Well sportsfans spurred on my MK's exploits in the 20-40 game I decided to take a little mini-stroll there as well and low and behold the first hand some fool tries to steal my BB from the button. That is going to happen about as often as.....well it just ain't going to happen, so I call with a monster drawing hand 26o. Results follow:
DO NOT be afraid to defend your BB with any two cards particularly from steal attempts in late position and usually the worse hand the better if you don't hold a monster. You are getting 3.5:1 on your call so go ahead and get in there.

***** Hand History for Game 2505052199 *****
$20/$40 Texas Hold'em - Tuesday, August 09, 12:05:40 EDT 2005
Table Table 58546 (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: Feech ( $288.50 )
Seat 2: jed34 ( $1136.11 )
Seat 3: sssfff ( $1578 )
Seat 4: AlAce ( $544 )
Seat 5: Vince556 ( $1116.50 )
Seat 7: GuangXu ( $650 )
Seat 8: acold2eyes ( $1141 )
Seat 10: Nagaroshima ( $1095 )
Seat 9: Ineedadoctor ( $500 )
Seat 6: luciacortez3 ( $1000 )
Vince556 posts small blind [$10].
luciacortez3 posts big blind [$20].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to luciacortez3 [ 6h 2s ]
acold2eyes folds.
Nagaroshima folds.
Feech folds.
sssfff raises [$40].
Vince556 folds.
luciacortez3 calls [$20].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4c, 5h, 6d ]
luciacortez3 checks.
sssfff bets [$20].
luciacortez3 raises [$40].
sssfff raises [$40].
luciacortez3 raises [$40].
sssfff calls [$20].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 4h ]
luciacortez3 bets [$40].
sssfff calls [$40].
** Dealing River ** [ Jc ]
luciacortez3 bets [$40].
sssfff calls [$40].
luciacortez3 shows [ 6h, 2s ] two pairs, sixes and fours.
sssfff doesn't show [ Ah, Qh ] a pair of fours.
luciacortez3 wins $407 from the main pot with two pairs, sixes and fours.

Raising with AQ suited from the button is a steal attempt?

OK, so he misplayed post-flop. But how often can you call another small bet with a trash hand and come out profitable if the button doesn't screw up this big in post-flop play (which I assume would be more frequent at these higher limits)?

what about the times he has A6 or a bigger pocket pair. I always hate it when I try this and it works occasionally and then I get in another "good" situation to play back and lose a ton.

Unless the guy has an overpair to my two cards which would make me in the neighborhood of a 4:1 dog I can justify a call with anything. So although AQ is not exactly a nothing steal his preflop advantage is NOT greater than 3.5:1 that I get by calling.

With my super trash hands I show a profit heads up over the last 120K hands when defending from the Big Blind although my BB/hand is slightly negative (-0.09). Like I have said before I feel much better calling a steal raise with a piece of trash than with something like A6 or K10. In another post a while back I gave some more concrete examples on defending from the blinds and at least my results from doing so with a wide variety of hands. You might be interested in looking over that.

http://livepokerforum.com/forum/viewtop ... highlight=

I take a similar approach to blind defense but not quite as extreme. Piers you need to remember one thing. You are getting 3.5-1 pot odds and you are less than a 3.5-1 dog to win. BUT that assumes an all in situation, perhaps you are a larger underdog to improve to the best hand on the flop. Like a flush draw on the flop, you can't call getting 2-1 because you are only a 2-1 dog, because you are more than a 2-1 dog to improve NOW. Then again you could actually be LESS of a dog to improve to the best hand on the flop, I don't really know, just some food for thought. I'm sure with some simple math we could figure out the odds of flopping a pair with them not flopping a pair and see if you are a greater than 3.5-1 dog or more than a 3.5-1 dog.

LoL! Nice hand piers. I must say i dont defend with that hand, although i do defend with some questionable stuff. Hey, you got me beat, im -0.12 from the BB! I thought we had established that i was better from the BB than you?

Xas: I think you are right about the way the math works out, as far as the odds being a little deceptive because we are talking about an allin situation. However, when you flop a flushdraw in a headsup limit situation, what are you supposed to do with it? I dont think you can fold it, can you? Wouldnt you more likely raise it and try to add some fold equity to your 1/3 chance of gettin your flush?

Piers- pretty fearless stuff, the four bets! That guy was an idiot though... I mean if every ace high turns into a major reverse-implied-odds situation for you when your the button raiser, your way better off limping or not even bothering to play. So did you find the action to be as good as i did? Man im totally all fired up about online cards again, because i finally found some good tables to play at! Im actually loosening my play up at these tables because the thing that you just posted, piers, i am seeing alot more, namely folks for which an ace high is a reverse implied odds scenario...i.e. they will callit down stubbornly and pay off in the most shameful ways! Like this hand:

Dealt to AKsoGay
AKsoGay raises [$40].
nomad_chink raises [$60].
kawappa folds.
Kinsworthy folds.
AKsoGay calls [$20].
** Dealing Flop **
AKsoGay checks.
nomad_chink bets [$20].
AKsoGay raises [$40].
nomad_chink calls [$20].
** Dealing Turn **
AKsoGay bets [$40].
nomad_chink raises [$80]. (I hate this one, but the guy is so damn LAG that there is no way im folding my hand here- If he caught that king im paying him...a benefit of being a LAG, if you hit your hand, but a definite downfall if you dont.
AKsoGay calls [$40].
** Dealing River **
AKsoGay checks.
nomad_chink checks.
AKsoGay shows two pairs, eights and sixes.
nomad_chink doesn't show a pair of sixes.
AKsoGay wins $388 from the main pot with two pairs, eights and sixes.


When i defend my blinds, i usually do it something like this:

Dealt to AKsoGay
texasks folds.
treatck folds.
RetardOnTilt folds.
runner__ folds.
richman2 has joined the table.
massivenasif raises [$40].
Str5winnerQ7 folds.
AKsoGay calls [$20].
** Dealing Flop **
AKsoGay checks.
>You have options at Table 51986 Table!.
massivenasif bets [$20].
AKsoGay raises [$40].
>You have options at Table 51986 Table!.
massivenasif folds.
AKsoGay does not show cards.
AKsoGay wins $147

Or like this:

Dealt to AKsoGay
sweeta111 folds.
lilkriggle raises [$40].
DaveMarner folds.
edwardmad folds.
veevee515 folds.
AKsoGay calls [$20].
** Dealing Flop **
AKsoGay checks.
lilkriggle bets [$20].
AKsoGay raises [$40].
lilkriggle folds.
AKsoGay does not show cards.
AKsoGay wins $147

All i will say is that the most important thing about blind defense in my opinion (at least when you are bluffing) is that you gotta go all out or just forget it- as in do not go and make a weak lead-- go for the check raise, because weak leads look just too suspicious. The only time you oughta go for a weak lead is when you actually have a big hand, at least thats how i do it. For example, this mizor right here couldve taken the pot from me, but instead he got it stolen back.

Dealt to AKsoGay
Babianen has left the table.
defrinch folds.
WomanInLove calls [$20].
AKsoGay raises [$40].
golfsuziq folds.
tooDAfelt folds.
WomanInLove calls [$20].
** Dealing Flop **
WomanInLove bets [$20]. <<====Weak lead into me.
AKsoGay raises [$40]. <----no respect!
WomanInLove folds.
AKsoGay does not show cards.
AKsoGay wins $168
GuangXu has joined the table.
(NIHAN! Had he CRed me, hed have taken the pot from me, assuming i missed the turn of course)

Anyways piers glad your playin the 20 game. Does that game not have more action than any of the games below it in limit, or was i just runnin good?