The SB is unfortunately one of the least profitable places to be at the table. We are forced to give up a mandatory 0.5bb without even seeing our hole cards, and are guaranteed to always be out-of-position postflop!
  1. Texas Holdem Poker Betting
  2. Texas Holdem Poker Bbq

BB/100 = Big Bets per 100 hands. A big bet is 2x the big blind. Ptbb/100 = Poker Tracker Big Blinds per 100 hands. This is the same as BB/100. So, if you have a winrate of 3 BB/100 or 3 ptbb/100 in a $0.5/$1 NL game, you would be winning 6 bb/100 or $6 per 100 hands. The reason why BB/100 and ptbb/100 exist is because of limit Hold’em. BBO Poker Tables offers the highest quality custom and off-the-shelf poker tables. Design your own table or choose from our vast inventory.

Even strong winning players will make losses from the SB.

RedJoy2003. on 31/10/16. If they are 3betting less than 9% of their hands, fold with your folding range against a standard 3bet when OOP. You can also 4bet bluff w/ A2s to A5s, and 4bet Val. W/ TT+,AK, (even AQo depending on BB stats) (and keep betting till All in), and call with any Pair, and AQo, may be even AJo. That being said, without specific reads, using push fold only Texas Holdem strategy is often the best option. What should I consider when adjusting this push fold chart against different players? The most important consideration is your stack depth since these push fold ranges assume the effective stack in play. This is a discussion on How to set 888 to show chips in BB format? Within the online poker forums, in the Poker Rooms section; I'm playing on every room using the feature of chips in BB format.

Assuming that we folded every SB we’d be losing at about -50bb/100-hands. If we can limit our losses by improving this winrate to around -15bb/100-hands we are doing reasonably well.
Hence the name of the game in the SB is not to make money, but to lose as little as possible. Like all positions, the better we can play, the higher our overall winrate will be.

BB vs SB

One of the most common mistakes players make with their SB play is not understanding that the SB and BB are dramatically different.
If you are currently using the same strategy from both positions, then you are not maximising your expectation. So what is the main difference between the two positions?
  • Big-Blind – Flat wide and 3bet aggressively.
  • Small-Blind – Flat Tight and 3bet aggressively.
So why do we flat tighter in the Small-Blind compared to the Big-Blind? There are 2 main reasons.
  • 1) We have invested less money in the SB and don’t get as good of a price to call.
  • 2) We do not close the action in the SB. The BB may squeeze or overcall.
As a result, some players have adopted a “3bet only” strategy from the SB. This is not an optimal strategy and it’s recommended to have a flatting range. However when executed well a “3bet only” strategy can still perform reasonably well and will only be slightly inferior.

Raise First In

Another situation that can occur in the SB that will not occur in the big-blind, is when everyone folds to us and we get the opportunity to raise-first-in.
It’s recommended to open around 36% of hands in this case.
In practice it should be possible to open a little wider, at the very least including any Axo hand.
It’s very important that we are looking for exploitative opportunities in this situation since many players are not defending their big-blind optimally. We should be making use of our opponents fold-BB-to-SB-steal stat. If this stat is above 60 then we can open any 2 cards profitably from the SB for a 2.5x sizing.
Assuming our opponent is unknown we should stick to around 36% of hands, but since we will be exploiting many tight big-blind players it’s possible for our SB rfi in stat to become over 50% across a big sample in our tracking software.
Opening very wide from the SB should be done with reads however, and a common mistake players make is to open too wide vs unknowns. This is very profitable for decent players in the BB.

Defending vs Opens


We should be very aggressive when defending against a BTN open. Many players are opening the BTN extremely wide in today’s games, sometimes as much as 100% of hands.

SB vs BTN 2.5x

Notice that there are 4 different colours used on the grid below.
  • Light-Red – 3bet for value
  • Dark-Red – 3bet bluff
  • Dark-Blue – cold-call
  • Green – Mixed Strategy (Sometimes call, sometimes 3bet)

This strategy makes use of a reduced cold-calling range without removing it entirely. Hands like 77-TT nearly always play better as cold-calls but it would be incorrect to purely defend these hands by calling. We’d be playing very face up if our opponent knew that we always had 77-TT when we cold-call. So it’s important to diversify our calling range with a few suited-connectors and suited-broadways!
By the same token we wouldn’t want to always call hands like KJs since we may make ourselves vulnerable to squeezes plus the hands make a little more money as 3bets on average.

SB vs CO 3x

Notice that this is now facing a 3x open as opposed to a 2.5x open. Many players open a little smaller from the BTN compared to other positions. It’s important to keep in mind that our defending frequency is heavily affected by the open-raise sizing our opponents use. The larger they make it, the less often we should be defending.

SB vs MP 3x

SB vs UTG 3x

Note that in some cases it might not be correct to defend the lower pocket pairs if BB is squeezing very aggressively. However since most BB players are not squeezing that much when the opener is in UTG/MP we can get away with set-mining all pocket-pairs. We benefit from the fact that UTG/MP has a tight range, increasing the likelihood that we get paid off if we hit.
In tough games it can be better to defend something like 66+.

Iso-Raising/Completing


In general we want to be iso-raising a reasonably tight range since we will always be out of position. It’s recommended that we iso-raise something such as the following vs limpers.
However, keep in mind that we have another option against limpers, which can actually be a pretty strong play, but many players ignore. We have the option to complete. This can be a great way to see many flops against weaker opponents for a good price.
Texas Holdem Poker Bb
We can actually get away with completing the SB much wider than many players imagine. The following range can be considered.
  • Red – Iso-raise for value
  • Blue – Complete
  • White - Fold

When we complete from the SB against 1 limper we are often putting in about 1/6th of the pot in order to see a flop. Since we get such a great price preflop it essentially means that we don’t need to do too much postflop in order to make the overall situation profitable. We can literally wait until we hit the flop and then look to make money from the weaker players involved in the hand.
This range somewhat assumes that BB is also on the passive side. If he is constantly iso-raising when facing a limp and a small-blind complete then we should consider tightening up the range. However we can also consider completing some premium holdings and going for a limp-raise.

HU Completes


This is an area of strategy that many players don’t fully know about yet. While for a long time it was considered correct to never complete in the SB when the action was folded around to us, many good players are now beginning to feel the opposite. Completing offers us an extremely attractive price and hence potentially takes better advantage of the blind structure.
Let’s start by considering a GTO version of this strategy which involves completing in the SB with a 70% range.
  • Light red – Limp/Raise for Value
  • Dark Red – Limp/Raise as a bluff
  • Dark Blue – Limp/Call
  • Light Blue – Limp/Fold
  • White – Open Fold
However, assuming we are playing against weak players it doesn’t necessarily make sense to be limping the SB with something like AA. We can potentially miss a ton of value this way. There is an exploitative version of the completing strategy which can be used at lower limits.
  • Green – Open Raise
  • Light Blue – Limp/Fold
The idea here is that we are raising first in with our standard 36% range and then completing an additional 34%. Naturally this is an unbalanced strategy since every time we complete, it indicates that we are weak and will be folding. However most players at the lower limits are not competent enough to pick up on this and exploit us.
Assuming our opponent in the BB is especially weak it can make sense to complete all remaining hands. So against bad players in the BB we can play 100% of our holdings from the SB when the action is folded round to us.
This is especially useful if the player in the BB does not have a full stack. It’s just not going to be correct to try and open raise something like 85o in the SB when the effective stacks are 35bb. However folding is not a great option either since we want to be playing as many hands as possible against the weaker players.

Squeezing and Overcalling


Occasionally the situation will arise where a player decides to open and another player decides to overcall. In this situation we have the opportunity to either overcall or to squeeze.
This will be somewhat similar to our BB strategy in this spot except it won’t be correct to overcall as wide as we potentially can in the BB.
  • Light Red – Value Squeeze
  • Green – Mixed strategy – Both Overcalling and Squeezing are fine
  • Dark Blue – Overcall
  • Dark Red – Bluff squeeze

Remember that this range is just an estimate however and should be adjusted based on a number of factors.
  • Position of the opener
  • Position of the caller
  • Tendencies of the raiser and caller
  • The size of the open-raise
  • Tendency of the BB
If the big-blind is quite aggressive we likely want to narrow our overcalling range, since we don’t want to overcall a whole bunch of hands and end up getting squeezed off them.
However, assuming the BB is passive we can expand our overcalling range and follow a very similar strategy to the one that we would typically use in the BB when facing multiple opponents.

Putting it Together

Texas Holdem Poker Betting

If we could make a few general guidelines for SB play they would probably be as follows.
  • Aggressively steal against opponents who don’t defend their big-blind
  • Flat a very tight and sparing range in general
  • 3bet aggressively vs LP opens but very tight vs EP opens
  • Consider employing a completing strategy when relevant
  • Understand when to overcall/squeeze
If you use the guidelines given in this article you should have a reasonable idea of what to do in the majority of SB situations!

Other Top Recommended Content

If you enjoyed reading this article, check out our other top recommended articles by Adam Jones!
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Or why not take a look at some of Adams PokerVIP coaching videos?

Texas Holdem Poker Bbq

Poker
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In Texas Hold’em, the person who starts or goes first is dependent on what stage of the hand being played. Before the flop, the first person to act is the player seated directly to the left of the Big Blind. This seat is often referred to as Under The Gun (UTG). After the flop, the first person to act is the player seated in the Small Blind (SB) position. Thereafter, the order stays the same for the rest of the hand through the Flop, Turn, and River.

What Is the Exact Order of Play?

The order of play is based on how the players are seated at the table. There are typically 6 seat names in poker. UTG (also known as first position) is divided up into multiple seats (UTG, UTG+1, UTG+2) for games larger than 6-handed.

Here is what a 6-max poker table looks like. In the chart, the seats are called Under The Gun (UTG), the Hijack (HJ), the Cutoff (CO), the Button (BTN), the Small Blind (SB), and the Big Blind (BB).

Pre-Flop Order

Before the flop, the last player to act is always the Big Blind.

On a 6-handed table, the order of play would be UTG, HJ, CO, BTN, SB, BB. Once the first player acts, play continues around the table in a clockwise fashion until it reaches the Big Blind, who acts last on the first round.

On a 9-handed table, the order of play would be that the UTG starts followed by UTG+1, UTG+2, UTG+3, HJ, CO, BTN, SB, BB.

Post-Flop Order

On the Flop, Turn, and River, the last player to act is always the Button.

Accordingly, on a 6-handed table, the post-flop order of play would be the SB starts followed by the BB, UTG, HJ, CO, and BTN.

Are There Any Exceptions?

The post-flop order never changes. However, the pre-flop order of play can be slightly altered if there is a player who straddles. A straddle is when the player seated just to the left of the Big Blind (usually UTG) posts a double big blind bet in front of him prior to the cards being dealt.

Essentially, he is buying the right to act last before the flop. In the case of a straddle, the person seated just to the left of the “straddler,” goes first pre-flop once the straddle has been wagered.

What Is the Dealing Order?

The first person to act after the flop is also the first person to receive a card; the small blind. The easy way to remember this is that the dealer must always deal clockwise to his or her left.

Who Goes First in Heads-Up Play?

The pre-flop order also changes in a heads-up match. Instead of the Button acting last before the flop, he or she acts first instead. The easy way to remember it is that the Big Blind always goes last before the flop. And, in the case of heads up, the Button is the Small Blind, and therefore acts before the Big Blind player.

During post-flop, nothing changes heads up. The button still acts last, even though technically he or she is the Small Blind.

Dealing Order For Heads-Up Play

In heads-up play, the Big Blind is dealt to first and the Button 2nd. The button always receives the last card when dealing no matter how many players are seated at the table.

What’s the Order of Play Three-Handed?

The same rules apply whether there are 3 players or 10. Before the flop, the player to act first is just to the left of the big blind. In the case of three-handed play, that would be the button. After the flop, the small blind acts first as always.

Who Bets First?

After the flop and before action is opened, any player can perform one of two actions. They can either bet or check. Of course, the person who acts first has the first option to bet.

When Does a Poker Hand End?

There are a couple of ways that a poker hand can end. First, someone can bet and all the other players fold. This can happen on any street. The second time a hand can end is when the action closes on the river and showdown is achieved. In the latter case, all live hands are revealed and the winner is determined.

Who Shows Their Cards First at Showdown?

Once the hand has ended on the river and showdown has been achieved, the order that each player reveals their hand is exactly the same as the post-flop betting order. The first person to reveal is always the first person to the left of the Dealer and the last person to reveal is the player on the button.

Of course, if a player only has to show their hand if they want to. Many players will choose to “muck” or throw away their hand instead of showing if they are sure they have no chance of winning the hand at showdown. This is sometimes a wise choice in order to not give away information about your hand.

Is It Better to Act First or Last?

Being in position (acting last) is much better than being out of position (acting first) in poker. Poker is an informational game and the person that gets to act last has more information than everyone else. I wrote a detailed article on position; check it out for more details.

What Is the Best Position at a Poker Table?

Since we have established that acting last is most advantageous in poker, the Button would be the best seat at the table. However, in reality, the seat name is irrelevant, as long as you are acting last. Therefore, let me refine my definition slightly: the best seat in poker is any seat that has you acting last in the current hand on the current street. For example, if it is blind versus blind after the flop, then the player in the Big Blind has the best seat possible for that hand.

Why Is It Called the Dealer Button?

When poker began the players had to deal the cards. In order for everyone to get equal opportunity to share the burden of dealing, the moving dealer button was born. Today, in casinos and even in some home games, there are dedicated dealers to speed up play, enforce the rules, and lessen the likelihood of cheating.

Why Do the Blinds Act Last Before the Flop?

The exact reason that the blinds act last before the flop has been lost to history. However, one could deduce that the reasoning is simple. Since the blinds are the only players to pay to play a particular hand, it only makes sense that they should be rewarded by being given an informational advantage via acting last. This theory is bolstered by the existence of “straddles” where one can essentially “buy” position before the flop.

Who Goes First in Pot Limit Omaha?

There is no difference between Texas Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) when it comes to the order of play. In fact, the order of play is the same for every poker game that has two blinds and a dealer button.