The Big Blind Trap

I seem to be slowly turning my bad luck around. I managed to win a few online tournaments lately, and I seem to be playing better for the most part. The one thing that seems to be standing between me and fat rolls of cash is the big blind trap. It will be later on in a tournament, and I'll be in the lower half of the chip leaders, trying to grind out a place in the money, or hoping for a monster hand to double up on, when I end up on the big blind. Its not that I mind having to put in chips for what inevitably ends up beeing garbage cards that irritates me, its that I end up playing average cards and getting sucked into a bad play when they hit on the flop.

For example, the last tournament I was in, there were five of us left, and I was the shortest stack, but I still had enough chips to survive a few more rounds of blinds. The guy to my left pretty much raised every hand, and no one had been able to make him pay for it since he was the chip leader by far. The only way I had been able to defend my blinds from him so far was to go all in pre-flop, which would get him to fold. I was just waiting for the time when he actually had cards and busted me. Every once in while he would fold before making his pre-flop raise, and this time, I was in the big blind with [K 4] so I appreciated when he did. Second position called, and the other two players folded, so I got to see a flop for free. The flop was [K 7 8]. I hit top pair so I bet, and the other guy raises. I figure I'm probably out kicked here, but that bet I made leaves me with not much left to work with if I fold, so I risk it and go all in. Maybe he thinks I missed the flop and is trying to bully me.

Wrong. He has pocket rockets, and I don't hit another king of four, so I am done. The worst part about this, is that I probably wouldn't have played the hand had I not been in the big blind, and gotten to see the flop for free. I think one of the worst things to happen is to be in the big blind and hit a medium hand on the flop, because more times than not you end up paying for it. Sometimes I think I should just fold those hands right off the bat. I don't know. I think if I had checked on the flop there, he would have continued to slow play me, there's no way I could have passed up a bet on the turn in that situation, so I was screwed either way.