The Big Blind Gets a Turn in Position
Yesterday we covered the positions and how the dealer button moves which in turn moves the Small Blind and The Big Blind.
The Blinds dictate how much a person must bet at the outset of a hand. As long as a person is ‘Sitting at the Table’ they must put money in for the blinds when it is their turn. This is called Posting the Blind.
Posting the Big and Small Blinds occurs before any cards are dealt to any players. This is probably an inference of the source of the terminology ‘Blind’ as the players must post a bet blind to what their cards may be.
All of the other players at the table can wait until they see their first two cards. Once they receive their first two cards the other players will have the option to Fold their hand and quit the hand or post a bet. The bet must be at a minimum the same amount as the Big Blind. The players can also raise the bet.
Depending on the version of Texas Hold ‘em that is being played the amount of the raise can vary from double the Big Blind up to all the chips that a player has. I will cover the raising scenarios more thoroughly tomorrow.
In the simplest of scenarios all the players will match the Big Blinds bet or they will fold (or they will raise which I will talk about, tomorrow.)
After every player has had a chance to fold or post a bet including the player that has the dealer button, the player in the Small Blind position, who has now had a chance to view their cards, can post a bet to stay in the hand.
Why does the Small Blind have to post an additional Amount?
The Small Blind initially only has to post an amount that is half the amount posted by the big blind. So if the Big Blind has to bet $10, the Small Blind initially has to blindly post up $5 before any cards are dealt.
After they receive their cards, they can then decide to fold or stay in the hand. They now have the option to Fold, Post an additional $5 to see and match the $10 or raise the bet(again to be covered tomorrow.)
Big Blind’s in a good position now
If the person in the Big Blind position has decent cards for a potential hand, they are now in a position of knowledge. If everyone at the table has folded or posted a matching bet, the person in the Big Blind position, can gauge how strong their hand may really be.
Knowing that no one else has raised the bet above the minimum indicates that many players just want to bet enough to see the flop and hopefully get by on the cheap. Sometimes they also wait to bet until they see what the players after them will do.
The Big Blind is in a position to call the shots in this hand. If they call, all the bets for this round stop and the flop is dealt. If they raise the bet, then the cycle will repeat around the table and everyone will have the opportunity to see the raise or raise again.
A Big Blind raise can scare or force other hands out of the game and thus increase the odds that the person in the Big Blind might win. (The fewer people playing the fewer opponents to beat and bet against.)
We’ll let that concept settle for now and come back to it some more with strategy sessions later on, but it is key to understand this fundamental aspect of the initial betting structure.
Tomorrow we will talk more about raising the bet of the big blind.
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