If a poker tournament can be defined as a play of "situations",
then it is important to know the correct way to play when we are SB (Small
Blind) or BB (Big Blind). The first thing to understand is that you should
never be too attached to the blinds.
The fact of being the first to mention it leaves you in a clear disadvantage. Winning a small pot is not worth the risk of playing out of position. Do this later, when the blinds are starting to be more consistent. Moreover, you have to post before thinking twice to fold in front of a raise because there are many more chips into the pot before the flop. In fact, a tournament is the right time to attack your opponents from the blinds. As I said just before, poker is a game of situations and is essential to address the various situations in an appropriate manner.
When appropriate you can call a raise from a player in a late position or you can even think about re-raise. Do not ever defend your blinds with marginal hands against a player who has raised in an early position regardless the stage of the tournament. When a player raises in an early position it is often safer to assume that he really has a strong hand rather than thinking he wants to steal the blinds.
Against
very strong players increase the blinds to avoid tough clashes that may affect the
tournament. You’re
trying to win a pot, not a battle! If
all check, as you approach the button the tendency of making a re-raise whose
aim is to steal the blinds increase. These
are situations in which you need to analyze your opponents to see if they are
vulnerable or not to a re-raise. If
you see that your opponents are quite weak then this might be a good
opportunity to re-raise to show that they cannot make fun of you so easy. But
in reraise, going all-in is not advisable at all as it’s not worth risking the
tournament for a bluff. Instead, it is better to choose the amount to raise
based on your and your opponent's stack. In
these cases you should bet an amount that seems to be pot-committed even though
in reality you're not. Giving
the impression of being pot-committed will prove your strength so your opponent
will find it difficult to go all-in unless he has an extremely good hand. Choosing
an adequate value for your raise in such situations can help you defend a large
portion of your chips.
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