I play lot of poker and I have studied a lot of strategies that are mostly offense related.
However, I would like to know if there are defensive strategies?Such as for instance to reduce the risk of emptying chip stacks and catching draws without having to call big bets.
Generally defensive strategies will involved taking a passive action over an aggressive action. Checking when you could bet, calling when you could raise, and generally protecting your stack rather than trying to maximize the size of the pot.
This was popularized in tournaments a long time ago and dubbed 'pot control' because in tournaments survival and stack protection were often more important than going for maximum value (if it meant taking a highly volatile line).
A lot of it comes from planning and deciding how many streets you want to play for. This mini series will help with clarifying that concept.
Another thing that works is using smaller bet sizes (1/3, 1/4 even 1/5 of the pot) this will lead to smaller pot growth while still allowing you to keep the betting lead.
Between that and mixing in the occasional check with a strong hand so that you can comfortable call down (and not always be weak when you check) you'll be doing just fine when it comes to the defensively oriented strategies in poker :driver: