Defending the blinds

[silensousa]

Hi everyone,

for me, some of the most hard moments in the final table of a tournament is defending the blinds. I found this article very useful and hope you people take a look. I started playing poker about 1 year ago and reading some articles has been a tremendous help on my daily play.

Solid play from the blind positions is crucial to being a winning poker player, especially in Texas Hold'em. Yet few players focus on blind play nor consider it of anywhere near the same importance as starting hands outside the blinds. Read more.

Tell what you think, and if possible some of your tricks.
Cheers,

silen

[willie beaman]

Very true. I'm don't think a person should try to defend their blinds every orbit, but occasionally call a raise with average holding. Everytime you face a raise in the blinds, a lot of them are steal attempts so they can pad their stacks if successful. If you do pick up a hand as one of the blinds, feel free to reraise the hand is you feel they are stealing or set up a check-raise some point thereafter.

[silensousa]

Hi,

This caught my attention "Everytime you face a raise in the blinds, a lot of them are steal attempts so they can pad their stacks if successful." i totally agree with the re-raise on the "blind-hand". Huge blinds stills my problem, don't have enough experience with bluff and steal attempts. Thank you for reply, good luck on tables,

Cheers,

Silen

[PlayedYou73]

Especially late in tourny play your going to see this. If you play free rolls at all, which do not become real semi decent games until your down to your final few hundred people of 2700 people on full tilt...you'll see blind steals lots as the blinds and antes go up.

I saw a guy the other day steal 4,000 or so in blinds...which makes it easier for him when he has to pay the blind. The "tell" is usually when they are in late position and jack their bet up considerably but not quite an all in bet...still it could be 15% or more of their chip stack at least. In these cases...consider pushing all in, or making a sizeable re-raise if you have a marginal hand. If the blind stealer suffers a few losses that way, they'll be considerably less likely to try it as often. Its like punching a bully in the nose,lol

You certainly won't force them out everytime, but you will enough times to not watch your chip stack slowing bleed away.

[wicked663]

I have not tried the blind reraise too much and when I did I had AJ or A 10. If I have an even more marginal hand I will call and make the rest of my decisions post flop. I don't like to commit to much pre flop but I know I have to defend my blind to stay a threat. Hard balance to strike.

[silensousa]

Hi,

Thank you for your help, I'll consider the "tell". Stealing blinds is a hard thing to train, I usually don't get to the last table, soo I barely have the experience of it. Reading and learning, thank you for answering! Good luck on tables!

Silen

[silensousa]

Hi,

I've been playing mostly like you, the problem is that blind stealer got us, I don't like to commit to much pre flop too but I want to learn a effective way to play the blinds. Cheers,

Silen

[willie beaman]

All true statements. However, consider that in some cases the late position person will actually catch a hand. Depending on how the individual has previously played, take that into consideration into making a play to defend your blind. Using their playing stlyes against them can be profitable. Also, consider how many chips they have in relation to the average tourney stack, average table stack and size of the blinds. If they are low, it could be a steal attempt or tehy're trying to draw you into pushing them all-in. Be selective and careful when making a play back at them.

[Fathie]

I find it frustrating when I know someone is trying to steal the may blinds, but I never seem to have the cards to re-raise. Other than the premium pairs, can someone tell me some other hands that you would re-raise with?

[WebKill]

if a player is at final table , sometime hin have to play all in or fold
in this stage of the torunament, the blinds are big and every player have to defending. This is time to push to all in or fold.