A very difficult concept for me to understand.
Hi guys,
Ive been playing poker for a bit now and while ive learned a lot, I still have never been able to find a good in-depth discussion or article about defending your blinds in a cash game. My thinking on the situation is that in a cash game the blinds are often not worth protecting since they are so low compared to stack sizes.
However, at the same time I do know that losing pots from the blinds almost every time adds up over the longrun. For instance, maybe im sitting in the BB with AJ and the button opens the pot. I know in my head that my hand is way ahead of his range but at the same time I just dont want to be in a raised pot OOP. So I'll choose to fold a lot.
I also dont understand the use of a 3 bet in this situation because its not as if im going to want him to call. So isnt a 3 bet here just a bluff anyway? The times he calls my 3 bet am I supposed to check fold if I miss? Thats hardly a good plan in my opinion. I could probably even make this same argument for AK. Sure im happy if the guy folds, In fact Im very unhappy if he calls. So in theory how is AJ any different from T4 if both times im hoping he folds to my raise?
So that leads me to merely calling raises from the blinds. I dont like this either. I cannot win the pot right away, ill be OOP and im going to miss the flop a lot.
Other hands that are tricky for me are the mid PPs 77-TT, KQ AT QJs from the blinds. I know im ahead of a late position raising range A lot of the time with these hands but I just do not know how to handle these situations when im sitting on the blinds.
PT shows that im losing money from the blinds and the fact that this is cutting into my potential winrate does not sit well with me. I am completey frustrated by this, especially since I cannot really find a lot of material on the subject.
It would be great if some of the more experienced players could explain some in-depth theory or analysis on defending blinds in cash games. Why or when it should be done? what we accomplish by 3 betting from the blinds? or why calling works in certain spots? How to proceed post flop? What things should be going through our thought processes when deciding to defend or not and how to choose the correct way to go about it.
Maybe an article that everyone on the site could use? Or a link to an article that we could all read? This is something that I feel really hasnt been covered enough, and I think a lot of players that use this site could benefit from a good crash course in playing from the blinds.
Anyway thanks in advance you guys. Also, if there does happen to be a post or article on this site that addresses this already, Im sorry. I looked and couldnt find it
