Blind Play in Texas Hold'em

Playing in the blinds is one of the trickiest things in limit poker. You have positional advantage for the pre-flop betting round, meaning you act after everyone else, but your position is the worst possible for each subsequent round -- you act before everyone else. And then there are some different mathematical considerations.

Take, for example, a drawing hand like 8H-9H. Now if a middle-position player raises, you probably want to muck this hand: most likely you're behind and the odds of success are not good. However, if you have this hand in the big blind, you almost always want to throw in the extra bet.

That's the start of it. Keep in mind that these are just basic guidelines. Some hold'em books, such as Lee Jones's Winning Low Limit Hold'em and David Sklansky's Hold'em Poker for Advanced Players, offer lists of exactly which starting hands can be played in each position. But we're not going to do that in this guide.

Rather than give you a long list of stuff to memorize, try your hand at some exercises that test your ability to think on your feet and identify the best, and most profitable, course of action when faced with any combination of situations.