Blind Defense

In my last article, I discussed stealing the blinds.  This week I wanted to talk about how to defend your blinds from those blind-stealing maniacs. 

The quick and dirty answer is:  don't worry too much about it.  If you are stealing like you should be from the hijack, cutoff, and button, then you will more than make up for the times your blinds get stolen.  In other words, it is far more profitable to steal blinds than it is to defend them.  The reason is simple:  blind defense is difficult because you will be playing out of position and as we all know, playing out of position sucks.

But for those of you who just can’t stand the idea of some mofo trying to steal blinds, I’ve got some tips and tricks for you.

The Blinds Are Not Your Money
As soon as you post your blinds that money belongs to the pot.  It does not belong to you anymore.  Lose that attachment and that feeling that that money is yours.  In so doing, you will be able to detach yourself from the emotion of defending “your” money and be able to make a logical decision as to whether you should fight for the money in the pot or not. 

Stop and Look Both Ways
I always tell my kids to stop and look both ways before they cross the street.   When stealing the blinds you need to look “both ways” also.  You look to your right to determine if the “stealer” is likely stealing or if he likely has a hand.  When defending the small blind, you need to look to your left at the big blind and understand if this person is going to go and get tricky on you.

There are number of helpful stats when dealing with the folks to your right (the button, cutoff, and to a lesser extent the hijack positions).   The first is your opponent’s attempt to steal percentage.  If it is high (I consider 30% + to be high) than it is more likely that this person is making a steal attempt.  If it is low, then it is more likely the opponent simply just has a hand.  The next thing I look at when looking to my right is the fold to 3 bet stat.  If this person folds to a 3 bet a lot, then your blind defense (which is usually going to be in the form of a 3 bet) is more likely to be successful.  The last thing I look at when looking right is the opponent’s cbet stats.  Look for a high fold to cbet when you are looking to 3 bet as a blind defense and look for a high cbet percentage when looking to flat as blind defense.

How to Defend
There are only two ways to defend your blinds.  You can 3-bet or you can call.   When you are 3-betting, the idea is that you either have a hand that that you want to build a big pot with or a hand that you are re-stealing with (i.e. you are 3-betting light).   When you have a hand that you are re-stealing with, the ideal candidate is an opponent who (a) steals a lot; (b) folds to a 3-bet a lot, or (c) folds to c-bets a lot.  When 3-betting light vs. a likely steal attempt, its ok to fold if the stealer 4-bets you (people don’t 4-bet as a bluff that much and if they do, kudos to them –you don’t want to play a huge pot out of position).   There are too many nuances to go into what to do post-flop, but generally when you are 3-betting light vs. a likely steal attempt, this is usually a 2 street play (i.e. raise flop, make a cbet, and shut-down if you get resistance and your hand does not get improved). 

If you choose to defend your blinds by calling a likely steal attempt, it is imperative that you have a solid post-flop plan for how you plan on winning the hand unimproved.  Do not fall into the trap of calling and trying to “hit a flop”.  That is the fishy play and just lighting money on fire (in fact, you may get more value from lighting money on fire – the flame will look pretty, and it will generate a little heat in this cold weather).  When I say you should have a plan, it should be something like:  “I’m flatting this steal with the intention of check/raising any A,K, or Q high flop”; or “I’m flatting this steal with the intention of calling any flop c-bet and leading any turn”, or “I’m flatting this steal with the intention of leading any turn card if he checks back to me on the flop”.

What To Defend With
I’m going to have to give the standard poker answer of “it depends.”  It depends on the opponent who is stealing, your image, your history with the particular opponent, etc.  However, I will give you a general tip:  3-bet the top and the bottom of your range,  call with the middle of your range, and fold everything else ("range" being the hands that you consider to be playable – my steal defense range is similar to my cutoff range).   The basic idea is that you want to 3-bet with your big hands (to build a pot) and you want to 3-bet with the bottom of your range for balancing purposes (i.e. so people don’t get a read that you ONLY 3-bet from the blinds with monsters).  With middle of your range hands, you are flatting because these hands have too much equity against a likely steal so you don’t want to fold them but they are not strong enough to call a 4-bet, so you flat with them and play some poker.  You fold your junk hands because playing crappy hands out of position sucks.

Note on small pocket pairs: I will either 3 bet or fold all of my small pocket pairs.  Unlike other situations where you are getting good IO (Implied Odds) to call a raise with a small pocket pair and set-mine, you usually do not have the IO in a steal situation.  This is because a typical steal range is very wide so on the rare occasions where you hit your set on the flop, you aren’t going to get paid off nearly as much as you would against a tight range.  In other words, a tight range hits most flops and is less likely to fold, whereas a wide range misses most flops and is mostly likely to give up.
 
Small Blind Considerations
When defending your small blind, do not lose sight of the big blind because it gets to have position on you both pre-flop and post flop.  Be especially aware of the big blind’s likelihood to squeeze (3-betting after a raise and a call).  If you’ve got a tricky squeeze-happy person in your big blind, it is going to make it very difficult for you to call a likely steal attempt.  The implications are that you should tighten up your calling range.  

Big Blind Considerations
As mentioned earlier, the big blind is unique in that it always has position on the small blind (both pre-flop and post-flop).  This means that you can defend your big blind from a small blind steal attempt quite a bit wider than a blind vs. a late position steal attempt.  If a small blind attempts to open limp (complete) when it is down to blind vs. blind, raise him every single time with any two cards.  This is a very profitable move.  

I hope this article helps you in defending the blinds against a steal. Until next time, good luck at the tables! If you have any questions about this article, or anything online poker related, please free to shoot an email to:  dougfieselman@ymail.com. For great rakeback and bonus deals, please visit PokerNewsPage.com.

Blind Stealing Primer

Where else but in poker is stealing legal, acceptable, and expected?  It is also incredibly profitable.   In this column I'm going to provide a primer on how to steal the blinds, well... blind.

To help get you in the proper stealing mood, check out this video. 

What is a steal?
Stealing is making a pre-flop raise in an unopened pot from late position (Button, Cut-off and sometimes hi-jack positions) or the small blind with the intention of winning the blinds, usually with relatively weak holdings.

Why steal? 
As I mentioned  earlier, stealing is hugely profitable.  Hugely profitable?  Come on!  We are only talking 1.5 big blinds (bb), that is like $1.50 at NL100.  That doesn't sound "hugely profitable" does it?   Well, let us put that in context, shall we?  A solid winrate is around 6-10 bb/100.  A successful steal will yield you a winrate of 150bb/100!  Obviously you aren't always going to be successful, but it should be clear how profitable stealing can be.

Even if you get called you stand to win even more if because you will be playing post-flop 1)  in position; and 2) with initiative and that makes poker  a lot easier to play.  Well, that and the fact that people tend to auto-fold to continuation bets at a sick high rate.

There are also indirect benefits to stealing the blinds.  For instance, you may get an image of being a "loose" player because it will appear as if you are playing a lot of hands (and a lot of crappy ones if you happen to show down a steal attempt).  When you get that image you'll find it easier to get paid off with your big hands (note that if you show down a really weak hand you'll need to tighten up on the stealing for a bit because your image will be crap).

Look to your left
Whenever you have an opportunity to steal, the first thing you want to do is to look to the people on your left and assess your opponents.  Once that is done, THEN look at your cards.  When looking for ideal opponents to steal from look for:

* Low VPIP (i.e. a tight player)

* Low 3bet percentage (for obvious reasons, you don't want to steal on a guy who is likely to 3 bet you)

* High fold to steal percentage.   If you have a HUD, have this stat on there.  The higher the percentage, the more often you should be stealing.  

* High folds to a cbet.  These guys are even better than the folks who habitually fold to steal attempts because they practically hand you their pre-flop call money to you.  Bet sizing hint:  against opponents with low fold to steals and high fold to cbets, you should make your steal amount higher to take advantage of this huge leak.  

* Look at the stack size.  From really tight (and bad) shortstackers you can steal from them all day long because they play like nits.  However, be aware that if you steal with a normal 3-4bb raise, you are going to find yourself being committed to the pot with a pretty wide range (ie. pretty much anything but complete trash).   For that reason, I recommend using a min-raise steal against the shorties, even if you don't otherwise adjust your open raise size. 

Ideal Hands for Stealing  
As with most anything in poker, it depends.  It depends on the players left to act, your image, the table dynamics, and your skill/comfort in playing post-flop.  Here are some things to think about though: 

* Be very loose from the button, tighten up a bit from the cutoff, and tighten up even more the hijack.

* Generally, look for hands that have at least a little post flop value:  suited aces, suited kings, suited connectors, suited one gappers, any two broadway cards, any pocket pair.  If you aren't comfortable playing post-flop you can tighten up and play the tops of the these ranges.

* If you have tight people to your left, you can steal with any two cards.  Keep stealing until they adjust.  

* If you have loose players to your left, you need to tighten up, but it doesn't mean you can't steal.  In this situation, I  personally prefer hands that have the ability to flop good top pair hands (like two broadways, Ax hands and Kx hands) as opposed to hands that flop good draws (like suited connectors and gappers).  The reason is that loose players tend to call you down with 2nd and 3rd pairs so you can get an unusual amount of value from weak-ish top pair hands. 

* If you have a loose player on the button or the cutoff you'll need to tighten up considerably because if you get called you will be playing out of position. 

Note on Betsizing
Generally speaking, I like to lower my open raise from steal spots.  I do this for a number of reasons.  One is that because my range is going to be wider, my average hand strength is going to be weaker.  A smaller bet size means that I risk less when I get caught stealing.  Also, a smaller bet size means your steal has to work less frequently to be profitable.  For example, if you steal by raising to 4bb, it has to work 73% of the time (we are risking 4 units to win 1.5 units).  If you min-raise to 2bb, it only has to work 57% of the time (risk 2 units to win 1.5 units).

Getting Caught
It is simply going to happen.  You raise with your 7,5 offsuit on the button and the big blind 3 bets you.  There is no shame in folding a busted steal attempt.  Do not waste money getting stubborn and 4 bet him with crap (or worse, flat-call the 3 bet).  Just let it go and steal again the next time you get the chance.  If he starts to 3 bet you frequently, then you may want to think about...

Adjusting
If you steal as often as you should be, even an unobservant fish will start to catch on.  Fortunately for us, many of our opponents adjust by calling us instead of 3 betting us.  We love when our opponents adjust this way because they are often still playing fit or fold poker on the flop and you'll be taking the pot down a ton with a cbet.   When our opponents adjust by 3 betting or calling and playing tricky post-flop more frequently than normal, you need to start cutting down on the stealing for a bit.  After you've tightened up for a round or two and showed-down some strong hands, you can recommence your frequent stealing until your opponents adjust again.  Rinse and repeat.  


I hope this article helps you in your attempts to steal. Until next time, good luck at the tables! If you have any questions about this article, or anything online poker related, please free to shoot an email to:  dougfieselman@ymail.com. For great rakeback and bonus deals, please visit PokerNewsPage.com.