[ballen]

My friends and I play hold em where you buy in for 10-20 dollars and recieve about 30-50 dollars worth of chips. We play small blinds at $1 and big at 2. Whenever I am at the small blind and I am fairly confident the big blind will check (and there were no previous raises) I will usually pay the small blind and see the flop. I was wondering if this is a poor strategy (usually im a conservative player) and if it is when would you advise folding small blinds at such a low rate?

[pritz]

Depends on other factors. If everyone folded to you it might be wise to raise the BB from your position because if he has a weak hand he may let it go. If he calls then you have to play it from there. If he doe not re-raise you it might be wise to bet the flop even if you didn't make anything to maybe pick the pot up in case he was just trying to protect his blind. Just an idea.

[ThomasR]

It can be a bad tactic. I wouldn't do it with nothing in hand, but even a marginal hand I would often pay to see the flop. Mid pocket pairs, high suited cards or face cards will usually fall under that category. I won't call with nothing to speak of in hand though, it's a waste of chips.