10 More Essential Hold'em Moves: Defending the Blinds

There’s no simple fix for becoming a winning poker player but there are a handful of simple, easy-to-execute poker moves that can make a world of difference to your bottom line.
By fine-tuning these tactics you’ll have more tools to put to work at the poker table. You’ll be able to better understand your opponents and how to manipulate them, and that will translate directly to money in your pocket.
We already wrote the book on the 10 Essential Texas Hold’em Moves and now we’re back to bring you 10 more.
Today we’re going to teach you how to defend your blinds. You’re forced to put money into the pot twice per orbit and we're going to show you how to minimize your losses and win more pots when you’re playing from the small and big blind.
The What: Defending your blinds refers to calling a preflop raise from either the small or big blind.
The Why: Because you’re forced to put money into the pot when you’re in the small and big blind it’s important to play optimally and recoup your share. Above all else you should not lose more than you would by simply folding.

Blinds put a lot of dead money in the pot. Make sure you get your share.

The When: Understanding key concepts like pot-odds, and factors like your opponent’s raising frequency marked cards and post-flop aggression, will allow you to defend or surrender your blinds at the right times.
The Where: Defending the blinds applies to both cash games and tournaments.

Defending the Blinds the Right Way

First of all it’s important to understand that the small and big blinds are the two worst positions at the poker table.
If you’re in the small blind you’ll be forced to act first on every post-flop round of betting. If you’re in the big blind it’s not much better. In fact, even the best poker players in the world lose money from these two positions.
One of the most common beginner poker leaks is calling too much from the small and big blinds. You must divorce yourself from the idea that your blind represents an investment in the hand, automatically making you pot-committed to any raise.
While it’s true that having a blind in play will give you better pot-odds, it does not mean you can call every raise with whatever two cards you happen to pick up.
In order to defend your blinds effectively you must understand the situation and the opponent(s) you’re up against.

Players, Position and Defending the Blinds

Position is the most important concept in understanding when it’s appropriate to defend your blinds.
Players’ pre-flop raising ranges get wider the closer they are to the button, which means you have to know where that raise came from before deciding whether to call, raise or fold.

Just because Gus defends with 3-5 off-suit doesn't mean you should too.

The earlier the position your opponent is raising from, the tighter your defending range has to be infraredink.

Conversely, if action folds all the way around to the button and he puts in a raise, it’s safe to put him on a wide range of hands and defend with weaker cards.
The type of player making the raise is also very important when deciding if you should defend.
A very tight player won’t be raising trash, even from the button, while a maniac will be opening weak hands even in early position.
Observe your opponents to understand what kinds of hands they’re raising from what positions and adjust your defending range accordingly.

How to Defend the Blinds for Beginners

One of the biggest problems with beginners who defend the blinds too much is that they’re put in tough spots later in the hand, causing them to lose more than just the preflop call.
For this reason we suggest a very tight range for playing out of the blinds, and a “fit or fold” approach to post-flop play, especially with your weaker hands.
As a general guideline we suggest defending your small blind with 77+, TJs+, AK, AQ and raising with QQ+.
If you’re in the big blind you can expand your calling range to include smaller pocket pairs and lower suited connectors.
The important thing for beginners to remember when calling with the weaker hands in that range is that you will need to flop more than one pair to play a big pot.
By using a “fit or fold” approach to post-flop play with marginal hands you’ll avoid putting more money into the pot with a losing hand.

Defending the Blinds in Action

If you’re still unconvinced about how important successful blind defense is to your bottom line, let Daniel Negreanu school you up in video form.
Negreanu takes our lesson one step further and goes into the math behind defending your blinds.
It’s worth a few minutes of your time. He has made more $16 million playing live poker tournaments.

How to Qualify for the EPT: Climbing the Seven Steps

This is the last article in a seven-part series from EPT Serial Qualifier Pierre Neuville to improve your chances of qualifying for the EPT.
Check below for links to previous articles in the series.
From just learning the ropes in Step A to winning it all in Step G, the PokerStars Steps tournaments are a long, exciting route to the EPT.
You start with the virtual beginners, grasping around for the right moves, and by the time you finish in Step G you're going head-to-head with some of the best players in the world.
To do well in the Steps tournaments you must have a somewhat successful track record in SNGs.
You also need to have a good understanding of the changing rhythms needed: of prudence in the first levels to an aggressive finish.

Climbing the Steps

The goal in these tournaments, obviously, is to climb your way up the ladder to the top step.
Gradually, as you get closer, you need to be sure to pay marked cards attention to the "programming" needed for the following step.
When you’ve acquired your ticket for Step F, observe in volume and take a lot of notes on the play of specialists.
But above all, don’t rush! To give yourself the best chance to qualify, only choose the best moments.

Poker Stars and the seven steps.

Don’t Lose Your Ticket

When you’re trying to climb the Steps ladder, the first objective is primarily to not lose your ticket to the level you're at.
Finishing in third or fourth place will usually reimburse your ticket for that level and not drop you down to your previous step.
If you don’t win the first time but finish third or fourth, you can play several more times and give more chances to, well, chance.
Your objective must then first be to not lose ground, which will then automatically multiply your chances of winning.
The First Stages to the Final Four
In short, at any Step level: Avoid any flips in the first stages, see flops quietly and only make small bluffs to steal the pot.
You don’t want to put yourself in any danger in this part of the tournament as you need to make the final four places 9 times out of 10.
When you get to the final four players, that's when the real qualifying starts and controlled risk-taking is essential.
At four players, you have to go looking for chips so you won’t be the short stack against the other players, who will likely band together.
This is where you must not miss your chances.
You can’t learn everything in a few lines, but if you have the chance to get to three players and there are only two winners… Well, here is where I want to help you ensure your qualification.
So: Hands off the mouse. No reflexive or quick moves. Use your time bank every time.

A Quick Spin Through the Math

You’re at three players and there are two qualifiers. In other words, you have two chances in three to win (66%).
The objective here is only to further increase your chances, so don’t make any moves that increase your risk of a quicker elimination marked cards contactlenses.
How? A flip with QQ against AK? Of course not!
This decreases your chances from essentially 66% to 53% (your slight edge in the flip).
Have a nice-looking AK in your hand and thinking about trapping your opponent who you will put all in with his JT?
Not good either, as your chances still decrease again – you’re only a 60% favorite there rather than 66%.
With your AK, you can still trap even better. See yourself beating his A2 with your AK?
Still no!
Your odds are indeed the exact same at two out of three, but here you’re actually initiatiing your chance to lose right now.
What About Aces?
Ok, so what about THE bomb? Happily, you look down and see AA.

At the end of the steps, ElkY awaits.

Better, but don’t forget that it’s still not a guaranteed win.
That said, yes, in that exact case you increase you chances substantially from 66% to 80% so your chances of winning are greater.
But now, well, you’ve become aware of the hazards of poker. You can still lose 20% of the time with aces.

Your Best Move is to Not Play

At three players left, your #1 goal is to get into the best position possible … where you DO NOT PLAY!
This exact spot is when the other two players have an all in and a call between them.
If they have equal stacks, this is the only moment in poker where you’ve increased your chances of winning to infinity.
So wait all you can, watch the aggressiveness of your opponents and concentrate on the real goal.
This is your obssession: to stay in the tournament until the other two are all-in against each other.
By focusing on this reality, you let the others run into each other and you multiply your chances of success.
Good luck!