Starting hands, Position & Defense of Blinds

According to some sites that track my play on FT. Not PS as of yet. My biggest hole in my game is I do not defend my blinds often enough or will fold to an normal 3 or 4x raise. Most of the time I am folding junk. I am not the best player out there, but I am no idiot either. Right now I am playing mostly $1 & $2 9 player SNG's and as you all know there are some real winners out there at that level of play. What are some suggetions you have for a player in the blinds positions. When I am in position either the button or in the cutoff +1,2 I am aggressive and will play a larger selection of hands, but I need to fill this hole to take the my game up to the nevel level as I have been told. Any help will be usefull.

yes i have noticed that i am suffering from this problem as well. however i have read that phil hellmuth thinks defending blinds are overrated because you are forced to play cards which could easily get you in trouble and you're better off mucking and making up for paying your blinds by extracting max value out of the hands you do play. would love to hear some other theories and tips on defending blinds

Successful online pro Bond18 recommends the following hands for tournament blind defense (this is only for the big blind):

Against a late position raise: All pairs, AKs-ATs, Kqs-KTs, QJs,QTs,JTs,T9s, AK-AT, KQ-KT, QJ,QT,JT. Reraise the stronger ones of course.

Against an early position raise: All pairs, AKs-AJs, KQs,KJs,QJs, AK,AQ,KQ

jyow said:

yes i have noticed that i am suffering from this problem as well. however i have read that phil hellmuth thinks defending blinds are overrated because you are forced to play cards which could easily get you in trouble and you're better off mucking and making up for paying your blinds by extracting max value out of the hands you do play. would love to hear some other theories and tips on defending blinds

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Sometimes ill throw in a little random raise or call but in general that sounds about right. Cant even tell how many times ive called with shit while defending only to get myself in trouble. But then again ive also heard if youre going to play a hand at all might as well raise it (or reraise). Not sure if thats a good strategy since i havent used it.

For me, it's how often someone is trying to steal (I added that stat to my PT3 HUD).

If I'm holding junk, I will let the BB go until you show me that you're just going to try it every time around.

Last night some guy was up around 60-70%, so even with my 72o I re-raised and got a fold.

I guess the answer as usual is 'it depends'.


(usual disclaimer ...... check my handle before you put any weight on what I say).

For some people they will defend the blind no matter what junk they have. For me I play the blind almost the same way as I do the button. In most cases I will fold a lot more of my BB and SB hands because I will be way out of position after the flop anyway.

In order for me to call a 3x + raise that everone has folded to I have to have better than Q7 to play it.... right?

kmixer said:

In order for me to call a 3x + raise that everone has folded to I have to have better than Q7 to play it.... right?

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Not really. You have to consider that you will be OOP postflop, and that the raiser probably has an above average hand already, except on a steal.

I think trying to defend your blinds is way over rated especially with an extremely weak hand ... I mean do you really want to fight with a 9-2 off or 7-3 etc way bring a toy to a gun fight ?

I can't see much value in taking a stand in the SB with nothing. For me a decent raise into my BB full of junk is a fold, automatic. Why puff up with junk to show what, a fold, post flop. Weak still ='s weak way show it.

Every once in awhile, bam, you might hit the mother load.

I think if it keeps happening by the same player, that is different. There might just have to be war.

Brann6 said:

Successful online pro Bond18 recommends the following hands for tournament blind defense (this is only for the big blind):

Against a late position raise: All pairs, AKs-ATs, Kqs-KTs, QJs,QTs,JTs,T9s, AK-AT, KQ-KT, QJ,QT,JT. Reraise the stronger ones of course.

Against an early position raise: All pairs, AKs-AJs, KQs,KJs,QJs, AK,AQ,KQ

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LOL

that is one sure way to get yourself in trouble. blind defense is all about reading your opponents, you can defend your blinds with any two. if you set a starting hand chart for blind defense, just count cards at the 21 table...

tonydamage said:

LOL

that is one sure way to get yourself in trouble. blind defense is all about reading your opponents, you can defend your blinds with any two. if you set a starting hand chart for blind defense, just count cards at the 21 table...

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I agree that charts aren't the way to go...but it's a good starting point. (I caught a lot of flack a few months ago for telling new players to throw their charts away.)

But as was pointed out to me, when someone asks these kinds of questions they're looking for a baseline to start from.

While I agree that blind defense includes your reads on opponents, it also depends on stack sizes, whether you're SB or BB, and whether there are any limpers left to act and what their stack sizes and tendencies are.