here's the article i decided not to enter in the ftr essay competition. Already getting the hoodie i want anyway

A light-hearted guide to abandoning 1/4BB every orbit.
Yep, it's paying the small blind. Maybe playing it too, most likely not very well.

First up, check your winrate from the small blind – or rather, you lose-rate. Cos about nobody wins from the samml blind in full ring play. Small blind play is typically focused on winning enough small pots to avoid the pay-to-play destroying your overall win-rate.

If you auto-folded every small blind hand in 9-handed play then your winrate would be -1/4BB every time = -25ptBB/100. If you are losing more than this over a reasonable sample then you'd be better to simply auto-fold all hands from the small blind. You could still loosen up a little, folding everything except AK/QQ+. These you would obviously always be raising.

The aim of small blind play is to move away from -25BB/100 and towards breakeven. To do this we have to address the standard leaks, considering the obvious dos and don'ts of the small blind.

1)Completing in limped pots
“It only costs 1/2bb to call, of course I'm completing with any two cards”
Too many people think like this. It costs them more money than they imagine. 93 is not a good hand, suited or not. Auto-fold. What type of boards are you happy to play vs resistance? And playing vs resistance is the only way to win big pots. What sort of ranges are people open limping or limping behind? Pairs, suited connectors, Axs, broadways comprise a lot of these ranges. Your T3suited is rarely going to flop hard, hitting top pair is no good, reverse implied odds are huge, etc.
However tempting it it to auto-complete, just don't. Complete with hands that have good potential. Always consider whether raising is a better option.

2)Calling vs steals
This topic has been discussed over and over. So why do people insist in calling 55 from the small blind vs a steal? You flop a set about 1/9 times. The rest of the time you are going to struggle to win the pot. When you do hit a set you're up against a weak/wide range and out of position. You're going to struggle to win a pot big enough to justify your pre-flop call. And if you don't flop a set then your only opportunity to recover your money is to splash even more money trying to win a pot with a weak holding from out of position.
Calling vs a steal leaves you playing out of position vs an incredibly poorly defined range. The weaker your post flop play, the less you should be calling from out of position.

3)Stealing any two cards.
This is good vs an 8-5-0.5 type of player. Unfortunately, your seat selection is rarely this good.
Even the blindest of droolers may become suspicious when the last player left to act tries to take 'his' money = big blind. And if he is the type of player who is trying to incorporate 3-betting to his game then life gets even more complicated. Even if he's not 3-betting, he is going to start calling wide. Wide calling ranges are great when your range is strong, and not so great when you have any two cards. Here, again, it results in playing a weak range out of position.
Steal more vs auto-folders
Steal less once players start to adapt. Of course, if they are 100% fold to c-bet types who only adapt pre-flop then continue to steal, with a grain of awareness thrown in.

4)Calling vs an EP raiser.
The more multiway the pot, the more calling vs an EP open can become profitable. But note that an aware pre-flop aggressor is not going to be stacking off with overpairs 5-way very often! Whenever a spot exists where yo could call multiway you are also in a good squeeze spot. Anyone who has 3-bet AA from the sb into a multiway pot will already know how effective this play is at winning the pot there and then = disappointing in some ways. So maybe it's good to occasionally play other hands the same – using this AA fold equity.
If you are about to call from the SB you should first ask a simple question. Would I call this from the button? If the answer is no, then fold. There is only a tiny difference in the cost of calling and the advantage of the relative cheapness is easily outweighed by having to play the whole hand out-of-position.

5)3-betting/squeezing wide
Everyone knows that 3-betting any two cards vs a button steal vs a 30% steal/80% fold to 3-bet is profitable. Yet people are still reluctant to do this with hands other than monsters and hands dominated by a button calling range. This last comment reflects that 3-betting 89s is usually better than 3-betting A7o.
3-betting profitably with a wide range relies on villains perceiving your range as strong and your ability to represent/give up as appropriate. These are good skills to learn, but you must learn when to give up! Against a serial 4-better, don't 3-bet wide, it's that easy. Against a caller of 3-bets, only 3-bet when you know how to exploit the caller post flop

6)Target stats from the small blind
Don't. It's that simple. 9-5-3 can be as effective as 18-11-4 as..... Depends on your image, your style, the games you're in, and many other factors.

Some hero plays almost breakeven from the small blind with 19-15-5? So what. You don't try to mimic his 21-17-6 overall game (*you're a 13-11-3 nit, right?), so why should his small blind game work for you? Hell, if you're anything like me then you've only just realised that the term smart-LAG involves post-flop play. You're a TAG-nit and it works? Use that to your advantage.
The only stat you should be focusing on is winrate. How you get there is your business.

So, here are my suggestions to improve your pre-flop small blind play in Full Ring unlimited holdem.

1)Complete less often
2)Call vs steals less
3)Steal with a purpose, not at random
4)Call less vs EP raises
5)Squeeze/3-bet a little more often
6)Do not aim for some holy grail VPIP/PFR/etc stats.