I am so tired of donking off chips in the blinds

There has to be a way to play the blinds besides folding every time. I just played a tourney for two and a half hours, and every time I had the small blind and everyone folded I had a hand to good to fold to a random hand. Every single time I got beat.

I don't go out of my way to defend my big blind. Why can't I avoid a donk move on my small blind?

It may not be working out for now but I'd much rather raise a decent small blind hand HU against the big blind than call an EP raiser with any big blind hand that could be in his wheel house. Just wait (oh, till next time) and it'll start to come out better for you.

Howard Beale

This is just my opinion, but perhaps 'a hand too good to fold to a random hand' isn't a high enough standard when deciding whether to raise here. You are going to be out of position for the rest of the hand. The deeper the stacks, the more this position thing is going to matter.

You might want to go ahead and fold a few of those borderline 'too good to fold' hands when the stacks are deep. And/or you might want to consider adding flat calling to your list of possible actions in this situation. Be sure to then flat call with enough good hands that the big blind cannot just raise you with impunity.

I'd agree with JMike - you have a disadvantage from position in the rest of the hand, so although it costs you less to see the flop, you should be more cautious than normal about playing the hand. I spent a while regularly defending the small blind on the basis that the odds on many hands aren't half what they are on others, so I would see most flops. Once I started looking more at the effect that position has, I realised that this off-set the reduced cost of seeing a flop. Raising from the small blind should require either a very good hand or an opponent in the big blind that you know is the kind of tight player who will often fold in that situation. In many low-stakes games, the Big Blind will defend their blind, and you'll be in a tricky position through the hand.

The advantage of limping in from the small blind when everyone has folded is that you are getting immediate pot odds of 3 to 1 (more if there are antes). The downside - and its a major one - is that you are guaranteed to by out of position throughout the hand. I suggest you continue to limp in this situation but shutdown immediately if your hand does not 'fit' the flop. Also consider raising 4 to 5 times the blinds pre-flop (with the purpose of ending the hand right then and there) if you have medium pairs or higher, or two big cards. Being out of position is a bad thing.

This is exactly what I'm talking about.

Let's say you know the BB is always going to check, after you flat call. You may say to yourself 'I'm getting 3 to 1! There's no hand that is a three-to-one dog against a random hand.' So you (at least) call with every single hand. This would be OK in a cash game if your call puts you all in. But, since you and the BB both have chips left after your call, this strategy is a mistake.