Defend Those Blinds!
I was playing my fourth or so orbit last night when I’m in the BB and folded to a raise when I suddenly see “Defend those blinds!” pop up in the chat. WTF? I then notice it’s none other than 
Of course, he also caught me at the low point of my night (-4BB) and had he stuck around for the next hand he would seen me complete with
This particular table was fairly tight and passive. I probably should have switched to another, but I was doing OK so I stuck around. This particular table would easily fold to a raise. I used this to my advantage and loosened up a bit on raisable hands if I was in LP and there were no callers ahead of me. The guy directly to my left was very passive until he was in his BB where he would call my raises if it was a battle of the blinds.
Overall the night was up 6BB in 90 minutes or so (3.79 BB/hr according to Poker Tracker). It would have been much more but I got married to a hand and threw away 7BB. I was dealt KQ when the flop cam QT9. I won’t bore you, but suffice it to say that the Q on the turn made my trip Q’s the worst hand that stayed in through many a raise. The Broadway straight wasn’t even good enough. We got beat by a full house, Queens full of Aces. Ug. Yeah, I should have figured that somebody had something due to the passiveness of the table. The calling of a raise wasn’t too unusual, but the 3 betting was and I should have got out of the way.
Pauly’s comment got me thinking a bit though. How strongly should you defend your blinds? Since moving up to 1/2 I’ve become a bit more lax in defending. I understand that this isn’t necessarily a simple answer, but it’s one I need to start addressing due to the more aggressive raising at 1/2. I have got to the point where I will not complete the SB if unless I have something at least semi-playable. I’m not married to the hand just because I’ve put some money in. I may be a bit too passive on defending my BB against a raise though. I’ll have to look into this some more.
That’s what I love about poker. Just when you think you start to have something figured out, something new pops up. I’m nowhere near having much of anything truely “figured out”, so for me it’s more of an understanding that I should be aware of things. I love that though. It’s a continuing learning experience, or at least can be. I can totally understand the +EV of staying at a lower limit game due to the fact that you can kill it even if you end up becoming a robot, but I’m not there yet and almost every day (at 1/2 anyway) is a learning experience. It’s great!
April 29th, 2004 at 11:16 am
McEvoy and Cloutier (I think) talk about the “bunching” factor. Basically, if everyone passes, then somebody has to have some kind of hand at the end. Me, I like to start to defend with at least an A or K9, or a medium suited connector (JTs down to 87s). And I’ll raise it up to put the pressure back on the original raiser. If he 3-bets, I assess him first, then my hand, and I’ll cap or call and see if the flop fits.
A lot of this depends on the overall table, and what you’ve done so far. Defending blinds is something I don’t get too terribly caught up in…you’ve gotta pay to play, and the blinds are the price. No need to risk a bet if you ain’t got nothing, and I’m not good enough to play any two cards yet. I think it’s better to shift gears to keep everyone off balance so you can pick those blinds up later.
That’s my rambling 2c…
April 29th, 2004 at 1:41 pm
Hey Chris, just wanted to say I enjoy reading your blog. I’m currently playing .5/1 and am thinking of going up to 1/2 on Party. What was your bankroll at when you switched? Any key differences between the two levels? Pointers? Knowledge is power.
May 1st, 2004 at 9:11 am
Week in Review for 05.01.04
Well here are a few of the articles from fellow bloggers I really got a kick out of. First, Jeremy brings us the Origins of Ohama, a poker term CJ over at Up for Anything was wondering about. On the…
May 4th, 2004 at 5:20 pm
Seems to me the best thing to “figure out” is how to recognize patterns, and when you don’t see them, how you might force one. Even knowing what sorts of things constitute patterns is good, so you know what to look for. I’m thinking I’m going to work on focusing my play on individual players- taking pains to playing hands that involve specific players (one at a time) specifically to analyze their styles, with an eye to accepting small losses if it means effective manipulation later on. One possibile start is to remember what people play regardless of position, since new players reliably underrate (ignore) that power, and play the same crap in EP, LP, BB, etc.