is hilarious. Who comes up with this stuff? Lol!

Maybe to prevent blind chops where the house doesn't make money.

That is pretty clever if so. It is an absolutely fantastic anti-nit system. People who play too tight around the blinds will get annihilated by random LAGs who accidentally play closer to a correct strategy.

UG, I'm interested in how you conclude 100% opening is correct in this structure. Are you approaching it exploitatively or do you think a 100% open from the button is optimal? I don't really want to just publicly post what I understand to be a solved button opening range in a 1/2 blind structure, but as compared to such a structure, there's 33% more money in the pot (2bb vs. 1.5bb) and it costs us 16.667% less to raise (1.667bb vs. 2bb). On the other hand, we should have less fold equity as compared to a 1/2 blind structure because the small blind should be defending looser (mainly because of the 2-chip SB, but also because button is opening wider) and the BB should defend a bit looser (because button is opening wider).

Without saying out loud what an optimal button opening % is, I think it is safe to say that opening 100% of buttons is a large shift, especially in a raked game. How many more hands do you think a 33% increase in the pot size and 16.67% discount on raise price can buy you, and is there a mathematical basis for that? I mean, even if we said that allows us to open 50% more hands, we would need to already be opening like 66% on the button before that bumps us up to 100% opens (66% + 33%).

It's mostly just an old school exploit. It probably goes back forever when aggressive players with great intuition like Stu Ungar realized that their opponents were massively overfolding their blinds, not 3-betting enough, and overfolding on every street postflop. But I first became aware of the exploit when Bryce Paradis released a series of Stox Poker videos where he advocated opening any 2 cards on the button in the 2008ish environment when play around the blinds was very poorly understood by most opponents. He made hundreds of thousands of dollars back in the day just running over people who folded too much. From there, HUHU specialists realized that if they had an opponent who was folding their BB 25+% to their pre-flop opens, it was time to raise any 2 and never leave the computer until their opponent quit them.

More recently, the NL high stakes crusher and coach Uri Peleg released a course on Upswing Poker where he advocates opening almost any 2 cards from the BTN or BvB if opponents are making what seem to be some fairly minor errors pre-flop. His course comes complete with a cool spreadsheet where you can input your opponents' pre-flop fold %, their 3bet %, and your expected equity realization. It then outputs how much equity you need for opening to be profitable. In some situations, such as in small stakes fast fold games, it becomes extremely profitable to just open raise any 2... especially BvB. And keep in mind that 72o is even trashier in NL than LHE.

I strongly suspect that opening 72o in this structure against random 15/30 live players is worth around .2 small blinds in profit. Opening any 2 can already be profitable against players who poorly defend their blinds in a standard 1/2 structure. In this case, open folding pre-flop means that we lose .33 small blinds. In a standard 1/2 structure, I would only expect to lose .1-.15 small blinds at absolute worst by open raising 72o. Let's call it .13 small blinds. .33 small blinds - .13 small blinds = .2 small blinds in profit for us. That is a very rough estimate. But tbh, I suspect that a good 2p2er might do even better than that.

Do I think a solver would open any 2 on the BTN in this structure? I doubt it. The solver is going to defend perfectly in the blinds and will probably be playing very loose-aggressive.

If I am playing in the BB in this structure and I notice someone opening any 2 cards on the BTN, I am going to defend 100%, 3bet them like 40%, rain flop check-raises on them, etc. But I expect this sort of counter-exploit to be super rare. Most BB players just won't understand what is happening to them and will expect to win lots of easy money from that monkey on the BTN with their standard strategy.

The more common problem with opening any 2 would be 2 aggrofish who hardly ever fold and 3bet a lot in the blinds. Offsuit trash performs abysmally multiway. In this case, I would tone it down quite a bit.

Thanks for the detailed response. Makes sense to me.

NP. And fwiw, "small blinds" = big blinds in my last post lol... I hybridized "small bets" and "big blinds" in my mind and a typoish thingy came out.

Best post of 2023 imo, especially loved below and attempting 40% on Equilab

If I am playing in the BB in this structure and I notice someone opening any 2 cards on the BTN, I am going to defend 100%, 3bet them like 40%, rain flop check-raises on them, etc. But I expect this sort of counter-exploit to be super rare. Most BB players just won't understand what is happening to them and will expect to win lots of easy money from that monkey on the BTN with their standard strategy.