Playing as the Big Blind In Texas Hold em

Play in the big blinds requires a few extra considerations. First of all you already have money in the pot, which makes calling or raising cheaper. Obviously if you are in the big blind and the pot has not yet been raised you can check and take a free flop, but a lot of hands are going to be raised forcing you to make a decision. And in the small blind even if there has been no raise you have a decision to make.

When evaluation what to do you should consider a few things. First of all you have to consider that you are going to be out of position for the rest of the hand. Your relative position may actually be good if the first person in the pot raised though, so keep that in mind as well. Remember that the more people in the pot the less important position becomes but it always has some value.

You also have to consider the increased odds that you are getting. The money you have already put in the pot counts towards your calling, so if you post a $15 blind and it is raised once you only have to call $15 more whereas someone in the middle position would have to call $30 cold. This greatly increases your implied odds as well, so you could be more inclined to call out of the blinds than you would to call in other positions.

If there is a raise, you have to consider where it came from. A raise under the gun generally means a much stronger hand than a raise form a late position, especially if there were no limpers. A lot of people will raise the majority of their hands on the button or cutoff if it has been mucked around to them. You should be much more inclined to call a blind-stealing type raise than one from an earlier position, since you are far less likely to be dominated.

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