Strategy: Blind Defense

[BobboFitos]

MIKE: I'm gonna raise. 1000 straight.
TEDDY: Very aggressive. A new day, and you won't be pushed around. But I reraise -- 5000

So, you're playing the typical rock garden .5/1 or 1/2 Pokerstars game, and as usual, it's folded around to the small blind. Now, this small blind is really irratating. Instead of folding and moving on to the next hand, he has a vengeful desire to win all your blinds!

So, he's very aggressive, and basically, wont be pushed around. (haha) So this guy constantly raises your blind 4x.

Questions being:
Now that the pot is heads up, and assuming you've both got ~100 BB stacks, what hands do you call? Raise? Fold?

I feel one of my leaks is I just let them have it far too often. I feel "out of my comfort zone," despite being in position, to an overly aggressive player when I'm holding mediocre cards. (Hands I wish I could keep the pot size down, but against someone who keeps hammering, a tough task indeed!)

I will post my thoughts later, but really interested in open commentary.

[Zag]

Is he overly aggressive on every round, or just preflop and maybe one shot on the flop?

In the first case, wait for a good hand and play wounded wing (i.e. just call to the river) and clean him out. Any overpair or any TPGK is worth calling him down. These won't win every time, but they will win often enough.

In the second case, wait for a pretty good hand and play back at him right away. You can't afford to wait as long as you would in the first case, because you aren't going to win as much when you win, but you will be able to win more often.

If you are lucky enough to hit a big hand when you decide to call him down, you have more options later on. Say you call with AT and flop 35T so you decide to call him down, but then another T or an A comes on the turn or river, then you want to raise him at that point. This will tell you whether or not he is one of those bullies who crumble to any sort of aggression or fights back. Obviously, in this case, you'd like him to fight back. Whichever he does, use the same betting pattern as a bluff in one of the next opportunities.

The point is that you want to turn tables on him, and get him to fear you. You've got position on him, so any fear that he has is magnified.

[willie24]

i like zag's advice.

in my opinion the key is to not worry too much about your loss of blinds. you have to be somewhat patient here, its really not that bad to lose the BB. what you probably dont want to do is start bluffing back without good hands or a good feel. part of what makes his strategy so effective is that you are likely to give him action when he does start hitting some hands. you really want to avoid that. its okay (although not perfect) to just give away your BB until you get a hand you know is profitable against him. likely, when you do get it, it will make up much of your loss.

that said, for 4x blind i would be very careful about raising back unless i have a very strong hand. i probably would play a lot of drawing hands like 33, qj, kt suited etc, trying to catch a big hand and make a decent pot. depending on how you play, even that might be wrong, since if he is raising with garbage, he is perhaps unlikely to give you action when you hit. the flip side of that is, if you are a strong player, you may be able to win some decent pots via the bluff when your drawing hands miss. he will give you credit since you are playing fairly tight.
the safe procedure is to fold everything but premium and then just fire back big preflop knowing you will call an allin

raising back preflop with a9 or 55 is oh so dangerous

[gergery]

Good question, but kind of open-ended. How is he playing other than when in the SB? How are you playing other than that? What does he do if you call – fire on any flop or give up?

Personally, if the BB to my small blind has Pokertracker #s showing his VPIP <15% or so with the rest of the table being looser, or he’s <12% or so, I’ll start raising with any two cards until he tells me to stop (by calling or reraising me). And its profitable, as I only need it to work 3 of 4 times to make money.

So a BB who only calls with his best 20% of hands here will lose in the long run to me. In fact, if he only calls with the best 30% of hands I’ll probably win since I’ll win 30% of the time when he does call.

So start calling with hands like KTs, 22, A3o, etc. Or bluff-raise with them.

--Greg

[g29w]

On the other hand, the strategy of being aggressive for the blinds can backfire costing the aggressor tons of money.

Especially when the blind defends with Q6o and hits the full house vs the aggressor's pocket 10s. /images/graemlins/frown.gif

[BobboFitos]

[ QUOTE ]
Good question, but kind of open-ended. How is he playing other than when in the SB? How are you playing other than that? What does he do if you call – fire on any flop or give up?

Personally, if the BB to my small blind has Pokertracker #s showing his VPIP <15% or so with the rest of the table being looser, or he’s <12% or so, I’ll start raising with any two cards until he tells me to stop (by calling or reraising me). And its profitable, as I only need it to work 3 of 4 times to make money.

So a BB who only calls with his best 20% of hands here will lose in the long run to me. In fact, if he only calls with the best 30% of hands I’ll probably win since I’ll win 30% of the time when he does call.

So start calling with hands like KTs, 22, A3o, etc. Or bluff-raise with them.

--Greg

[/ QUOTE ]

I really like this post.

Reason being - it doesn't matter whether SB shows aggression on the flop or beyond, in too many cases where I play my typical game I'm folding FAR too much, and he shows instaneous profit, regardless if he ever bets again. (Much like in limit shorthanded, someone who raises on button w/ any two and autobets the flop, against some opponents it doesn't matter what your hand is, this is +EV!)

The reason this is open-ended is really is it best to fight back with mediocre cards, or just give away the BB and dont let his aggression bother you.

It seems when I fight back with medium cards I lose a bit more money then I should. So: What are the best cards to fight back? Keep in mind I will obviously play any hand I normally would, so the question is what others should I add.

You say bluffraise with hands like KTs, 22, etc. Does this mmean preflop? It's tough to play a double raised pot with 22 when the flop hits threeovercards, and now potsize is like 25$ or so and they lead into you. Anyways, thanks for the replies!

[Metabeing]

Just like everyone else said, I think you just sit and bide your time. By allowing him to steal your blind for a while he will eventually be lulled in.
Once you get a good hand, play wounded till the river, and clip him. If he is just trying to steal your blind he may check all the way down and then fold to a bet, but I have a feeling, someone like this is going to play with you.

As for starting hand strength, you can dial it down a bit since you are in position and HU. Any pair, A5+ suited, K6+ suited, etc.

MB:

[LeviB]

If someone's raising 4x the BB in the SB everytime he's checked too, then you have to make him pay. You should re-raise with good hands and I would add hole cards 9 and up, suited cards one apart and if it looks like you have a chance on the flop then re-raise again. You can't let your opponent show an instant profit in these situations. If he has to pay twice as much to try and steal the blinds then it's a play he's less likely to make.

[C M Burns]

I think one thing to keep in mind is that the probability that he will have a big hand and you having a big hand is the same, and if he is winning the pots when you both have nothing, he will win in the long run. I do like to do a fair amount of stealing but one of the reasons is to get played back at when you do have a hand. I think whether to call or raise will depend on the player, if he is somewhat recklace and you think you can outplay him when you get a big hand then maybe call to see the flop, if he is a good player raise to keep him from stealing so you will have a better idea of where he is when he does raise.