Defending the Blinds

OK, I have been running well for last 3 or 4 months, so I haven't really worried about but...

I suck at defending the blinds. I mean really suck. I have been playing 5max and its starting to have an effect.

I would love suggestions, and some Hand histories. I play a tight game, some would call it nitty, so Defending is just really really hard for me.

I play 200nl FR and SH if that makes a difference.

1. Reraise taggs with garbage every now and then.

2. Make the occasional squeeze play.

3. Increase your reraising range from the blinds, in general. Against a loose raiser my standard range is something like 99+ AJ+, but many other hands occasionally as mentioned above.

4. Don't call raises from the blinds with speculative hands (suited connectors) unless you are getting a pretty good price, and then don't spew with draws and weak hands after the flop.

5. Steal more blinds to make up for the loss of blinds.

6. Own the small blind from the big blind in blind v. blind confrontations.

7. In general, be extremely tight from the blinds when not making a defense play.



BTW this is a topic I am working on myself so I am curious to see others pointers.

Call with speculative hands and play your opponents range. Don't value bet marginal shit on early streets.

I agree with rentons post with one exception.

I dont think you should ever reraise with trash, trash being defined as unsuited, unconnected cards. Instead reraise with suited connectors and low pocket pairs so you have some muscle in case he does call the reraise.

Also, dont become obsessed with defending the blinds, I make the vast majority of my money from the button against people who become preoccupied with me stealing their blinds. Then they get destacked.

Just play tight from the blinds, and as renton said before, loosen up your reraising range to include good hands as well as great hands. But dont go broke defending a BB.

I'm not that great at defending my blinds either but I'm trying to get better at not just laying down. I used to be a fan of re-raising just about every hand I wanted to play against an aggressive button, but lately I've been experimenting with making more calls with speculative hands and either check-calling or donking the flop with a decent range, especially if I think the opponent is prone to make loose calls if I re-raise him preflop.

Just play tight from the blinds, and as renton said before, loosen up your reraising range to include good hands as well as great hands. But dont go broke defending a BB.

This is a big leak if the button is an aggressive blind stealer IMO. You're letting his blind steals make instant profit even if you assume he loses every time he meets resistance (which won't be the case). I mean, you can still make a lot of money if you don't worry about defending your blinds, but nowhere near the maximum.

I dont think playing tight out of the blinds is a leak at all. Against an aggressive blind stealer i reraise often, and bluff/check raise the flop fairly often too (with outs). What I am saying is dont start calling button raises with j7 offsuit or k4 suited out of frustration. I think a bigger leak is donking away large portions of your stack with weak top pairs and wild check raises.

I could probably do a better job at defending my blinds (as could all of us) but i feel that my blind play is strong, and part of it is because i stay disciplined and play tag out the blinds instead of obsessing about a 4 dollar blind.

The button can steal my blind seventy five percent of the time but when i win a pot its going to be a big pot, not just a couple blinds.

That being said i think its important to remember that having the button gives u a huge advantage (duh). Id rather have 82 offsuit on the button then aq in the small blind. Against a good player playing aggressive from the button my goal is to stay in the green rather than completely outplay the guy, cause unless he sucks its going to be very difficult.

I know becuase im usually on the other side of the coin, watching people throw out huge reraises on the flop and potting the turn becuase i put out a standard C-bet and called only their flop raise.

Then again i play pretty tag from all positions, so i guess it comes down to style.