Blind defense is a tricky topic. When you choose to defend your blind, you are weighing the value of the call against the information deficit you face when playing out of position. The more damaging this deficit is, the less inclined you should be to defend.
Therefore, I recommend that most of my students play conservatively from the blinds. When I first started playing No-Limit, I played this way too.
Over time, my play in these positions has become more flexible, as I have discovered many ways to mitigate and even reverse the information deficit in my favor. Here I will show you some tricks I have learned to use as a form of attack when defending my blinds.
Trick #1 – Float out of position on dry boards, thinking about bluffing the river
Let's say I open with a raise from late position with QJ and the big blind calls. The board comes A82 mixed suited. My opponent checks, I bet and he calls. The turn comes a 9 and he checks again. At this point I assume that since he called the flop he probably has an ace. There's not much else he could have, so I fold and check behind.
The river comes a 4. He bets and I fold.
This type of hand is played over and over again every day around the world.
If my assumption is correct that a call on an A82 board usually indicates an ace, then I played the hand correctly. Perhaps, once in a while, I should have 3-barreled to make weak kicker hands fold.
But what if my assumption is wrong? What if my opponent is calling with other hands? What if he is calling with hands like KJ, 55, T9s, or others like that? By playing this way, betting the flop and folding if called, I will make sure my out-of-position opponent wins well over half the pots.
When I'm defending my blinds, most players don't go that far down the line. They'll dutifully check the turn and fold on the river after I check/call the flop. So I end up calling flops like A82 rainbow with a wide range of hands, hoping to win most of the time when my opponent doesn't have the ace.
Trick #2 – Check-raise small on the flop and bomb on the turn
Again, let's look at a hand from the aggressor's perspective. I open with a raise to $20 holding J9s from late position and the BB calls. The flop comes Q96 rainbow, villain checks, I bet $25 and he raises me to $60.
This doesn't bode well for us, but the pot is $127 and the call only costs $35. Plus, I have a relatively promising board and position on villain, so I call to see what he does next. The pot ends on the flop with $162.
The turn comes a 4, villain bets $125 and I fold.
Boards like Q96 are easy to hit with, but hard to hit with. Let's say I defended my blind with KT, I would probably play the same way Villain did, check-raise low on the flop and bet or raise high on the turn, unless my opponent is holding QJ or better, he will fold.
Trick #3 – Make a small donkey bet and raise or check-raise at the first opportunity
Let's say I raise to $20 preflop on the button holding JTs and the big blind calls.
The flop comes J54 and villain surprises me by betting, but only betting $10. Confused, I raise to $45 with my top pair.
On the turn, the big blind bets $135. With $800 behind and a suspicion that he played this way just to trick me into putting more chips in the pot, I fold the hand.
Now, let's say I don't raise on the flop and just call the $10. The turn then comes an 8, villain checks, I bet $35 into a $60 pot and he comes back raising $115.
This again shows that he is looking for action. If I called, I would probably fold to any future bets, so if I did call, my only hope would be that he would check and I could check behind to go to showdown. Even then, I would lose to hands like KJ or QJ, so I decide to fold.
Now let's go back to the big blind's perspective. A J54 flop is a tough one for any player to hit. The preflop aggressor knows this as well as the blind player. So the aggressor might be wary of a donkey bet or a check-raise on the flop, thinking that we're trying to steal the pot.
However, a donkey bet followed by a strong bet points to a strong hand. With some chips left, and not being pot-committed, most players would fold hands like JT to this type of play. If the aggressor would fold hands like JT, he would fold most of the time on a J54 board.
I could make this play with hands like A3, KQ, or even KT or 87.
What happens if the preflop aggressor doesn't cooperate? I'm the blind and bet $10 and he just calls. The turn comes an 8 and we check-check. If the river comes an ace or king, I'll try to check-raise again (assuming I don't have a strong pair or better).
On other cards, I would bet large relative to the pot. In this example, the pot is $62 on the river. In this situation, I would bet $90 or $100. After calling a donkey bet on the flop and checking behind on the turn, it is very unlikely that the aggressor has any good hands. He will almost always fold to such a large bet.
Final Thoughts – Defending the Blinds
These plays are just initial analyses of how to defend against blind stealing. Once your opponents become familiar with your plays, you may start to receive less respect. But that’s okay, because once that change occurs, you can start using these strategies with value hands like top pairs and be sure to get called by worse hands.
No-limit hold'em, when played correctly, is an aggressive game. And when it comes to blind stealers versus blinds, chances are that neither player has a good hand. So these are the perfect pots to have a good fight!
Article translated and adapted from the original: Poker Strategy With Ed Miller – Postflop Blnd Defense
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