Hey,

In my journey into the murky world of NL play most things have come pretty easy, or at least after losing a few stacks have stuck in the mind. One thing I feel I am making it up as I go along is regards small blind play, well actually small blind starting standards.

Coming from a limit background it was normal to be very tight in the SB since the positional disadvantage and inability to shake people off hands was a huge factor. In NL its different, you can out play someone postflop and its very cheap to see the flop if unraised.

My question is what sort of standards do people play, especially with regard suited cards and unsuited connectors. Also do you vary according to limpers much?

Cheers Rich

Most people play any hand fromt he SB. I fold most everything that I wouldnt normally play.

Kenny, what is your win / loss rate from the SB (anyone else jump in here as well)

I stopped completeing a long time ago with things 67, Q7s, A7

Im actually winning money from the SB. Not much, but I think anything in the black is very good. Im at +0.02 per hand from the SB

SB is only position I lose money from. I lose .05 BB per hand.

On a related note...surprisingly..I win the most money from UTG and the BB???

.27 BB per hand and .19 BB per hand respectively.

I am losing 0.29BB per hand on the SB. The reason for my question is I am sure I am playing too much, 28.21 VP$IP. Its my biggest losing area so think its fair to conclude I am playing too loose.

I also make most UTG, 23 BB per hand. After that it is the late positions.

Rich

Im at 28.53% from the SB so i guess I do play more hands that I thought. Hmm..

I'm at 20.55 in the sb at a loss of .07

My big blind is much worse. I'm glad I read this thread. I have not been analysing my hands at all. in the bb i'm at only 8.5 and at a loss of .23 that seems like way too much to me.

Pretty much consistent with rd's remarks, I think it's very textural here. Stone, I think you're playing WAY too many hands there.

The main thing is the positional disadvantage. The only way I'm playing AX is if the whole table has folded. I plan on betting my A unimproved into SB--I'm sure some would say to raise it, but I'm really less fond of that move simply because, in contrast to a HU tournament situation, you're out of position here in SB. Hence, I don't like to get much money in on a weak hand.

Otherwise, things vary a lot for me according to how many and what kind of limpers we have. Suited connectors and one-gappers with full extension I view as clearly playable with a limper or two (by contrast, I'll just fold the low ones if the whole table has folded to me--I like these hands more multi-way).

With very few limpers, I'd go for something like KT, QT, etc. because it's cheap. But I'd probably fold these hands if there are a lot of limpers. If one does play them, I think you're looking more for straighting possibilities rather than betting a dubious-strength TP into a large field. With 4 or more limpers, I'd probably be inclined not to play KJ for the same reasons.

But with a large field, I don't have much problem with unsuited connectors and certainly not with AXs.

While I really don't know much about limit, I think position is extremely important in NL as well. I can't see why it would be any less important anyway.

The nice things are that you do have position before the flop and that you can get in cheap. But I don't see much point in wasting even half a BB on hands where I don't have a clear plan as to what I intend to do on realistic flops--which you will have to play out of position.