Dear Strategists,
I have been using the BSS to good effect on the micros and feel my pre-flop play is ready for more advancement. But before I move on I thought it might be useful to discuss one tactic I found in the beginners starting hands chart for BSS that at least seems to violate the fundamentals of a tight-aggressive game. I'm of course talking about open-limping small-medium pairs from middle position.
Typically you want to to get these hands to the flop as cheap as possible and multi-way - ideally you would be limping behind other limpers in late position so that when you hit your set you have a better chance of a worse hand paying you off... or you want to raise it from late position first in to steal the blinds or get it heads up or at the most 2 opponents and have a good chance of getting your opponents to fold to a bet on the flop as they will often check to your aggression - and sometimes these hands even hold up at showdown!
When I read the chart the first time I was a bit confused at this at first but nevertheless went ahead and tried it as written. I found it to be a rather weak-passive strategy that lead to aggressive opponents eventually exploiting you by raising you from position every time you open-limp ahead of them. Sometimes I would have the implied odds... but often I did not. I can't help thinking raising is a better idea as it conceals the strength of my hand and makes me less exploitable. Another advantage is that it builds a pot so that if I do hit my hand my opponents are more likely to be priced in with worse hands. If I never open-limp then that makes it much harder for my opponents to read me.
In hindsight, I suppose this strategy was only possible due to the fact that we assume that the vast majority of micro players only think about what they have and even then they don't really understand the strength of their own hands. Also, it's less likely we'll come across the same opponent (assuming we play at a big site) too many times over the course of our stint at a given micro stake.
With these thoughts in mind, what are your thoughts on this tactic?
I personally don't use it anymore and raise all pairs first in from middle position.
Kindest regards,
Alieaz
