Playing Defense

I think one of the important aspect of NLHE that isn't discussed too often is playing defense. Once you learn the basics of the game (i.e. tight play is winning play, bet your good hands strong), I'd say defense is the main way you improve your profitability (this is also strongly inertwined with reading hands).

What do I mean by playing defense? It means you try to keep your losses to a minimum, so you bet to limit pot odds when you have a hand and muck as soon as you can when you don't or your instincts tell you you're beat. It means whenever you don't have the nuts, you realize that it's possible you're beat. If you're at a full table, you don't reraise PF with AK or QQ-TT. If you have top pair and there's a lot of action from two or more players, you fold. If you have JAs, limp and then call a PF raise, and hit top pair on the flop, you gotta be aware of kicker trouble (hitting the A) or an overpair (hitting the J), and you probably shouldn't bet, certainly shouldn't raise, and should be very wary of calling a big bet unless you have a read. If you can't get away from that hand in a raised pot when you hit TP, time after time you're going to be shown AK, AQ, and QQ-AA and lose a lot or all of your stack.

On the other hand, if you have QQ and raise pf and get called by one very tight player caller who know never makes big bluffs, and the flop comes 3 rags and you bet the pot and then the rock comes over the top big, you put him on AA, KK, or a set and muck. If you have QQ or JJ preflop and there's a raise, reraise, and then an all-in in front of you, you automatically ditch it. Even if you have KK in that situation you might want to muck because of the strong likelihood someone has AA.

Other situations where defense is important: When you have any top-pair without a strong kicker (especially in a raised pot), trips with a poor kicker in an unraised pot, a straight with a flush draw out, a flush with the board paired, a 7-high flush, etc. In the first two cases, frequently the only times you'll get called is if someone has you beat or puts you on a bluff, so you are often better off just check/calling it down trying to snap off a bluff or thin value bet if you are out of position. I will sometimes even give a free card in position as well to minimize my losses if I'm beat and give someone the chance to make a second best hand, though I'll usually bet to protect my hand in LP if there's any possible draw. In the latter two cases, when you have a very good hand but not the nuts, you have to be wary of calling big bets, and if you bet on the river in a small pot and are raised when you have such a hand, you just call.

Great post - these are exactly the situations that I'm working on, so I can lay it down when I feel I'm beat.

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Originally Posted by Ripptyde

seems like all the players I know who have had enourmous success...online and in the Casino....are pre flop specialists when they have their opponent outmanned chip wise.

The best defense is chip management and minimizing risk to your chip 'livelyhood' so to speak.

For tourneys this is probably true, but in NL ring games where you can rebuy, I think correct reads, good laydowns, betting to limit pot odds, and just generally playing tighter than your average opponent preflop and outplaying them postflop are how you achieve success. For instance, in a $50 NL Tourney, if I have a 2x chip advantage over my closest opponent and double him up, I'll still be in the chip lead and in good position to win the tourney. On the other hand, in a $50 buy-in NL ring game, if I have worked up my stack to $200 and double someone with a $100 stack, I've just lost 2 buy-ins that I could've added to my bankroll by just leaving the table.

Also, the blinds don't increase in ring games, so preflop action is much less important. All you gotta do in a ring game is raise 4-6x bb on your good hands (AA-TT, AK, and AQ basically) and call raises/limp in with implied odds hands (pocket pairs from any position looking for sets, suited connectors and Axs in good position). The only hands where it is strongly +EV to re-raise or call all-ins with without a read are AA and KK (maybe QQ-TT and AK if your against a maniac or someone pretty well shortstacked). With the exception of an occasional semibluff/steal raise based on position, stack, and table image, I'd say winning NL ring game preflop play is pretty standard. If you're playing 6-max, you can afford to take a few more liberties, but even then, you're going to start hurting your profitability if you play too loose, and outplaying your opponents postflop is still critical to an aggressive or manical preflop style.

I dunno' 27. I agree that for most "tight is right". But...I've always thought of NL HE as an offensive game. Granted you need to protect your hand, but once you've done that you need to extract value from your hand. I think raising 4-6x the BB is little excessive. I mean, seriously, who can call a raise like that? I would expect that you would end up trapping yourself more than you would make money. People are going to smooth call you w/ middle PP's and hands like AA and KK. If they flop a set or hold a real big hand, their just going to let you bet it for them because they have a pretty good line on what you hold.

I've always believed that playing aggressive is great advertising. It's good to make semi-steal raises with hands like J9s and T8s. If you get to show down that raised it from middle position with a suited connector, you can simply change gears and pretty much assure yourself action later on.

Of course, I really love to play fast. I think Rippytide would agree with me. Unfortunately, the only time we ever played against eachother all we did was try and put moves on one another and both ended up getting busted early. Having raisitis is way more fun than grinding it out.

Just a thought(s)

I'm talking about raising to 4x to 6xbb, which is pretty much a standard preflop raise. Anything less is weak, and anything more is excessive (though raising to 3xbb when opening a pot and raising to 7x or 8x bb with lots of limpers in front are acceptable plays). And yeah, those semibluff-steal raises with suited connectors are plays I love to make, and exactly the types of non-legit raises I was talking about. If you're at a really tight 6-max table, you can even raise lots of very marginal and just plain junk hands from the CO and BB, making a 1/2-full pot size bet on the flop if you get called and checked to on the flop. You will steal a lot of pots this way at a table full of rocks.

I think as far as preflop raises go, Tom McEvoy's strategy of raising 3x the BB plus 1 BB for every limper is the best way to go. I'll go 3x + whatever for every limper up to 3, if there's 3 or more limpers then I'll just make it 6x and see what happens. I think that's probably the best way to play "defensively" yet still encourage action from some weaker hands.

Originally Posted by kidpoker22

I think as far as preflop raises go, Tom McEvoy's strategy of raising 3x the BB plus 1 BB for every limper is the best way to go. I'll go 3x + whatever for every limper up to 3, if there's 3 or more limpers then I'll just make it 6x and see what happens. I think that's probably the best way to play "defensively" yet still encourage action from some weaker hands.

Yeah, that's a very solid strategy and pretty much exactly the way I raise preflop, so we're on the same page here.