PokerWorks

It's Not All About The Cards

What this assignment was NOT about... it wasn't about always calling out of the small blind with any two... it wasn't about always raising a late position "apparent" steal raise out of the blinds... it wasn't about always calling with a certain hand out of the blinds...

What it WAS about...

Showing you how to defend your blinds in a no limit hold em tournament when you WANT to defend them, giving you the proper method/concept for doing so - showing you that calling is not how you defend your blinds, raising is.

Showing you that calling with any two out of the small blind when getting the right price can be a profitable play if utilized correctly. Think of it this way... for every 10 times you put in 1/2 a big blind when you are getting 7:1 on your money, it only takes winning two of the ten for this to be profitable. If there is 700 in the pot and it is 100 for you to call... if you win one pot by calling, you can lose six of these pots and still be profitable - and this doesn't even count the times you win big pots with any two - the implied odds make this even more valuable then the above statement. How many times have you seen someone at Full Tilt or Pokerstars in early position limp in with a big pair (I'm guilty of it, I admit it) and the flop comes 9-5-3, and your 9-5 off suddenly becomes a big favorite... well if you had folded this hand like most people normally do, you don't win this huge pot.

Showing you how to play your strong hands out of the blinds... because you are out of position here and are last to act pre-flop you want to apply maximum pressure to the other players to 1) define their range of hands 2) win the pot outright and 3) take control of the hand post-flop.

Showing you how to reraise an early/middle position raiser with strong hands... a lot of you probably had problems doing so with hands like 10-10 and A-K... that's fine... against certain players you would just want to call here... what the assignment was about though was showing you the times you were against a player you believed was raising with lesser hands... this is how you would play back against them.

Showing you that NORMALLY a person raising from the button or cutoff does not have a legitimate hand and you can win pots in this situation without a legitimate hand of your own just by applying pressure.

Showing you that NORMALLY if you raise from the small blind, the big blind will fold - this of course is opponent dependent as well, if you have a loose player or a calling station here, you might not want to do this.

Most importantly, it showed you that the proper way to play out of the blinds is aggression. If you are going to play hands out of position, you MUST be aggressive. Remember that and your blind play will improve tenfold.