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 b
linds 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.
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