Defending your blinds

I just had a hand online recently. I was SB. MP1 raised HIGH. Near shove. This was mid-pack in a 9-ring micro stakes MTT. About $1,500 starting stacks. Everyone else folded.

I had K3o.

We're pre-flop btw.

I wasn't at this table long. But I got the read he was just trying to steal the blinds with weak cards.

So, I went all-in to back them off.

MP1 calls. We're both all in now.

They had A2o!
Again, I had K3o

Flop comes: 9 3 2
Turn: 4
River: 2

Busts me with TRIP DUECES!

So, my question is, would you have let someone steal your blinds in this situation if you were me? With that hand? IF you felt they were bluffing just to steal your blinds?

You mention that MP made a big raise, can you elaborate more on the amount of the raise?
Normally K3o is not good enough to shove.
If you think they are raising wide you can shove to steal but with a hand that usually flips with their raising range, like a pocket pair.

I think i would have let the blind go in that spot with K3o to be honest.You see,i had been folding AQ sometimes suited for most of the second half of the Hi5 main event which got me to my biggest win.But when on the big blind with AQ suited the player in cut off or one before it maybe...pushed with a slightly bigger stack.I thought hard before convincing myself he was just pushing me off or maybe had a pair in hand but i made the call with a hand i had been folding.
And that was the end of the tournament for me,gone in 36th place for $2324 USD,my best yet but still gut wrenching as always haha,1st was paying around $128,000 ouch,thats poker as they say,win some lose some.I blew a $630 venom ticket the same way,same hand,when it really counts AQ suited is maybe just not worth the gamble.
Other lass important games i would easily play bingo style and my 27 off wins more often than it loses when gambled in the right situation gl 2 u in 2020 and merry xmas.

It is better to lose a small number of chips on the blinds than to give your stack to fate.

Here is another thing I use to do a lot of. I defended my blinds to often and to wide of a range. I truly don't even consider BB vs BB play until way later in tourneys now a days. Let them steal away when blinds are low.

Even if you sense, that someone is out of line and opening to many hands, you should still not be giving action with garbage like K3o. You can widen your range a bit, but if it start to include hands like K3o, you are more out of line than the person opening A2o.

Also when someone use a very large size, you should defend less and not more. They are risking a ton of chips to pick up a very small pot, so its fine to just let them have it. They will get their punishment, when someone wake up with a real hand.

Let them have it
K3 is also weak hand

It can be really annoying when people push you around, and steal your blinds. Even if you know that he raises with two napkins, you have to fold most of the time. In this hand even if you had AA you will lose. So patience, and eventually his stack will be your’s.

all in straight is very risky !!! is a complex of influential factors on the characteristics of each, to interpret the villain's attitude in any given time the situation that was-ie is risky!

:icon_stud

I would have never made a stand with K3.

If he was simply on an aggro bender stealing blinds, then it was to be expected he would retaliate for the all-in (the point being people who play this stupidly, hand after hand, are by definition stupid). A weak ace, maybe at best.

The theory behind defending blinds makes sense, but not to the nth degree. I do not think most coaching/tuition is nuanced enough on the subject. There are a couple of good comments above, particularly when blinds are low, about ' give a small amount of chips away'. I agree.

There is a further bonus which can play out of not defending your BB, of looking weak to some eyes. People will try to steal your blind and make a strong raise against you. When you do have a strong hand and play back against them with a re raise or if strong enough go all-in, you in turn take their silly raise or they can go all in out of frustration at being played back at with weak tea.

Obviously, many would argue for the defense of the big blind, period. But I do not see it as cut and dried. And, if I recall correctly an early review of Phil Ivey's Masterclass noted (I have not watched) that Ivey has one section in the class about not defending the BB all the time.

Nothing wrong with defending the blinds, but you must have at least 50% chance to win and not loose too many chips.
I guess the combination of K3o and starting chips are 2 good reasons to fold.

I’m with you I hate losing blinds. But you need to consider your hand strength and clearly it wasn’t the right decision.

blinds

I will let my blind go in a heartbeat if it means I live to play another day. I often will call a modest raise preflop, but if its going to cause me all in no way. Unless I am packing AA, and I have been beat to many times with AA. lol

It is obvious that K3 is a bad card to protect your blind )). It is clear that you do not need to defend the blind with any card, and not against any player. Against a player calling a raise with any cards, a weak hand in the blind is better to fold. Well card to choose, what just call, and what to do raise.

Even if the villain is raising any two cards, we need to wait for a better spot than K3o from the SB to push on him. This is for two reasons:
1) When we do have an edge, it is slight, and we are crushed by Kx, A3, AK and every pocket pair except deuces, and
2) K3o may be ahead of the bingo player's range, but this says nothing about the BB's range.

If blinds 50 and 100 for example am folding,
If the blinds are 250 and 500 and a third of your stack is in there already am calling probably.
After paying the small blind you will need to double to get back to 1500.
Better to take a roughly 40% shot at getting to 3000 than a 60% shot to get back to 1500.
Your right sometimes aggressive lags will shove QJ/J9s type combinations when blinds are high.
Depends on blind sizes and position in tourney bubble or ITM stack sizes also opponent tendancies important.
Will shove 78s and steal all day long with bad cards if think opponent not calling with better cards.

In this case I would have let the blind go the villain is in MP and I could still wait if I had less than 10BB this would indicate that he has a good hand or at least an acceptable hand I would have folded

Reply

Thanks for all the input guys. I've been grinding a bit since I started this thread, and learned my lesson.

I usually don't play that aggressively. But, given that opponent's play, and my read on them, I figured I'd take a chance.

I now defend my blinds only IF I have a hand worth playing.

For example...

For example, I just played yesterday against someone who shoved almost EVERY HAND pre flop. I just stayed patient.
...then woke up with pocket aces!
Made me a chip leader for a while!

Big raise elaboration

xrhstos said:

You mention that MP made a big raise, can you elaborate more on the amount of the raise?
Normally K3o is not good enough to shove.
If you think they are raising wide you can shove to steal but with a hand that usually flips with their raising range, like a pocket pair.

Click to expand...

I don't remember the exact amount, but it was almost their whole stack. I had to shove to re-raise them. I'd say about $1500 - $1700 in chips. 8-10BB IIRC...