Attacking Medium Stacks in the Big Blind

After playing my regular run of online tournaments, I always find myself asking the same question: “How do players who consistently go deep in tournaments win more chips than the average player?” The answer to that question is that they manage to do well even though they play more hands than all the poker guides that repeatedly tell us to play tight. This advice is there to help you keep your range strong enough to withstand attacks from good players. But what if you’re not playing against good players? If they can’t effectively attack the holes you leave, then there’s no point in playing tight. The first line of defense is the players in position on you. If you can get past them, the big blind player will be the one keeping you from dancing on the table. He should be your primary target. In the small stakes games I play, the big blind is usually ill-equipped to defend his position.

In this article I will share tips on how I managed to steal more pots than I should have when the players in front of me were weak.

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First line of defense – Players in position

Players with position on me are the first line of defense in preventing me from opening with too many hands. There are more of them when I open from early position, so I focus on opening from middle and late position. By doing this, these players will 3-bet me more and bluff me more often after the flop, so it's worth keeping an eye on that.

In small stakes games, these position players are much more likely to just call than to bet. This can be a problem if they are skilled in post-flop play, but fortunately, most are not. They will often just call and fold to the first bet. The beauty of this is that their pre-flop call entices the big blind to call with a wider range of hands. If the position player folds to my c-bet and the big blind calls with this wide range, he will struggle to defend his hand on the turn and river. This is where I am profitable.

Last Line of Defense – The Player in the Big Blind

In small stakes games, most players call river bets more often when it doesn’t cost their entire stack to do so. Because of this, I only widen my starting hand range when I identify stacks that I can commit and put all-in on the river. In my experience, this means a stack of about 20 to 40 big blinds. If the player in position is not defending effectively and the big blind is stacked above that, I will open with a very wide range of hands, such as connected medium offsuits and low suited hands. I like semi-connected hands because they usually flop something good and give me good equity against strong hands that missed the flop. Small stakes players in the big blind often call bets preflop and on the flop with a very wide range and end up folding on the turn or river when they realize their hand is too weak to risk their entire stack on.

In the past, I would fold marginal hands in spots like this to preserve my preflop fold equity when 3-bet shoving against aggressive players. Now, I believe that I should open with a wide range and use my stack for his fold equity. I prefer to play this way because 3-bet shoving against an aggressive player is an obvious bluff that will cost me my entire stack when it fails. Playing with a focus postflop allows me to play a weaker range against the big blind's strong range, who will be out of position. Each street is a new opportunity to force a fold. If he wants to play for stacks, he will usually raise and give me the opportunity to fold and preserve my stack for another attempt later. When he decides to just call, his range will be even more capped, which will increase my fold equity on later streets.

Example

This opportunity arose in an online tournament hand because the player in the big blind was predictably passive. At the 1000/2000/200 levels, I opened with 8h6c from middle position for 5000, from a stack of 60000 to his stack of 75000. The table folded to him, and he called. The flop came Jc7h3d and he called a half-pot bet. The turn came Td, giving me a gutshot straight draw. Again, I bet half the pot and Villain called. My turn bet needed to work 33% of the time as a complete bluff to break even, but since I had a 9% chance of hitting my straight, I only needed it to work 24% of the time.

Most small stakes players would have raised on the turn with two pair or better, so when he just called my turn bet, I expected him to have Jx and a few 7x combos. The river came 2d, completing the backdoor flush. At this point, the pot was 22 big blinds, which was about the same amount I had left. I shoved and Villain folded to show 9h7c.

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Final hand analysis

After analyzing the hand, I believe my river shove was a mistake. This pot-sized shove needs to work 50% of the time to break even. By my calculations, pairs below top pair accounted for 43% of Villain's range, and the rest were top pair or better. I believe my shove causes the low pairs to fold, but not the top pairs. This means that my shove would only work 43% of the time, not 50%, which is what I need. A better approach would have been to bet half the pot on the river. This bet would only need to work 33% of the time. And I believe it would be enough to make him fold the bottom half of his range, or 43%.

Conclusion

Keep in mind that this strategy is heavily dependent on your opponent’s passivity. It is easily exploited by players who 3-bet a lot, raise bluffs post-flop, and trap with strong hands. This strategy will not work if you use it too often. Luckily, there are plenty of small stakes tournaments where you will be a total unknown.

Additionally, this strategy of frequently attacking mid-stack players in the big blind has led me to win many small and mid-sized pots without showdown. This keeps my stack healthier as the blinds climb, without having to risk shoving when the right hand comes. If I get lucky and manage to double up when dealt a real hand, I do so from a mid-stack to a big stack, not from a small stack to a mid-stack. This puts me in a position to fight for the top spots in the tournament, not just survive until the bubble bursts.

Article translated and adapted from the original: Carlos Welch – Targeting Medium Stacks