Why must the blinds be defended?

Thinker_145

Thinker_145

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I often hear that the good players will defend their blinds especially BB and won't just let it go so easily. I for one find the "defending" word in all this to be ridiculous.

When I post the BB its not my money anymore its the pot money. How is me folding any different from anyone else folding? Why shouldn't the MP "defend" his hand since there is dead money in the pot?

The only difference is that if someone opens the hand with a 2x raise then for me it's much cheaper to play the hand than the rest of the table. But that doesn't change the fact that I am out of position and don't need to get myself in situations I don't have to.

The only time where the BB has the upper hand is when everyone folds around to the SB, now you have position and should not be letting go so easily.

One should defend position in poker that makes alot more sense to me. You want to get involved in more pots IP and want to avoid marginal situations OOP.
 
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joe777

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The main thing about defending your blinds, is you don't want to be the one that shows up on someones 'table map' as the soft spot.It also depends whether you are up against a tight player or a loose one.
 
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kworm2013

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There are still many doubts in it.When I am the BB to defend,I am afraid others have strong cards.And when the BB defend me, I am afraid the BB have very good cards.So we often make mistake whether we defend or not.
 
FanatsLV

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If you start with about 100BB cash game and you let go every second big blind go away than you slowly lose your bankroll yust calculate and will draw conclusions
 
rytciaq

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If you defend your BB, it makes you see flop pretty cheap. For example, you are BB and you are facing a raise of 250. BB was 150. You only need to put 100 in the pot "volunteerily" to see the flop. For me, suited connectors and low pairs are pretty good hands to defend the big blind with.
 
Arjonius

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When you choose to defend, you're basically assuming that due to the specific situation, you think it's better EV-wise than folding. Factors that can influence this include hand strength, which opponents are in the hand, your skill relative to them, etc. Another consideration is how much you feel you can gain by improving your blind defense vs working on other aspects of your game. IMO, since quite a few players would lose less by simply defending less, it's not a high priority to learn to defend better, especially at the micros.
 
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tohos

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Basically what Arjonus said.

I think OP raises a good point in asking why the MP shouldn't ''defend'' the dead money.
The game of poker itself is based upon the existence of this dead money. I recall a line from a book that if there were no mandatory blinds, the correct play in hold'em would be to fold every hand except AA. If you fold you lose nothing and there is nothing for you to win by playing a weak hand, playing even KK is a mistake if everyone plays optimally ie doesn't play any hand that isn't AA.

To emphasize abit on what Arjonus said, it is true that a lot of players would lose less by simply defending less. This is in line with TAG or even NIT playstyle being recommended for new players because your hands are strong and you don't face too many tough decisions. Defending the blinds more puts you in a lot of marginal spots and for inexperienced players, playing these marginal spots, especially out of position will just lose more money in the long run than just giving up the blind.

BUT that said, as the games get tougher, if you keep giving up a lot of blinds, lets say you only defend 20%, you are -80bb/100 from the big blind not considering the times you do defend. It will also be extremely easy to play against your blinds because of your tight range and you being oop, so you will likely not be winning much when you do defend, this will badly hurt your winrate in tougher games.

That said, most players at microstakes are not capable of taking advantage of this. I do think it is good to learn blind vs button situations even at micros, maybe especially at micros, because most players have no idea how to play these spots and you can increase your winrate by alot knowing how to exploit them properly. BUT, if you can't play the more standard TAG spots well enough yet, imo it will be too much to try to learn how to defend blinds in the much much more tougher marginal spots where variance will also be higher(due to nature of being marginal).
 
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SwiftHax

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Re-steals and blind defends are a big part of the game, especially in tourneys where every single blind counts. You don't have to be a big favourite to make your defends profitable because there's dead money in the pot, so you have better pot odds.
 
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hffjd2000

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Theres nothing wrong about the phrase defending the blinds.

You can add it on your strategy repertoire.

Many factors again in considering defending your blinds-your image, his image, position, pot odds, card odds etc.

Example situation is when you notice someone always raises if you are the blinds.
 
LD1977

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Actually if you take enough of other people's blinds you don't need to defend yours wide. Just sayin'
 
suby_rafael

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You don't have to defend always out of necessity but a large number of hands can be and is a good idea to defend because you get to see three community cards at a discount. Also if you keep folding you will keep bleeding away chips and it will also dent your image on the table. So it is better to defend and take a chance to take the pot down if you get a suitable flop. Also if you think the villian has whiffed the community cards you could bluff and steal the pot.
 
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thatgreekdude

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we defend to avoid being run over, BTN + CO will be forced to tighten up there stealing range if they see we are defending wide.
 
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LD1977

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Um, nope they won't. You are mixing up defending and 3betting. They are gonna be happy if they see blinds that defend wide while OOP.
 
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thatgreekdude

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Um, nope they won't. You are mixing up defending and 3betting. They are gonna be happy if they see blinds that defend wide while OOP.

i see, so a light 3bet would be classed as a re-steal as opposed to a 'defend'
 
duggs

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Um, nope they won't. You are mixing up defending and 3betting. They are gonna be happy if they see blinds that defend wide while OOP.

um yup yup they will
 
Arjonius

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It's not simply a matter of whether defending more often is good or bad. It depends. It's not like you can plug in defending more and it will automatically improve your game without requiring you to make any other changes.
 
duggs

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you don't even need to win money defending the blinds to make it better than folding, you just need to lose less than 1bb per hand
 
akaRobbo

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Never call from the blinds, unless you hold:

1. Suited connectors
2. Mid-low pocket pairs

Vs steals 3-bet or fold everything else.

I 3bet any ace, any broadways, and 99+

People sure do tighten up their CO/BTN range.
 
LD1977

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... while calling usually 3bb while OOP.

Edit: Simultaneous posting with akaRobbo. Yeah 3betting is a better idea.
 
duggs

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... while calling usually 3bb while OOP.

Edit: Simultaneous posting with akaRobbo. Yeah 3betting is a better idea.

as opposed to 3betting while OOP. 3betting doesn't automatically make positions irrelevant. its super easy to play against someone who only 3bets or folds from the blinds. no matter how much you 3bet that strategy is going to get killed.
 
LD1977

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Yeah but I am saying that first consideration is to 3bet (depending on the stealers range and fold to resteal), only then to call.

Calling too much is probably the worst idea against a competent player:
- who has a HUD
- can read it correctly
- therefore can estimate YOUR calling range in the blinds
- has position
- has initiative

Against correct 3betting he has a much tougher time IMHO. But to each his own.
 
duggs

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what is too much? you can say that folding too much is just as big a leak
 
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