Part: Part Nine - Inflection Points: M, Q & the Zones

The Yellow zone

Pre-flop
Blinds 400 / 800 (100 ante)Pot 3,900 (4.9 BB)Your M = 12 • Yellow zoneBTN7♠6♠● 25,200 (31.5 BB)YOUto actMP● 25,200 (31.5 BB)Openerraises 1,800 (2.2 BB)SB● 25,200 (31.5 BB)posts 400 (0.5 BB)BB● 25,200 (31.5 BB)posts 800 (1 BB)D

Yellow zone (M 12). A player opens to 1,800 from middle position and it folds to you on the button with 7♠6♠.

Yellow zone, MP opens, you hold 7♠6♠ on the button. Best?

WhySuited connectors earn their keep from the rare huge pot you win when you flop big. At M 12 that huge pot doesn't exist - the stacks are too shallow to pay you off - so calling just leaks chips from a stack that can't afford the leak.
What happensYou fold and keep your chips for a spot where you can get them in with fold equity instead of hoping to flop a miracle.
As your M slides into the teens, the little suited hands quietly lose their reason to exist. The big pot that justified them isn't there to be won anymore, so fold them and conserve for hands you can commit with.

Yellow zone (M 10-20): speculative hands live on implied odds, and shallower stacks no longer offer them - so stop paying to see flops with them.