Texas Hold’em poker online is fast and full of action. You can see up to four times as many hands as you would in a live cash game as play moves much faster. Over a shorter time frame any mistakes you make are magnified and losses can accrue more quickly if these mistakes are large enough. Playing from the small blind and big blind must be done correctly as the blinds remove small portions of your bankroll each time you play through them. Competently playing the blinds will help you master cash games in poker.
Difficulties & Considerations
Whilst you enjoy reasonable position before the flop you must play every subsequent street after the flop out of position. As most players understand the benefits of position and play an aggressive game of poker (very much so online) it is difficult to play marginal hands out of the blinds well.
Opponents are generally looser when playing out of late position including hands like higher suited connectors and a few more raggy Aces than they would do from early or middle. Your range out of the blinds needs to be tighter as you are increasingly weaker as the hand progresses.
Small Blind Play
I never play very much out of the small blind. I find this position to be the worst on the board and also the most tempting. Whilst I never enjoy many scenarios where the hand has, for example, three limpers from the rest of the table and I am sitting in the small blind with great odds, it does happen and I feel compelled to call and try to hit the flop. Playing with trash hands in this way is a leak and I now fold nearly 100% of the time in this spot. The only time I defend from the small blind is when I know my opponent could be raising with a wide range of hands and may fold to a three bet raise. Otherwise I proceed very carefully.
Big Blind Play
The big blind is a better position in my view as you have more money invested into the pot therefore you can defend with a wider range of hands as it costs less to call. I do not mean you to start defending everything but there will be occasions where you get a free look at a flop on a passive table.
When I do call from the big blind I am looking to hit the flop with at least top pair. Really, the minimum is two pair because you are rarely going to have AK and flat call pre-flop. Because tournament poker advocates shoving from the big blind quite a lot, I use this strategy in cash games by making what looks like a tournament play re-raise from the big blind when I have a good hand. It usually shaves four-way contests down to heads up between you and one other player and then when you hit you follow through your strong looking bets and this wins some nice pots.
After the Flop
Good post flop skills are important. You are out of position and you need to make a decision on your opponent’s likely hand, your hand strength and if there is room for a creative play that could take down the pot early before showdown. Hands like KJ, AJ, AT are calling hands before the flop but very tricky to play after the flop in No Limit Texas Holdem. As you learn poker, you will get better at making important decisions after the flop from the tricky blind positions.
During hand history review sessions I focus hard on my hands played from the blinds. It is worth doing because winning more hands from the blinds negates the leak that comes from the chips you lose folding through the blinds in earlier hands.
By Malcolm Clarke
