Protecting your blind?

[blahblah]

Hello! Can someone tell me if this is a valid/valuable play? I hear people saying, "I need to protect my blind" quite often and I haven't read about it anywhere. It seems these people "protect their blind" with almost anything as long as the raise isn't sufficiently large (2-3 bets). Protecting your blind, from what I gather, means that you are the small/big blind and you must call a raise because you have already committed money to the pot and you have to protect that money by adding more.

Is this a part of anyone's regular play? Is this type of action advised? Any guidance is appreciated.

[slavic]

I assume you are talking about holdem.

When you are the BB you call or reraise with several hands that you normally wouldn't outside the blinds. Why? Well the pot will offer you a better price making it right to gambel a bit more, and you lose less money if you play the hand than if you concede.

If you get into a game were nobody tries to steal your blind, I belive Mason estimated this at 1/2 a small bet per hour advantage to you. So obviously the blinds are wquite important.

With that being said, playing every hand from the blinds is obviously a mistake.

[blahblah]

slavic, thanks for the speedy reply. Yes, I'm talking HE. Can you tell me what hands you are referring to by this comment:

"When you are the BB you call or reraise with several hands that you normally wouldn't outside the blinds."

[BusterStacks]

Well think about it like this, you are getting double pot odds to call a raise and thus your starting standards are lower.

[blahblah]

Buster, thanks for the reply. Can you give me a sense of what you would consider lower? Are any two cards, lower? What's the lowest you think you would call? Any sense of how high a bet is before you'd fold?

[slickterp]

think like this:

if you were in late middle position you would probably fold JTs to a raise. occasionaly it is right to call or reraise from the BB b/c A. it doesn't cost you as much, and B. you don't want to be seen as a player who will always surrender the blind. that being siad, lower means lower, not anything. i'd say suited connectors and maybe higher suited semi-connectors might be a good place to start with this play until you get an idea of how often/ when to do it.

[ihaveapigyo]

If you don't have a good starting hand, then let it go. Why play the hand for two extra bets when you can save those two extra bets for another play? If you have this mindset, then your chips will start to dwindle, especially if you're a tight player. Plus you are in early position, so the raiser can see you act first. So in my opinion, you shouldn't get into the habit of "defending your big blind."

[Hoss1193]

My approach: I'll call a single raise in the BB holding any hand with which I would call an unraised pot, on the button. Things like A9, medium suited connectors (sometimes unsuited connectors like T9 or 98), Axs, Kxs, small pairs. These are hands with which I would never cold-call a raise in any other position.

If I'm looking at TWO raises, I don't worry much about defending the BB...I either cap the betting with a hand I'd cap with anyway, or I get away from it.

[college_boy]

Suited connecters and low pocket pairs come to mind when thinking about hands that you normally wouldnt call a raise with, but because of pot odds go up in value for one bet in the big blind(assuming other players have entered the pot). However there are many other variables to think about when defending your blinds.