Poker - saying adios to blind panic

The fear of being blinded out is tournament poker's Grim Reaper. Keep that chip stack moving, or the next big blind asked of you will feel like your heart being ripped out.

That's the theory and I've gone all-in under the gun with some crazy hands in my time, just trying to pay it homage.

Occasionally, of course, it's not just a theory: it's the truth. If the next round of blinds will leave you with a stack as intimidating as Woody Allen then you're better getting it all in now while you're still in any kind of shape to make others stop and think before calling.

Of late, however, I'm realising that those same blinds, substantial though they might be, can be a friend rather than an enemy. At least they get you in the game; involuntarily, maybe, but your chips are out there and there comes a point where I've noticed that even the big stacks are loth to just flat-call a blind that no longer amounts to loose change.

Fold-fold-fold-fold, it can go and even if someone minimum-raises, chances are you're getting the odds to call him and see a flop. You may still be doomed but better to die mathematically than by going all-in with 92o through blindophobia.

As for being small blind, if everyone else folds or flat calls, you're likely to be getting 3-to-1 or better just to match the guy on your left and stay in for the flop.

And just three simple community cards, you may have noticed, can change the whole course of your evening.

Bottom line: I don't see those mandatory wagers as boulders poised to crush me any more. Sometimes, they can be the very stepping stones back to survival that I'd long ago given up on.