Blind vs Blind

[rippajo]

I'm new here, tried to do a search and couldn't find anything pertaining to this. I have read some articles about it and such elsewhere, but looking for some advice from more experienced players (I've been playing two months).

I am finding in my BB, being raised a lot by the SB, or when I'm in my SB, and I throw chips in, I get raised by the BB.

How important is protecting your blinds?

Honestly, after two months of playing, I think it is utterly useless to protect them unless you have a premium hand to play with.

I learned a valuable lesson tonight. In a MTT in the money, round 180th with a decent stack size, nothing great. Had a7, so I go all in and the BB had a8.

I lost, and after tried to understand and figure out wtf I was trying to achieve by doing so. Risking my stack to gain 2250 (blinds + antes). Seems pointless to me to even fight for them w/o a premium hand.

If I had simply matched the BB, surely he would have raised, which would have made me want to protect my blinds even more lol. The result most likely would have been the same.

So...is it worth protecting your blinds? At this point imho, it doesn't seem worth it to me.

Any advice? Suggestions?

[Stacks]

The fact you already have money in the pot isn't the only reason you see people playing more marginal hands from these position (blinds). Yes the fact that you already have money invested plays a part because you simply have to put in less to see the flop, which means you are getting better pot odds and better implied odds.

However, the big reason why ranges should be opened a bit from these spots is because the range of the villains are wider, and the chances of running into a big hand is reduced. When you are in the BB and someone from the SB raises, you immediately know you have position, so you have a huge advantage already. In most cases, his range could be relatively wide meaning you can open your range and still be ahead of his range. And also because his range is wide means he is unlikely to hit the flop all that often and many more hands that will fold, so you have a lot of bluffing spots postflop that will be profitable.

The same goes for if you are BB/SB and someone in late position is opening the pot. However, in this case you must keep in mind that he will have position, and you should likely loosen your range, but NOT as much as when you would have position.

[bjsaust]

Sounds like you're being results oriented, but without example hands its hard to say. Are you only discussing MTTs?

[LawDude]

Defending your blinds is actually one of the simplest topics of all of poker. The reason for this is because it is all about ranges and position.

Think of the following scenario. You are in the BB with Ah5h in all three hands.

Hand 1, a tight player UTG raises. Action folds all the way to you. Should you call? Almost certainly not. You don't have position on the guy. Since he is under the gun and out of position himself, and he's a tight player, he's raising a premium hand. You are either going to be up against a big pocket pair or an ace that dominates you.

Hand 2, folds all the way around to the small blind, a pretty standard player, who raises you. Should you call or re-raise? Yes. This time, you have position, and the raising range of a standard player opening from the small blind is probably pretty close to the entire deck. As long as you suspect that this player is trying to steal the blinds, you are in good shape, as your suited ace is going to be a favorite over a lot of hands that the villain could hold and you have position on him.

Hand 3, folds to the cutoff, where there is a loose aggressive player who raises, folds to you. Should you call? Yes. This time you don't have position, so it's a bit more dicey. But if a loose aggro is opening a pot from the cut-off, his raising range, though maybe not consisting of the entire deck, is going to be extremely wide. And your hand has lots of possibilities, you can pair your ace or hit a flush or straight draw. Even a pair of 5's may be good, though you'll have to judge villain's actions.

The point is, this is the purest scenario of putting your villain on a range and estimating whether you are good against that range in the position you are in. After a while, it gets pretty straightforward if you are paying attention.

[IhaveTopTop]

Like others mentioned, don't read too much into the results of one hand. A7 will usually being the better hand in a blind v. blind match.

You can tone down the blind battles, but if the other players notice you not defending your blinds, many will only attack them more. Also, if will be real hard to be successful if you to have play with someone "stealing" every round and never stealing the blinds/antes.

Thanks for that reply LawDude. I've been thinking that my blind v. blind play one of the areas of my game most begging for improvement. While certainly I've considered many of the idea you mentioned, I honestly think I've been making/seeing it as too complex. I'm going to try making it simpler.

This has worked in the past. I was running bad, not playing great and generally getting annoyed with poker. I took some time off and when I started playing again, I stopped overthinking everything and just played "naturally" and did what I felt was right, things have been going much better.

[Fnord]

For starters, you should be position raping SB opens from the BB.