When should I be doing it?
For cash games, Sklansky and Malmuth suggest defending the big blind with the top 40% of all hands, and re-raising with the top quarter of those. This works well for cash games as the blinds and antes remain constant, and defending will never require a significant amount of your stack. For sit and gos, however, the margin for error shrinks as the blinds become large, and deciding to defend the blinds in the wrong situation can cripple your stack or even put you out of the tournament.
Acknowledging that, defending the big blind can play an integral role in your success in the mid game and near the bubble of sit and gos. Doing so will let your opponents know that you will not be an easy target, and it will save you money as people will fold down to you with weak hands instead of risking a steal attempt. The problem most players have is in determining when a good situation to defend the blind is. This article attempts to take look at this problem logically, and come up with some sort of guidelines as to when to call.
Before we get into the guidelines, it should be said that an effective blind defense should start early in the tournament. At that point, the risk to your chip stack is low, and you can reasonably afford to make post flop bets whether you have hit the flop or not. While this article will primarily focus on that mid-game and bubble area, you should make sure that you occasionally defend early in the game in an attempt to demonstrate your willingness to defend your hands.
Factor 1: Number of opponents
Being in the big blind gives you the unique advantage as you will know how every player has acted. A good suggestion is to defend the big blind only against one opponent. In any attempt to defend the blinds, multiway pots will prove harder to win and will create a negative expected value situation if you call with marginal hands. If there are two other players in a raised pot, even if one is the small blind, you need a legitimate hand to enter the pot.
Factor 2: Your Chip Stack
Before you consider defending the big blind, you need to make sure that you have an appropriate chip stack for doing so. If you are short stacked (less than ten times the big blind) or calling the raise will short stack you, do not even consider this option. With that stack, you need to analyze your hand, decide if you it is strong enough to go all-in with, and either go all-in or fold.
Any stack larger than that should, at minimum, consider a defense based on the other factors.
Factor 3: Your opponents Chip Stack
The opponents that you are looking for are the extremely small and extremely large chip stacks. The larger stacks may have loosened their calling requirements and are playing aggressively thinking they can bully you. The smaller stacks may be looking for chips with very little risk.
The most problematic chip stack to deal with will be the average stack player. They are looking to make a move, but they are also not under any real pressure to accumulate chips. They are most likely to have a legitimately strong hand, and it may be hard to determine your course of action post flop should reasonable cards fall on the flop.
Factor 5: Strength of Opponent
If your opponent is a strong post flop player, you will need to increase you hand requirements and fold unless you have cards you believe can win the hand. While you will have the advantage of being the first to act post flop, a knowledgeable opponent will recognize a blind defense and call your bet with any pair or re-raise in order to put you to the test. This will put you at a huge disadvantage if you don’t have a legitimate hand. Even if you have hit middle pair or some sort of draw, it may prove tough to make this call. You don’t want to cost yourself the sit and go with big blind play, so the best option against a strong player is to just let the hand go.
Factor 6: Your Opponents Table Image
By the time blind defense becomes an issue, you should have your opponents characterized, and you should have a good idea of what your opponent is capable of. Here is how you should treat suspected steal attempts from the various player types.
Tight-Passive (Rock)
If your opponent is extremely tight and has shown no desire to steal blinds, you should fold. Be sure to keep an eye on this player as they may be play ultra-tight early and begin to play aggressively towards the middle rounds.
Loose-Passive (Call Station)
When playing against any passive opponent, you should always be more likely to fold than defend the blind unless you have a legitimately strong hand. Unless you have seen a pattern of blind stealing, just let go of the hand. If your opponent is a true call station, your bluff equity after the flop is also diminished because they will call anything. That gives an additional reason for folding.
Loose-Aggressive (Maniac)
Against a maniac, it is a must that you defend your blinds. If not, the player will eat you alive. If you are up against this opponent, you will strongly need to consider calling.
Tight-Aggressive (Solid Player)
Against a solid opponent, you also need to consider calling a steal attempt. If they characterize you as a weak opponent, they will be attacking you for the rest of the match. The problem lies in the fact that this player is most likely characterized as a strong player. The difficulty in handling them is why they are solid players, so you will have to make a decision and play the situation carefully.
Factor 4: Your Hand
You want at least a marginally strong hand before you decide to defend. Please check below in the discussion of pot odds for a general guideline, because this will really depend on how confident you are in the fact that it is a steal and the pot odds you are presented with.
As Harrington said in his book about short table play, “Weak cards plus good odds = playable situation.” While this advice may not fit every situation, big blind defense is the perfect place to apply it. You will have to think about your hand relatively.
Factor 7: Pot Odds
Probably the most important thing that you need to consider are the pot odds. How often will you need to win this defense in order to break even?
Since we are pretty sure that our opponent is not holding a premium hand, we can look at the odds of winning versus an average hand as a guide. Heads up, the statistically worst hand, 2-3 off suit, is roughly a 2.1 to 1 against an average hand. Therefore, you can assume that defending the blind will be a profitable scenario over the long run if you are given 2.1 to 1 odds from the pot.
While that gives us a baseline, a little bit more thought needs to be put into how to apply the odds. With the scenario we just laid out, you could call with any hand as long as our opponent didn’t raise more that three times the big blind. I think that would probably be too much to pay for poor hands. In addition, you should not be flat calling every steal attempt. You will need to raise with your stronger hands as your opponent may fold.
In constructing a general strategy, the first thing I would do is throw out the bottom 20% of all hands as described in Harrington on Hold’em.
From there, I would suggest a relative scale. I would flat call with the worst hands if given the most favorable odds, 3.5:1. I would then I would then interpolate in between to the top 40% of all hands which I would flat call with given odds of 2 to 1.
Any hands in the top 30% I would re-raise with. If you are re-raised all-in, you will need to make a decision, but the maximum amount of hands that you should consider calling with are the premium hands. Unless I was under duress, I would probably fold all hands but AA, KK, and QQ.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, you should be sure to factor in every aspect of the situation before deciding to defend your blind. The chip stacks, number of opponents, type and quality of player, your hand, and the pot odds should all play an integral role in the decision. By weighing these properly, you should be able to avoid making a critical mistake in blind defense a majority of the time.
Now the only question is, what do I do on the flop? Well, that’s a discussion for another week.
