And there has to be as many unsuited hands as suited, giving us 78 unsuited hands. They are not as strong as the very best starting hands but offer lots of straight and flush potential. If you group these identical hands together, you get. If you’ve ever played rock, paper, scissors, you are probably getting a similar vibe here. How to Play AK in Poker: The Best Drawing Hand; 2. Nick Koudis / Photodisc / Getty Images. The Button raises to 2. Likewise, if the majority of the decisions you make happen post-flop, you're playing post-flop poker. Some of the best Omaha poker hands are known as “rundowns”. Simple enough, right. There are 1,326 possible 2 card starting hands in Texas Hold'em. When facing two opponents. 1. Even so, these are what you're hoping to hit on the flop. As a bonus you will also learn the nicknames of the different hands. So don't play hands like these. All other starting hands are in the offsuit category, like A♠8 ♦, 7♣5 ♥ and K ♥ 9 ♦. 2-7 offsuit. 32o is statistically the worst hand in a heads-up situation against any two cards, winning only around 32% of the time. Defending the Big Blind. Daniel’s 4x open from the Hijack with 64s is way too wide. General Summary – When to Fold Preflop. Playing from the Small Blind is a bit trickier than the Big Blind because you do not have the luxury of closing the preflop action. The hand ranges are very similar to how the best 6-max poker AI called Pluribus likes to play pre-flop, except for the range of Small Blind, for which a raise-only strategy is recommended unless you’re a high-stakes crusher. Vs Raise The best possible five-card hand with these hole cards is T♠ T ♥ A ♥ J ♥ 9♠. Although not a monster starting hand, pocket nines is certainly strong enough to open the action with a raise from all positions in 9 or 6-handed games. And if you want to play a loose style preflop, you better be ready to deal with a wide variety of decisions post flop. Playing too many hands with low, unconnected cards. Here are some examples: A♠A♦K♠K♦ - This hand is the best possible double-paired starting hand. The basic idea of poker is to play the strongest poker hands in early position, good hands in mid-position and a few more hands in the late (aka strongest) position. [3] X Research source. This is because when a player does a lot of open-limping preflop, you can assume they are weak, passive, and worth targeting with aggression. Get Credit for Playing Tight. There are 169 different starting hands you can be dealt in Hold'em. 3-Betting Pre-Flop. You should never open the action with a limp. A2s wins 55. 1. A good reason a player might raise preflop is to build the pot. If you’re new to PLO, you should only like the ones presented in our hand chart of 30 best Omaha starting hands. 13 + 78 + 78 = 169. This gives the button a pair of tens, having missed a chance at both a straight and a flush. 3% chance of flopping a straight. On the plus side they aren’t as vulnerable to counterfeiting and sometimes you’ll only be up against one overcard rather than two. That equates to 76-to-1 odds against. Opening the top 15% of hands is still quite tight, but allows a bit more play down to the strong offsuit Broadways, most of the suited aces, and all of the suited Broadways. We could naturally conclude that AKo was probably the stronger hand of the 3 since it had the most decisive victory. So to save you a tremendous amount of time, I put together this pack. While eight- and nine-handed cash games are the norm in live play, online the majority of cash games play 6-handed. ) Top 15%. Preflop starting hand selection. Very good players can start implementing a mixed strategy with around 50/50 composition of open raises and limps. Over time, you'll naturally want to shake things up a bit. Here are my top 3 tips when making the switch, click on one of the links below to jump to your wanted tip: Adapt To 5-Card Preflop Ranges. Sit in a poker game for any significant length of time, and you’ll hear some of the game’s most recognizable hands referred to by poker hand nicknames. 2. 6. Here is an 82. These provide your Pre-Flop Ranges depending on your position, as explained below. 06%; 88: 69. Defending vs 4bets. Odds are available for: Texas Holdem, Omaha , Omaha Hi-Lo, 7-Card Stud, 7-Card Stud Hi-Lo and Razz. These are the poker hands you will hardly ever want to play. As a general rule of thumb for pre flop hand ranges, early position players should play tight, middle position players should be a bit looser, and late position players should be the loosest. Now, this doesn’t mean that you should be 5 betting. Naturally, having a solid preflop poker strategy starts with good hand selection. 5% in full-deck hold’em). 2d2h. g. MP - This term can to varying positions between early position and late position. HAND NAME. Hands with the letter “o” next to them represent offsuit hands, AKo for instance could be A♣ K♦. This is when the dealer distributes two face down cards to each player. You dominate all these hands. When you’re in middle position, you’re sandwiched between the player under the gun and the player in the cutoff. This range is going to be made up of pocket pairs, strong Ax hands, and strong. Most of the time these hands play like small pairs. Preflop and Flop Analysis. 3-2 Offsuit. Poker Winning Hands Chart: Hand Rankings. The only difference is that these hands are weaker, making them more likely to fold to you pre-flop and less likely to play heavy after. 3-betting inflates the pot, which is particularly useful when the aggressor is holding strong hands. It could be either one of the following. It comes pretty naturally for most players to play more passively with both draws and made hands in multiway pots. Preflop play in poker is generally the easiest stage of the game. Queen-Queen, also called Ladies or Two Queens, is a strong poker hand. Choosing the right starting hand is half the battle in poker. To Build the Pot. 8-7-6-5-4 (all of the same suit) 4-of-a-Kind. From the blinds you play in the worst possible position. The hands are ranked from #1 to #169, where #1 is the best. Kx will often be the best hand versus a button opening range but will perform horribly when we proceed by calling from the big blind and contesting. When you have a chance to bet, you can increase the size of the pot to your desire. 5% of the time against one opponent, compared to 53. On this site you can find all possible combinations of preflop hands that can occur in Texas Hold'em Poker. The 2-7 offsuit is the lowest two cards you can have with very few good options available to you. Discover what is poker equity and learn how to calculate your poker equity to win more poker hands!. You'll always have at least one player behind you. The three most important elements are good cards, position and initiative. 5% of the time, compared to 9. The hands with the letter “s” next to them represent suited hands, for instance KTs could be K♠ T♠ or K♦T♦. 1. Like the live ranges, the 6-max charts assume 100bb stack depth. A 3-bet is simply the third bet of a round. Hands that A-Q dominates: A-J, K-Q, A-T, Q-J. A-K-Q-J-T (all of the same suit) Straight Flush. Playing looser against limpers is often the best play from a practical perspective. What hands to play pre-flop. 1. Kings have a 70% equity versus an ace. After the flop, you'll have to act before even the players in early position. The hands are ranked from #1 to #169, where #1 is the best. 2. These hands become much weaker, however, if you are re-raised before the flop. Every time you play a hand pre-flop you're hoping to flop something huge. Playing LAG isn’t simply just raising any suited connector from UTG because “LOL, LAGs do that!”. 5% (compared to 31. In Hold’em, we have suited connectors. This is the best starting hand in hold’em poker and can be played from any position-early, middle and late positions. 6-Max GTO Preflop Charts. Poker players go through three stages when it comes to suited hands. The best starting hand is pocket aces, while the worst is seven-two offsuit. How to Play Pocket Nines Preflop in Cash Games. To win money at the poker table, you have to play the right hands in the right spots! The best starting hands can be broken down into six categories: big pocket pairs (K♣-K♠), strong big cards (A♣-Q♠), medium pocket pairs (8♣-8 ♦ ), suited aces (A ♦. Hole card combos that have three ways to flop a straight have an 0. Choosing which hands to play and which hands to fold is fundamental to playing a winning poker game. True, before the flop you act last, but most hands are not decided before the flop. The following list outlines 50 of the. These hands may look playable at first because you have the potential to make a straight, but keep in mind that you don’t actually make a straight all that. 2. In games like Texas Holdem, the very first round is called the preflop round. . Moreover, solid pre-flop decisions lead to better post-flop decisions. It displays all the possible hands you could be dealt preflop without accounting for individual suits. There are 10 possible 5 card poker hands: royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, high card. How to Use the Poker Odds Calculator. Similar to the first point about using position…find extra spots to raise more hands preflop. Pocket Aces (Ace-Ace) and other big-pocket pairs such as King-King, Queen-Queen or Jack-Jack are definitely the best starting hands in any position in Texas Hold'em. 2nd bet = Open-raise. As you may have noticed, even a ‘tight’ heads-up opening range is wide compared to the typical 6-max button opening range (usually around 50%). First, they’ll play every suited hand they’re dealt because they can make a flush, and, well, a flush is a strong hand. PLAY POKER NOW . Example: 9 6 , 7 2 , K 10 , 6 3 , Q 5. As per standard in the ranking of poker hands, you’re going to generally want to play cards with the greatest chance of making strong hands. Those first two cards are also referred to as each player’s hole cards. Suited hands contain two cards of the same suit, like J♣9♣, A ♥ K ♥, K♠Q♠ and 9 ♦ 3 ♦. Once the players look at their hole cards, the preflop betting round begins. Even if you don’t receive one of these premium hands pre-flop when you play online poker, you’re still in good shape if you get dealt a medium pocket pair (Nines through Sixes). Say starting cards along the lines of a strong top pair, a straight, or. Related Reading: Preflop Charts. Junky Connected Cards such as 8♥️6♣️, 8♣️4♦️, 7♥️5♦️ are deceiving. [2] X Research source. The player on the button posts the small blind. 98% chance of seeing a competed straight on the flop. 5pp. Preflop Poker Odds Probability of being dealt a certain starting hand. Texas Hold'em Hand Guide. They are based on game theory and essentially help you play perfect poker. Even the loosest preflop players (if they’re winning players) fold before the flop around 70 percent of the time. Here at Red Chip Poker, we have therefore developed a collection of such 6-max charts. 1. Two-way straight hands flop a straight . Mistake #4: Playing Too Passively Postflop. Hand Converter & Replayer Short Deck Hold'em Guide 3-bet Pot Strategies Doug Vs Daniel Insight PLO Preflop Guide The Laws Of Live Poker Level-Up Podcast Hold'em Preflop Charts Log In Member Home Contact Us Articles Quizzes Reviews Free Resources The Upswing Pros All Poker Training 2. 3-bet. Basically, you can make and argument for folding the weakest version of any draw, especially if you think your opponent is under-bluffing, or betting too value heavy. 32o fares better all-in against 8 other players holding random. You are dealt your hand and there are 3 decisions as to what to do with it - you can call, raise or fold. Try not to be afraid of playing. In Texas Hold'em, when you have a strong hand, you have a lot of equity. J J T 9 ds. There are 13 ranks, and you can have any combination of each as your hole cards: 13 x 13 = 169. As you improve post-flop, your pre-flop options will increase. Hand #5. In this example it is the seat to the left of the UTG position. Overcalling/Squeezing – Overcalling and squeezing are terms which refer to 3-way scenarios. That winning percentage for 10-10 moves up to 75% for two players in the hand and 57% with three players - the 9-9 moves to 72% and 53. Here’s the basic sequence of how 3-betting works in pre-flop play: 1st bet = Small and big blinds. The old-school approach to multiway pots was to enter with many speculative hands hoping to win big when you hit. Don’t be fooled by this though, as these players have many years of experience in the game with exceptional . The in-position player gets to control the size of the pot more effectively. However, these hands are often more troublesome than small pairs and as a general rule, unless you flop a set or a good straight draw (that is, the board is 4. This form of rake is collected in one of two ways: Player time: A set amount is collected from each player. Straight. Common Pre-flop Hands Pocket Aces (AA) Ace-Ace. By raising pre-flop, you accomplish a couple of things; one, you drive as many players away as possible. 1% for A2o - giving a suitedness advantage of 4. In PLO there are a total of 16,432 different starting hands, made up of all the possibilities that result from the 270,725 stochastically possible combinations. The best hand from our chart, A A K K, is 33% to win, 41% to tie, and 26% to lose to the second-best hand, A A T J. “Pocket Rockets”, “Big Slick”, “Snowmen”, “Ducks”, and even “Doyle Brunson” are all common colloquialisms used as poker hand names. A good example of which is Kx combinations. The TAG always tries to take control of hands by being the pre-flop raiser or 3-better, and tries to play as many hands in position as possible. Blockers and playability heavily influence our decision to fold on the flop. 7. CO - The seat just before the button. BTN - The best seat at the table. Deciding which hands to play and which to hold is crucial to a strong poker strategy. Queen-Queen. The plan is to keep raising your opponents in the hope that they call. Other Hands. Therefore, pocket kings are a strong pre-flop hand in poker. As long as you don’t face a 3-bet preflop, you can be almost certain that you have the best kicker anytime you flop top pair. A pair of aces, also known as "pocket rockets" (and sometimes "American Airlines") is the best starting hand for Texas Hold 'em. The Worst Starting Hands in Poker. There is no ultimate best hand out of the 3, each has a weakness. When you play a lot of hands, you are playing a loose style. As a bonus you will also learn the nicknames of the different hands. Watch the flop. This goes hand in hand with mistake #1. Tip #1 – When you flop top pair with the 9 in a single-raised pot, lean towards betting on the flop and checking on the turn. Ideally you want to flop a flush, straight, two pair, trips or even top pair. A full house is nice but can be hard to make any money off of. RAISE: bet more than the player who raised 3. Double-suited holdings are always the best. There are a total of exactly 1,326 different starting hand combinations in Texas Hold’em poker. Pocket aces are a strong pre-flop favourite over any other two cards, and they are. A fundamentally sound preflop strategy sets you up for success in all subsequent betting rounds. However, many of them are practically identical, e. 30. (Note: Get free poker range charts that show you what hands to play before the flop here. In a 9-way hand, A2s wins 13. DN: If you haven’t played a hand for a while, make sure that people know you haven’t because only then you’ll get a lot of credit. On this site you can find all possible combinations of preflop hands that can occur in Texas Hold'em Poker. The flop is pretty good for Fried, hitting top pair with a good kicker on a fairly dry board. Texas Hold'em Rules. 1. 50%. While you can use software to do a lot of this math, sometimes a good ‘ol fashioned spreadsheet is the best way to visualize and play with the numbers. As the preflop raiser, KQs will dominate a lot of your opponent’s range in. It's probably. There may only be 3 decisions to choose. This chart details the Hole Cards that we believe you should open with in an 8-max No-Limit Hold ‘Em tournament without antes – such as Match Poker Online’s™ Battle Royale tournament. In 5-Card PLO, the best hands are those. 5. Small blind is the worst position of all. Our first hand begins with Fried making a standard open with K♣ Q♣. Equity re-enforcement is when we play a hand that plays poorly post-flop, aggressively preflop, to capitalize on its good raw equity and blocker value. Poker contains a lot of repetitive math, especially when studying poker hands away from the table. If you enter the game with the right cards, you will not only avoid difficult situations in the later betting rounds, you can also be reasonably sure that you are indeed holding the best hand. K K Q T ds. You should start to play tighter from these seats, as you’re not always going to act last postflop. The basic TAG strategy is tight both before and after the flop, avoiding marginal situations. 2. But in heads-up action, the player on the button posts the small blind. Once you notice their imbalances, you can adjust to exploit it! 2. With hands that have four different possibilities to flop a straight (connectors JT through 54), you have a 1. we generally prefer to 3bet ( squeeze ) a tighter range and weight our calls ( overcall ) towards speculative hands with good suited/connected potential. These 169 possible hole hands can be broken down into three categories: pocket pairs (13 kinds), suited hands (78 kinds), and. To enter each player's hand, click on the respective suit in the. Defending the Big Blind. Loosen up. The player in the big blind collects the $157 pot. How to Win a Hand. Time collection (also “timed rake” or “table charge”) is a set fee collected (typically) every half-hour during the game. For this reason, you have to be extra selective when calling bets. The 2-7 offsuit is considered the worst hand in Texas Hold'em and the worst poker hand to play pre-flop. Generally speaking, the suitedness advantage is greater for weaker starting hands. Iso-raise – A preflop raise made against a limper. In Texas Hold’em, the best poker players fold 75 percent or more of all starting hands before the betting even begins. Royal Flush. In fact, you’ve got more hot-and-cold equity with many of these pairs than you do with Ace-King or Ace-Queen: 99: 72. The 9-high top pair is very vulnerable, which makes betting on the flop preferable because of how much the hand benefits from protection. You have position on three opponents–the small blind, big blind, and under the gun – and the rest have position on you. The player to the left of the big blind. Here, we’ll delve into the concept of the best poker hands to play pre-flop. Extensive preflop ranges will be included in the upcoming Advanced PLO Mastery course. 2. Omaha is a community-card game played with two to ten players on one table. From an early position at a 9-handed table, you should be playing around 12-14% of hands. While the Ladies make a great hand pre-flop, it can be difficult to play them post-flop, especially in the presence of overcards. Late stages of online tourney (average stack 7bb) Pre-flop. 0% for A2o - a difference of 2. As a beginner or even intermediate player, hands that may look great - such as an off-suit Q-J or J-10 - are simply going to lose you money in the long run. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the best starting hands in PLO involve 4-cards, Ten and higher. But this would involve making a certain. Just as at a full table, the small blind is half of the big blind. Position is one of the most important factors in almost any regard when it comes to poker strategy. Playing solid LAG is finding spots where raising a wider range of hands is profitable either because it’s going to pick up the pot a lot preflop. Style. Well, hold on. Simply put, every other hand you can be dealt is going to lose you money. In 4-Card PLO, the best hands are those where all four cards work together. 16%. Play solid opening ranges, cut out the passive actions, and watch your profit soar. Call. Welcome ». This strategy is usually utilized by players who have a good hand. This is actually one of the best starting hands in Omaha aside from AsAdKsKd, which is typically considered to be the best. Recognize When Someone’s Making a Mistake. In Short Deck Hold’em, your chances of flopping an open-ended straight draw are 19% (compared to 10% in a full-deck game). These charts are designed to be used when deciding whether or not to play your first two cards. Part 1: Preflop – Deciding When to Enter a Multiway Pot. Keep in mind that this article is like a pre-flop playbook. Post-flop. A A has 83% pre-flop equity over the second-best starting hand in the game, K K. You can play a bit looser from middle position than you’d be able to from. A hand with all cards of the same suit. 6. 1. A range starts preflop, where someone is dealt one of the seventy-eight different offsuit hands, one of the seventy-eight different suited hands, or one of the thirteen pairs. This means when you have a strong hand, it is especially important that you raise. Stronger Commitment Ranges. When you’re reading an article from the. 46. You cannot make a straight with both cards and if you hit a flush you will have a very low flush. And then unsuited big connectors would be the least favorable starting hands in Texas Hold’em. At a nine-handed table, Early Position comprises UTG (Under the Gun) and UTG+1. 1. Before getting into the thick of things, let’s consider what makes a good starting hand in poker. The Starting Hands Chart. 3rd bet = Re-raise. Deep-stacked cash game. Pot Limit Omaha Starting Hands. This is also the reason why there is no clear cut starting hand chart for PLO. Note that this is also a double-suited hand which is a nice bonus. In Omaha, every player is dealt four hole cards (instead of two in Hold'em) You MUST use exactly two hole cards together with three community cards to make your best poker hand. With an open-ended straight draw, for example, your chance of hitting a straight by the river is 45. With the top level of these pocket pairs, players may want to raise and narrow the field. FOLD: end your involvement in the hand and pay no more chips into the pot Players normally fold or raise. Here will discuss four common areas where players miss the opportunity to make good preflop folds. AsAdJsTd. This is a holding like J-T-9-8 and the best type of rundown is, of course, double-suited. This might work against a table full of weaker players, but you are practically setting your chips on fire against strong, aggressive opposition. With fewer cards in the deck, you’ll hit your outs more often too. . Due to it’s effectiveness, 3-betting becomes more frequent as stakes get higher and competition gets tougher. Part 2: Preflop Hand Rankings. Players raise preflop for different reasons. Also known as “Pocket Rockets”, “Bullets” or sometimes “American Airlines”) is the best starting hand for Texas Holdem. Time Collection. ACE-KING SUITED (BIG SLICK) Number 5 on our list is the first non-paired hand we have seen – ace-king suited. Two, you don’t need. The Texas Holdem hand guide below will take you through each stage of a poker hand from the preflop round to the river, and give you a brief overview of the strategy you should try and employ as well as the thought processes behind making profitable decisions at each stage of the hand. The correct answer is C, 3-bet. In Omaha, things are very different. The action folds to you in the Small Blind with 99. Each hand plays a role in getting your opponent to react differently to your range. Despite going into preflop behind any pocket pair, this hand gives you a ton of top pair potential, flush/straight draw potential, and puts you ahead of all the other unpaired hands going into the flop. Big suited connectors: AK, AQ, AJ, KQ. Early Position – These are the seats that act first preflop. The lowest straight in poker, from Ace to Five, is known as a wheel. And this is something that Daniel Negreanu even discusses in his new advanced poker training program. Let’s begin by getting our preflop strategy down: Unopened. Pick the poker variation you're playing in the top drop-down menu and the number of players in the hand (you can add in up to five players). When it comes to preflop, everyone is making mistakes constantly. Using Chart #1, we want to call to encourage additional players to enter the pot. 8♣ 7♦ 6♠ 5♦ 4♥. Firstly notice that the hand has exactly 2 cards of each suit. A-K, but in reverse. Ace-King (Suited) This is a Hand Matrix. This ranking is applicable when the poker table is full ring (9-10 people). DEFINITION / EXAMPLE. All Texas Hold’em starting hands can be separated into two categories: “suited” and “offsuit”. The community as a whole eventually realised that loosening up from the big blind was necessary. How Not to Suck at Poker: Play Fewer Hands; 5. The reason why they are the best starting hands is because they are statistically most likely to win the pot at showdown. Adapt To 5-Card Preflop Ranges. 4pp. 99). Even players trying to follow GTO will often play at least slightly too tight or loose. 5% opening range: If you are opening to a larger size (3x) versus a loose opponent, it is usually best to open somewhere between 70% and 80% of hands. The best hands to play preflop are big pocket pairs like AA, KK and QQ. The Lojack and UTG+2 are the seats that usually makeup Middle Position. CALL: match the bet put into the pot 2. One, when you get pocket Aces, you pound your opposition with a pre-flop raise otherwise everyone and their brother gets to play the hand and potentially crack your bullets. When using Chart #2, however, we want to size up the opponents still to act. These hands will be immensely profitable when our loose, passive opponents enter the hand, and get trapped when we flop a set, or make a well-disguised straight. As a 10+ year poker pro myself, I will tell you that I go all in preflop a lot less than most amateurs do. This is the first player to act preflop. For now, stick with this and you'll never find yourself in trouble holding 7-2 off-suit. These are some common poker situations and what style of poker each requires: Situation. You should seldom play starting hands that contain low cards that don't interact with each other. The goal of a Texas hold'em game is to use your hole cards in combination with the community cards to make the best possible five-card. Our example hand is a Queen High Flush. KQs is a profitable open-raise from all positions in both 6 and 9-handed games. Second, they’ll realize that a suited hand only gives you 2-3% more equity, so they play the same number of offsuit hands. 5 big blinds. After the Big Blind checks, Fried must decide whether to check-back or. Here you’ll find the range of top-ranking poker hands from the very best, a Royal Flush, to the very worst, High Card. A pre-flop 3-bet is an effective way to isolate weak opponents and limit the number of players that see a flop. 5%. Steal Steal Steal. Heads-up cash game versus 10bb short stacker. Each individual hand is a player and your team of hands is a range. 17. offsuit hands (78 kinds). The in-position player has an informational advantage. Rundowns. So how do you decide what starting hands to play and what not to play. On each betting round, he can choose whether to close the action or invest additional chips into the pot. The best starting hands in poker are AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT, 99, AK, AQ, AJ, KQ, KJ and more holdings like this. The big blind wins this hand, as two pair beats one pair in the poker hand rankings. A player who open-limps regularly likely makes mistakes. Checking with Jack-Nine on a board like 974 would be a pretty bad mistake. Truth be told, many successful players play a tighter style that involves being more selective about playing hands than loose players who play a very wide range. So how do you play Texas hold'em?. The earlier your position, the tighter your opening range should be and as you get further round the table you should be adding hands to these initial early position ranges. The best hands to play in poker preflop will always be big pocket pairs (such as Ace-Ace, King-King and Queen-Queen), followed by big suited connectors such as Ace-King, as well as medium pairs. You might be confused thinking of the total possible starting hands (specific suits) (52 × 51)/2 = 1,326. He gets to see what his opponent does before needing to act. World-class Omaha poker players can play with a wide range of hands profitably in position. You can improve your winnings in poker dramatically by focusing on playing hands like this. In other words, if a computer were playing the game, without any emotion or knowing any information about his opponents, he would play these hands. 065. Any Ace can count as either a high or a low card in forming a straight. If the others don’t realize you haven’t played a hand in a long time, then you can’t benefit from it. When the action folds around to you in the small blind, you only have to beat one player to win the dead money in the pot. 13 × 12 / 2 = 78 suited hands. The Small Blind position is between the Button and the Big Blind and is usually half of the Big Blind. 3-bets have become more common in poker these days, as players look to turn up the aggression on their opponents. Playability, like having backdoor draws and blockers, can be a good reason to continue in certain spots. Normally, the first player to the button's left posts the small blind.