Assuming we have between 30-35 BB, 9 handed, what hands are we just calling with out of the blinds? The only hands I seem to do call from the blinds with are 77-TT, or AA and KK. I fear this makes my hand polarized when I do call and I also fear I am not playing enough hands. It seems like hands like AQ and AK, and hands like KT+ or AT or AJ, if played, should be reraised OOP, to take away the positional advantage. So, what other hands are we calling with out of the blinds?

Are we ever just calling with AQ and AJ or KQ against MP opens? After reading Chaostracizes post, I am confident that calling against LP openers is good, but what about against semi-aggressive MP openers? Or even EP openers? Do hands like AQ, AJ, and KQ play well against them? Can I just call with them? Or should I reraise with them? My intuition about reraising with them againsts MP openers is that they may not be profitable postflop against MP openers with tighter ranges. With 30 BB, I feel more comfortable just calling LP raises with KJ, AJ, and KQ, and even hands like QJ and KTo then reraising. Are these intuitions correct? And more importantly, why would I be calling instead of 3 betting?

In short, what hands and against what openers should I be calling raises with from the blinds?

-Paneer

hate reading overly long posts... but for calling out of the blinds: dont do it w/ marginal hands. i dont mind it once antes kick in and if some1 2.5x's it or something

I have seen posts like this before, and I always disagree with the conventional wisdom. My OPR for the past two years is 99.81, 99.91.

I call from the BB with almost every time it is only raised 3X (75% +), and almost every time there is more than one caller (75% +). I call less often when it is raised 4X, but still more than most players. ESPECIALLY WITH ANTES.

I play very aggressivly on a rag flop. I defend my blinds strongly, and establish to other players that if they want to steal my blinds, they are going to have to fight for it.

Much less on the SB. If the BB shows that he doesn't defend his blind at all, I will play more often from the SB.

horrible advice. playing oop is something u should avoid doing esp against good players.

i would smooth call HU from the BB w/ a decent range of hands, mostly stuff like KQ/AT/AJ type of hands. if the raise is from an LP lagtard, i will 3bet lighter with the intentions of calling shoves.

if we're both really deep (like say 70-80bbs+) i will smooth call with some worse hands like A9s, KJs, JTs, etc. now we're deep enough that i don't mind putting more money in even OOP, because i feel 100% comfortable being OOP. if you don't feel that way, then DON'T start smooth calling from the blinds, cause playing OOP is something you need a lot of experience to do well imo.

if you're really defending 75% of the time from the BB, you're giving away a LOT of $. i almost would rather have someone in the BB who will rarely 3bet and will rarely c/r the flop but calls 75% of the time preflop than just a std nit who i can steal blinds from nonstop. the latter player won't lose more $ postflop, whereas the weak player calling 75% of the time will get pwned by me postflop just based on the fact that i'm going to 2barrell/3barrell u a lot.

oh and as for the SB, i smooth call slightly less and 3bet slightly more often, only because i am usually looking to get the BB out of the pot. i will also smooth call in the SB with a lot of hands when the BB has the perfect squeeze size stack, and also times when he has like a 25-30bb stack (which is a less obv squeeze stack but good players will squeeze 25+bb stacks in that position in the right spots).

SO raise fold?

So... if we have 30-40 BB, what hands are we calling out of the blinds if someone on the BTN or CO 2.5x or 3x it? Sometimes I see players do it with AQ or A3s or TQs. What should we do? What's theoretically correct?

-Paneer

try not to play A3 outta the blinds: this will automatically turn u into a better player.

I saw PearlJammer do it yesterday against a button opener. Isn't what he does correct?

+1 great advice follow this and you will be fine gd stuff sir...imo