My second concern after almost 5k hands at $25NL on Empire is playing from the BB and SB, esp, I guess from the SB.

You have AQ in the SB. Button raises $1. If you call, you are depending on the flop, right? If you raise, you're out of position. What do you do?

Medium pairs? Same question?

I'm losing money in the blinds, but I don't know if it's from playing too often or playing too strong or weak. Like the other question I have on drawing hands, I'm at sea here, too.

Thanks.

CJ

You will always lose money on the blinds. The goal is to lose as little as possible.

I'm assuming in this case that it was folded to the button. In this case, he could raise with a huge variety of hands, many of which your AQ is far better than. In fact, you probably have the best active hand at this point.

You can't fold what might be the best hand. You could just call and see what the flop brings. But AQ isn't all that strong a hand from early position.

If you're going to play, I think you need to put the pressure back on the button. Re-raise him $3-$4 (not a miniraise!) to see if he's serious. If he re-raises, your action is read-dependent, but unless he's super-lag, a re-raise means he's got a big hand.

The beauty of $25NL is people will play for their entire stack in an unraised pot. They'll happily call an allin when they have TPTK.

What does this have to do with the blinds you ask? Simple. Ignore people trying to steal your 25 cent blind. Its not worth it considering the realtive upside of people gambling for their stack often.

Long-term win rates at 25NL have very little to do with blind defense and more to do with post flop play.

TR

Thanks again for the advice. I played the blinds much, much better, even making more than I gave up. Several times I played back at the button strongly, and they didn't try to steal anymore.

The advice that one gets on BTP is the best.

CJ