Posted a Big Blind in Texas Hold Em Poker? May as Well Stay!
In Texas Hold Em poker games blinds are posted by the two players immediately to the left of the person with the nominal dealer button. This is to initially "seed the pot" and stimulate betting action in the same way that an ante does in Seven Card Stud poker, otherwise you may find everybody around the table folds their hands and the hand will turn into a pretty much non-event. The player to the immediate left of the dealer will post the small blind, whilst the person to their left will then post the big blind which is double the amount of the small blind. When playing real money online poker the size of these blinds can be determined by the table stakes in the lobby area of the Texas Hold Em game options, and will say something like "$10-$20" which means that the small blind is $5 and the big blind is $10. It also means that on the turn and river betting rounds the minimum bet amount will double to $20.
Seeing the Flop after Posting the Big Blind
So for the person who has posted the big blind in a game of Texas Hold Em poker, it really is a no brainer for them to carry on and see the flop even if they happen to have the worst possible starting pair imaginable as they have already put into the pot the bet amount for which everybody else will have to match. Who knows, that player may get lucky and flop a straight or even a three or four of a kind which in a lot of cases will turn out to be a winning hand.
Of course, the exception to this is when a player raises in this opening round of betting, as the person who posted the big blind will then have to put in more money to stay in the round. This may leave them with a real dilemma as they have already put something into the pot in the form of the big blind which they would have no chance of getting back were they to fold now, but similarly they may be throwing good money after bad if they were to call the raise and carry on with a weak starting hand that never receives any assistance from the cards produced on the flop. This choice is up to the player based on their assessment of their starting hands and other factors such as the number of players left in the game (fewer players means fewer chances of a person flopping a strong hand), and of course whether they believe the person who has raised does actually have a good hand or if they are merely bluffing. Such questions and decisions are what makes the game of poker so interesting and exciting, and why so many come back for more time after time!