Explanation of Small blind
The small blind payment is roughly half the big blind payment (but not always) and is paid in any poker variant with a dealer button. (Note that stud variants don’t use a dealer button and hence don’t have small blinds). In some casinos the small blind might be slightly more or slightly less than half of a big-blind and in rare cases the small blind might be the same size as the big-blind (giving the small blind the option to check preflop if the action is unopened).
Being forced to invest a small blind without first seeing our hole-cards is a big disadvantage in poker. It’s virtually impossible to generate a positive winrate out of the small blind or big blind positions at the table.
However, it’s the mandatory blind payments that drive the action. Players are incentivized to play non-premium holdings in an attempt to win the blinds. Without mandatory blind payments, poker would not work well as a competitive game (everyone would wait for the nuts preflop).
Example of Small Blind being used in a sentence -> The small blind is often considered the worst position at a poker table.
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