Defending your Blinds.

[North Angel]

It was pointed out to me during the crypto tourney that I never defend my blinds (ty Keith).

I can't see the point in putting more chips in when I have rubbish cards hoping to hit something with J 2 os, am I wrong ?

Surely this could also work in my favour, cos if I do get a hand in my blinds I can go over the top of the raiser.

Thoughts please, cos I really would love to know how far you go to defend your blinds.

Angie.

[Bongo]

Surely this could also work in my favour, cos if I do get a hand in my blinds I can go over the top of the raiser.

But if they know you don't normally defend your blinds they know you must have a hand and can get away cheap.

[North Angel]

Maybe I need to bid for those poker lessons from Harry D 

[Royal Flush]

Angie, the point in defending your blinds is not just calling and hoping to outflop, this is something you can do with a half decent hand.

When someone opens a pot with a raise from the cutoff/button then you can often re-raise from the BB with shite and they are either on the blag and fold, or have a half decent hand, like AQ and decide to fold. Even when you are called you are going to be live as you have junk, the only problem being when they have a big pair.

[sig75]

A strategy I have found to be proftiable, is to reraise the raiser heavyily (often All-in), if these conditions apply:

- He/she 3-bets from the button or cut-off (Can be any 2 cards)
- He/she has no particularly tight image. (Means; Don't do this against Tikay)
- He/she has more than 15 BB (Big Blind) stack after the raise.
- You cover his/hers stack so you are left with at least a 10 BB stack if you lose.

By using this strategy, you will earn 4,5 times the big blind every time you do this from SB or BB. This is therefore more profitable than stealing the blinds once per round, which only gives you 1,5 BB.

Feel free to try this "Sig-Strategy" (c) and give me a word if you find it successful!

[sig75]

I forgot a few things;

Do this re-raise move with ANY two cards. Actually, a hand like 85o is better to do this with then A9/KJ etc, since you then will probably be dominated IF he/she calls. With two small cards against AK/AQ you will have more or less 40% chance of winning, but with AK against A9 you are in trouble... (75-80% underdog...) I promise you - they will fold 9 of 10 times.

[The Wall]

Nice advice there sig  I will try out your tactics tonight 

[North Angel]

Thank you very much Guys, I will give this a go and tell you how it went.

[thediceman]

It should be mentioned the importance of defending the blinds should bare some relation to the size of the blinds, your chip stack and the stage in any a tourny. For example is it really that important in the early stages. I'm more than happy to lose my blinds at the lower levels and create a tight table image so I can play a more loose and aggressive game at the higher blind levels when it is more important to defend your blinds because they often represent a larger % of overall stack at this stage.