Playing in the Blinds

Playing in the Blinds

Playing in the Blinds

You have already made a forced bet in both the small and big blind positions. While you are last to act in the betting pre-flop, you will be first or second in all later rounds should you choose to stick around. It is easy to make mistakes from the blind positions. Many players decide to defend their blinds in situations in which they otherwise wouldn't enter the pot. Playing too loose in the blinds is a significant mistake that will cost you profits over the long run.

It is wrong thinking to defend your blinds, especially your big blind, with the mistaken assumption that your blind represents an investment in the pot. Clearly, once chips leave your stack and are a part of the pot, that money no longer belongs to you. It belongs to the pot and the pot doesn't care where the money came from. Indeed, thinking that chips expended represent an investment that requires protection is a rookie mistake. What, in truth, is worthy of protection is your hand and that is accomplished with wagers that are designed to eliminate opponents or to extract maximum value from your opponents. Once made, however, the wager belongs to the pot and not to you.

If you are in the big blind and there are no raisers in front of you the decision you must make is the easiest one you make at a poker table. You simply check your options with the rare exception that you hold a monster hand like AA, KK, QQ or even AK, in which case the correct move would be to raise. You may check with any two cards but raising or calling a raise in the big blind requires a very tight range of hands you are willing to play.

Taking a money already invested in the pot perspective ignores the pot odds point of view. Facing a raise while in the blinds creates a situation in which you should consider what it costs to call rather than what I have already invested. Considering the cost of a call is really a consideration of pot odds, what is the probability of success given the two cards I am currently holding, what does my calling cost relative to the current size of the pot and is the pot offering the right price to call. Rather than considering your blind as an investment, backward thinking, your consideration of the current situation relative to your cards and the size of the pot is forward thinking.

Another thing to consider is the range of hands you put the raiser and any callers on. If the raise came from early position (UTG, UTG +1 or UTG + 2) then the range of hands you put the raiser on is quite limited. On the other hand, if the raise came from the Button, the cut-off or the hijack positions, the raiser can be put on a much wider range of hands. In the case of the early position raiser, he made an announcement to the table that I have the kind of hand to be reckoned with. In the case of the late position raiser, perhaps he is trying to steal the blinds if everyone folded to him. The position of the raiser should enter into your decision to call or fold.

When defending your blinds, my general rule of thumb is to defend when you have a hand you might have entered the pot with a raise from early position. I mostly never defend unless I am prepared to re-raise an opponent from late position and call a raiser from early position. I play the blinds extremely tight but when I play I tend to be aggressive.

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