Introduction Defending Your Blinds In Poker Tournaments

Creating The Right Balance When Defending Your Blinds
Is An Important Aspect Of Poker Tournament Play

By ThePokerBank

Defending your blinds against opponents trying to steal them from you is never a clear situation in a Poker Tournament. How are you supposed to know whether or not they have a strong hand, and how are you supposed to prevent the leak of chips to these thieves?

As you will already know, stealing blinds is a popular way to build up your stack in any Texas Hold'em tournament, but how can you defend against this if you are on the unfortunate receiving end of such a play?

This article aims to cover the basics of blind defence early in tournaments and answer the question of how to effectively balance our blind defending strategy.

Blind Defence Tips - When Should You Defend Your Blinds?

First of all, I want to remove the notion that the blinds that we have put into the pot belong to us – they are no longer our concern. It is all too common for a player's ego to take over as they defend the blinds with their primal defensive urge, which is simply a bad way to play. If you break your attachment to the blinds you have placed in the middle, you will immediately be able to play against “blind stealers” far more effectively.

The next step is to deal with these “blind stealers”. Not everyone is trying to steal your blind, which is why we  are happy to fold our T7o to the player that raises from early position. To defend your blinds appropriately, we need to identify the blind stealer types and differentiate them from those players raising based on the strength of their hands.

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Blind Defence Tips - When Is It Likely An Opponent Is Trying To Steal Your Blinds?

Here are a few tell-tale signs of a player that is trying to steal your blinds with a sub-standard hand.

• Raise from late position (typically from the button or cut-off).

• The amount in the blinds is worth stealing (after the first few levels)

This is nothing ground breaking, but it's worth highlighting. The player that raises from early position when the blinds are small is not trying to steal your blinds, so you just play the hand as you would normally. If you play defensively for the sake of trying to protect “what's yours”, you are going to lose money.

However, if our opponent looks as though he is in a prime spot to try and steal our blinds, we can start to think about how to deal with them.

Blind Defence Tips - How To Play Against A Blind Stealer

If you are confident that a player is likely attempting to try and steal your blinds, you have the option of folding, calling or raising (as usual). Here are 3 separate scenarios to consider, in each instance, we have a respectable stack size and the blinds are worth stealing (not the minimum amount).

1. You have a weak hand.
2. You have a mediocre hand.
3. Your have a strong hand.

If you have a weak hand, there is nothing wrong with folding. In fact, I would advise that you fold the majority of the time. You have bad hand and you are out of position – that's never a great spot to be in, regardless of whether your opponent is bluffing or not. Let your opponent take the pot and do not let it concern you.

With a mediocre hand, our position is still going to be a big thorn in our side. Calling is not horrific, but it will often land us in a tricky spot, as we are going to be first to act and we can expect a continuation bet from our opponent on the flop. Again, folding is not a bad option, as calling is unlikely to be as profitable as you might hope.

With a strong hand, a raise is going to prove to be an effective deterrent for potential future blind stealers. Make a strong 3.5BB+ re-raise and you will make the initial raiser think twice about their current hand as well as forcing them to reconsider trying to steal your blinds in the future. There are a lot of pros to re-raising with a strong hand in this situation, so even with the poor position this would be my primary option.

Blind Defence Tips - The Stop And Go Play

If you are relatively short-stacked in relation to the blinds and you're facing a raise from a potential blind stealer, the stop and go play is a valid option. But what is it?

If you believe that an opponent is raising in an attempt to steal your blind and you want to make a stand with your small stack, instead of re-raising all in, consider just calling and then pushing all in on the flop.

By moving in on the flop, you are reducing the odds for your opponent, as they will now have to call to see 2 extra cards instead of the 5 if they were faced with your re-raise before the flop. Furthermore, your bet can also look far more intimidating, as it will come across as a calculated play due to the fact that you improved on the flop, rather than a reckless all-in shove before the flop with any old cards.

The success of the stop and go play depends on a number of factors including the number of players in the pot (better if it's just 1 opponent) and the size of your stack, but it is good to know that the option is there if you want to make a blind defence stand when your stack starts to become dangerously low.

Blind Defence Tips - Overview

One of the key points in this article is that blind defence should not be about pride or your ego. If you want to defend your blinds because you want to show a bit of muscle and not let others take advantage in their dominant positions, then you are leaving yourself open to leaking out a sizeable amount of chips.

Play Poker with your head and try to identify when your opponent may not have a strong hand, then consider all of your options on how to deal with it. The more you play the better you will get, so try to learn as much as you can from each of these tricky situations. As we move into the mid to late stages the primary driver of your strategy will be chip stack sizes and not cards – with our blind defence introduction you will have a greater chance of reaching this point in the game.

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