How to defend your big blind.

As you probably know, defending your big blind isn’t that easy to do. Due to the fact that you’ll be out of position for the entire hand. Except if your against the small blind. So its highly important that you respect the advantage your opponent has if you do get into a pot from the big blind. The problem many players have playing the big blind is that they try to do to much by calling the raise and trying a move after the flop like a check-raise. This is because the don’t want to be seen as being bullied, so they usually overplay there hands and get into trouble.

But there is a way to turn the advantage of position your opponent has in your favour, by letting him think he can run over you. So when you hit a hand and your pretty sure your infront, instead of betting aggressively, just check and let your opponent do most of the betting. This strategy also works with more marginal hands, where you think you are infront but aren’t 100% sure. In this situation you want to focus on minimizing the amount of chips you’ll lose if your beat. Aswell as maximizing your profit when you’re ahead by letting him bluff.

For example, if your playing a No Limit Texas Holdem game and the blinds are 100-200, and the button raises to 600. In your hand you have Ks-9s, so you call knowing that your opponent can have a larger range from that position. The flop comes Kd-7d-2c. So as your opponent has position, you want to check. So say he bets out 1000. Now you only have two options. Check-raise or flat call. Folding is out of the question due to the fact your opponent would bet that flop no matter what he had. But the best option is to flat call.

Why just flat call? If you call your opponent won’t be able to put you on that hand. He might think you have a flush draw or maybe a smaller pocket pair. Your opponent will probably decide to continue betting trying to bluff you off the pot. But say he did have a legitimate hand like A-K, he’ll want to keep you in the pot and make it an amount that is easy to call. So if you had decided to check-raise the flop, you’d have made the pot bigger meaning your opponent could bet bigger to keep you in the pot.

Plus, if you had decided to check-raise and your opponent calls or worse re-raises, your going to have to guess what your opponent has ever time he bets. Where as if you just check-called, you would only have to guess on the river. Which you will have alot more information by that time on your opponents hand. Leaving you with a informed decision to be made instead of merely a guess.

So in-conclusion, it is without doubt important to defend your big blind, because if you don’t he’s going to relentlessly pick on you. But, its also important to remember when you do defend your big blind, don’t get the idea that you can out play your opponents. Because he has the big advantage of position.