IntenseHeat
Legend
Bronze Level
Generally speaking, we defend our blinds to keep late position players from taking advantage of us and stealing our blinds. Defending your big blind is pretty much based on the assumption that the player raising from the button, cutoff, or hijack seats isn't necessarily raising based on the strength of their hand, but is instead raising on the chance that none of the players left to act behind them will have a hand strong enough to call a raise with. Remember the gap principle, which states that we need a stronger hand to call a raise than we do to raise.
There are some players, often referred to as defenders, who will almost always battle for their blinds. In fact they will often times not just call to defend their blinds, but will frequently re-raise players raising their blinds from late position. This is a statement letting them know that player's blinds won't be so easy to steal.
While I don't defend my blinds religiously, I tend to be skeptical of players raising my blinds from late position. Some defenders tend to be willing to play any two cards against any one player in defense of their blinds. I am not one of those players, but I will definitely widen calling range if I get the sense that my blinds are being picked on.
There are some players, often referred to as defenders, who will almost always battle for their blinds. In fact they will often times not just call to defend their blinds, but will frequently re-raise players raising their blinds from late position. This is a statement letting them know that player's blinds won't be so easy to steal.
While I don't defend my blinds religiously, I tend to be skeptical of players raising my blinds from late position. Some defenders tend to be willing to play any two cards against any one player in defense of their blinds. I am not one of those players, but I will definitely widen calling range if I get the sense that my blinds are being picked on.