A lot of people tend to play way too loose in SB with the idea that it costs only half as much. But what I think tends to be forgotten is that you have the worst possible position for the rest of the hand.

Actually, I think I've been playing a bit too loose by including all of my LP hands in the "SB playable for a limp" category.

Specifically, these hands include AXs and suited one-gappers, which are semi-bluff hands for the most part. But, the more I think about this, the more I think the semi-bluff really gets its power with position, which you don't have in SB.

My conclusion: It's probably better to stick with your MP hands to play in SB. Most of these are actually not semi-bluff hands but TP hands like KJo, etc. I think those are the ones you really want to be playing. For me, that would put SB at a VPIP of 16.1%. I don't think that's excessively tight.

Opinions?

I'm at about 31% and losing money from the position... maybe it's not such a bad idea...

Yeah, when I could check it with pokertracker, I was at one time winning modestly with VPIP of just under 20% and never losing less than I would have if I just folded every time.

It's really mainly the AXs question there, and I think the flush semi-bluff, in particular is just not very attractive out of position. I feel quite certain that any VPIP over 20% is way too loose, and I really do intend to go down to 16%.