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How important is protecting your blind?

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  1. Donnie2005 Donnie2005 is offline

    Lincoln, NE
    United States

    Posts: 190
    Joined: May 08

    Aug 5th, 2008 (8/5/2008 6:25pm)

    While I was playing Sunday's 100k, EVERY rotation, (roughly 300 left or so) if it was folded to me in SB, the button guy would ALWAYS without fail raise 4x BB. If it was folded around to him in the SB, he ALWAYS raised. I finally got tired of folding and insta pushed AJ in BB, followed by insta pushing 88 in SB. He folded both times, and from then on he didn't raise every time.

    I make button and SB raises every once in a while, but I typically only do it 1/2 the time its folded to me, so that it doesn't look like I'm just going to steal with nothing every rotation.

    Deeper in MTTs it seems I'm always involved in a blind war. (which probably means my 82 is up against a J4 or something lol)

    How important is protecting your blinds if you've got a decent stack, maybe 2 tables away from the money?
  2. threebanger threebanger is offline

    United States

    Posts: 5,094
    Joined: Sep 07

    Aug 5th, 2008 (8/5/2008 6:36pm) in reply to Donnie2005

    It's too late to cultivate an image of being a liberal blind defender by this point.

    If this is low stakes, there's not much use in trying to cultivate it anyway, they're either not paying attention or don't care. Let the tourney play itself.

    In a higher buy-in, it's far more important to have the image than to actually defend your blind a lot. There's something to be said for being priced in to see some flops, but you can't take it too far. Perception > reality in most cases.
  3. jtown1010 jtown1010 is offline

    United States

    Posts: 23,112
    Joined: Jan 06

    Aug 5th, 2008 (8/5/2008 6:50pm) in reply to threebanger

    I don't think many people can profitably play from the SB/BB, assuming you are going to "defend" your blinds a lot.
  4. bigwillie20 bigwillie20 is offline

    KS
    United States

    Posts: 2,863
    Joined: Sep 07

    Aug 5th, 2008 (8/5/2008 6:52pm) in reply to jtown1010

    Stevie Wonder probably has plenty of security guards imo
  5. kniqUe kniqUe is offline

    Posts: 328
    Joined: Jul 08

    Aug 5th, 2008 (8/5/2008 7:01pm) in reply to bigwillie20

     
    Originally Posted by bigwillie20 View Post

    Stevie Wonder probably has plenty of security guards imo

    i lold
  6. Donnie2005 Donnie2005 is offline

    Lincoln, NE
    United States

    Posts: 190
    Joined: May 08

    Aug 5th, 2008 (8/5/2008 7:17pm) in reply to bigwillie20

     
    Originally Posted by bigwillie20 View Post

    Stevie Wonder probably has plenty of security guards imo

    I was JUST thinking the same thing actually
    Thread Starter
  7. TheMayor TheMayor is offline

    Boston, MA
    United States

    Posts: 4,699
    Joined: Jul 06

    Aug 5th, 2008 (8/5/2008 7:43pm) in reply to Donnie2005

    It's important to not fold a hand that you know is beating his range...thats passing up EV. "Defending your blind" just sounds like another way of saying you decide to play your hand because you think your opponent is stealing with a wide range.

    If the guy is really raising every time (meaning he will raise 100% range, any two cards) then you need to "defend" whenever your hand is strong enough to do so, or you believe you have enough fold equity to make a +ev 3bet even with a weak hand. If you fail to do this then you aren't adjusting to your opponents and you are passing up on +EV spots to reraise or call depending on your hand/stacks/what you think he'll call with.

    I don't really think theres any value in defending just for the sake of your table image. As long as you can read his range accurately you can make the right decision almost every time. If you start doing things just because you want to adjust your image then you need to realize how your image is affecting his range, and readjust to compensate for his new range whenever he raises (tighter obv).

    The fact that you woke up with AJ and 88 is kind of a moot point...these are obvious reraises when the SB is raising a wide range...and when you think he's raising you with any two especially.
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