Defend your BB or not?

Henry Minute

Henry Minute

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Personally if it's my BB and I have shrapnel, I fold if there has been any raise. I only start to defend if I'm holding hands that I would at least call with in EP.

I do see a lot of players who will defend their BB, it seems to be a matter of principal with them, even against steep raises. In most cases they either fold pretty quickly post-flop or, if it comes to a showdown, they show rubbish.

I find this hard to understand as it makes no sense financially or table image wise.

What do you think, always defend or only with cards?
 
DrazaFFT

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well of course that the answer would depend on many factors but in general every now or then you should try to re steal your blind back because some people have habit of raise in position no madder what, this is where it is good to have hud, if you dont have hud like i dont try to memorize some players action and take a note, you dont need much, you mostly have to pay attention on button and CO so it is not much work if you are long enough at the table, and if someone does that all the time it is not bad idea to reraise from BB with some suited connectors or something, well with any hand that you would raise if you were on late position, but be careful you'll be out of position if you get called and depends on flop you should rethink what kind a hand you want to represent because you are first to act...

I personally don't mind to fold BB specially SB to a raise, what i do is to test SB if he raise me when im in BB but i wont spend much more money to defend 1BB just because someone wants to steal it but of course every now or then i fire from BB and when i do i represent a lot of strength after the flop too but it is not good idea to do that to often because when someone pick what you doing you'll bleeding cash...

here are some stats that i found on badbeat about stealing and blind defense
SB RERAISE STEAL 5 - 10%
BB RERAISE STEAL 6 - 11%
SB FOLD TO STEAL 75 - 87%
BB FOLD TO STEAL 74 - 83%
if you follow these stats you see that blind defense is not something that you should do to often, basically you should fold about 8 or 9 out of 10 raised hands when you are on blinds, so the final answer is NO, folding BB or SB is not loosing money it is almost like saving money...
 
LuckyBundy13

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I'll defend my BB over 50% of the time if it's blind vs. blind. One of the main reasons is that you'll always have position over the small blind.

As for multi way pots, I'd have to be getting some pretty great odds to be defending in relation to the strength of my hand. (idk if that makes sense)

Then there's the overly aggressive person that will always open pre...PUNISH this guy.

Overall, you don't want to be the guy that ALWAYS folds his BB. Players paying attention will pounce on you any chance given.
 
K

kmichaels

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I only defend my big blind when there´s enough chips already in the pot and only with some hands, like any pair, ace high, K10, QJ, hands like that. If i have a huge stack i basically can defend my blind with any hand. To defend them i usually go all in when i have a short stack or 3bet when i have a big stack.
 
Beanfacekilla

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Are we talking about cash? Tournaments?

"Always" and "never" rarely apply to poker. It just depends.
 
IntenseHeat

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I don't mind picking up the blinds here and there, especially as the blinds increase to the point where you're bordering on the red zone. But for the most part, I'm not so much concerned with stealing or defending blinds. At the same time, I'm don't like to feel like I'm being taken advantage of. I tend to be suspicious of late position raisers, especially when they over raise.

Call me skeptical, but I've read the books and seen the videos. I know a lot of players feel obligated to raise any unopened pot from late position to try to pick up the blinds. While I'm not going to defend my BB with ATC, I'm likely to call LP raises with a wider range of hands than I normally would. I'm certainly not going to shove all in with garbage just to try to defend my blind. But I'm definitely keeping my eyes open for anyone habitually trying to steal my blinds and looking for an opportunity to punish them.
 
TeUnit

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i see a lot of players go out of their way to try to lose equity by attacking the large stacks blind with a player on the bubble about to get blinded out- which does 2 things it creates a unnecessary meta game in the future, and it costs them equity in the current game
 
MTCashman

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Almost always defend my blind, of course it depends on the size of the raise but I am stubborn like that
 
DrazaFFT

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Calling a wider range from bb could be a good thing to add variety to your play but while doing that you have to be aware that you could be put in a position to make some tough decisions post flop so when doing so it is good for you to have some info on your opponents, for example, is he a one of those people who would put all of his money on tptk, also more important, is he a guy who can let go tptk, is he a guy who will pay draws witrout good pot odds, etc... that way you can adjust your postflop play with that wider range of hands.

Im not really a fan of an idea of shove to steal from raiser, 3 times of his raise will have a same effect and will give you some space and infos on his hand so you can still get out of there of you missed your hand, believe i have been a guy who shove to steal and it didnt work to good for me...
 
NeverEnough

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I rarely defend my blinds unless the raise is small or I have a good hand. That does not apply if I know the player raising is trying to steal. I will defend or re-raise in that case.
 
S

superstar9123

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The question is a little open ended because the action could change depending on cash or tournament games. Also it depends whose shooting the raise because a raise from MP is different than a raise from SB. It really just depends.
 
sickpuppy

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I defend big raise will get a fold but im tryin to stop the pounce on players. but there are times in the trny late when say your not itm when with the smallest of rasies i will fold.
 
B

Blue_Fossil

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There is nothing special about your BB. The worst thing you can do is to let your ego get in the way just because you are the BB.
 
B

Bowman

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Different every hand every table. For me anyways. Also, depends on my mood. Has the person who is trying to steal my blind been killing me last few tries? Or is that person tight, or aggressive or just looking to piss someone off to go onto tilt?

Try not to keep one thought longer than needed, as I expect everyone's play to change every hand or so.

It helps when you "know" a player. Funny, I am at a table now and the BB was betting me big on the turn. He had a paired K with a 7 and two 8's on the board. I called, as I am almost out of chips. Well, hit an Ace and won. Now he is going agro. Hand later, I folded K7... what do ya know.

He is now, or she, betting like crazy. To start a fire like this will help.
 
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jcla6985

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act like you didn't put any blinds in, and just look at your cards and position.
 
babydrago9

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You honestly would consider defending your bb with any 2 cards? Thats ludicrous IMO, you should play it how you'd play it in a usual position but call just a little lighter, depending quite a lot on the pos. of the raiser. E.g im folding k9 to a UTG raiser but am calling to a button/sb raiser, as most of the times they're trying to steal your cards and you often have the best hand/2 live cards
 
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Magneto

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I usually lose more chips when I defend the BB, but every now and then because you have to defend
 
P

pokerclann1

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well of course that the answer would depend on many factors but in general every now or then you should try to re steal your blind back because some people have habit of raise in position no madder what, this is where it is good to have hud, if you dont have hud like i dont try to memorize some players action and take a note, you dont need much, you mostly have to pay attention on button and CO so it is not much work if you are long enough at the table, and if someone does that all the time it is not bad idea to reraise from BB with some suited connectors or something, well with any hand that you would raise if you were on late position, but be careful you'll be out of position if you get called and depends on flop you should rethink what kind a hand you want to represent because you are first to act...

I personally don't mind to fold BB specially SB to a raise, what i do is to test SB if he raise me when im in BB but i wont spend much more money to defend 1BB just because someone wants to steal it but of course every now or then i fire from BB and when i do i represent a lot of strength after the flop too but it is not good idea to do that to often because when someone pick what you doing you'll bleeding cash...

here are some stats that i found on badbeat about stealing and blind defense
SB RERAISE STEAL 5 - 10%
BB RERAISE STEAL 6 - 11%
SB FOLD TO STEAL 75 - 87%
BB FOLD TO STEAL 74 - 83%
if you follow these stats you see that blind defense is not something that you should do to often, basically you should fold about 8 or 9 out of 10 raised hands when you are on blinds, so the final answer is NO, folding BB or SB is not loosing money it is almost like saving money...
A+ Advice:congrats:
 
Arjonius

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Like many decisions in poker, defending your BB can be highly situational depending on various factors that can have different weights. For instance, when stacks are very deep, you can defend with a substantially wider range because the implied odds are far greater than when the stacks are shallower. Another example is that you can defend more when you have a skill advantage over the other player; the bigger the advantage, the wider you can defend.
 
blueskies

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Fold most of them. Stop calling with any suited hand or connected hand. If you suspect late position villains are just stealing, 3bet instead of calling. Sometimes it's fine to flat with hands. E.g. if you have 33 on BB, and CO raises, BTN calls, and SB calls. Or a hand like 67 suited in a multiplayer pot.
 
A

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To me its highly situational. Depending on where the raise comes from and the opponent, my options can range from flatting or 3b. Sometimes you might want to re-steal if you think the original raiser is doing it with a wide range, however you must be wary of a potential call or 4b back.
 
xtrigemino

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In middle and late stage....for sure... early stages just fold
 
Jackdaclown

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I have never known the answer to this..I have always just defended when I was against loose players and let it go when the raise was too big, but usually would only defend with high cards and higher pairs. But I have also just raised in the big blind when there are limpers. But this is dangerous because some players will get monsters and limp to get a raiser just to pull the trigger. All in all, defending the BB is totally situational or a raise no matter what to some. I think mixing it up would be best.
 
steveiam

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As a lot of people have said it just depends on the situation. I will defend some of the time and fold most of the time.
 
ccocco

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everything will depend on the timing of the tournament, because at the beginning of a tournament the blinds are not large enough to defend and lose a lot of chips or even tournament goodbye, and when you're near or at the bubble is important to defend with hands meidas strong. xq to steal is beneficial because you're getting a lot of chips. well at least I manage myself. regards
 
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