Defending your BB with a ReSteal?

[Paul Thomson]

I was wondering when and how people decide to defend their Big Blind?

I usually do NOT defend my BB unless I have a big hand (AQ-AK, JJ+). And when I defend it, I usually put in a reraise. I almost never call.

But lately, I've been thinking about adding a resteal when the Raise comes from the CO or Button and possibly SB. I know it's a tactic I should add to my aresenal but I can't seem to find a formula where I don't have to risk a significant portion of my stack to pull it off.

For example, I think it's a safe assumption to say that at any given moment during a tournament an average to large stack is somewhere between 15 - 30 BB. Now if I'm in the BB with 72o and have a stack of 25BB and the button raises 3x the BB, then in order for me to resteal I have to put in somewhere around a bet the size of 9BB. So I'm risking 1/3 of my stack to protect my BB.

The other line I've imagined taking is when the button raise my BB, 3x the size. Then I will call out of the BB and lead into him on the flop for about 1/2 to 2/3 the size of the pot. So this way, I call an additional 2BB and the pot has 6.5 BB. And on the flop I lead out around 3.5BB. This line I risk 6.5BB vs 9BB, plus I can base my bet on the texture of the flop. But the downside of this play is that a call preflop and a weak lead bet is just asking the preflop raiser to Push you off the pot.

What do you guys think and do?

Defending your BB against a steal with a resteal is very read dependent.

Much of the advice I've heard says if your read says the LP player is stealing to resteal with any two. It seems like you have this concept as your are talking about a resteal with 72o.

As for which of your moves is better approach I would vary between the two. If you know the raiser to be capable of stealing with any two then I would go ahead and reraise preflop to get him off his hand.

If you think he is on a semi-steal or is the type of player who won't steal with any two but still has to have a decent hand a reraise to 9BB may not work as since he has a decent hand he may take a flop and now you have to play your 72o out of position for a big pot. Against this type of player you'd be better off calling and betting the flop hoping he missed. If you are almost certain he doesn't have a great hand or he is stealing, you should put him all in here as he'll fold more hands than you might think.

While deciding when to resteal shouldn't depend on your cards, how to resteal might change depending on them. With a decent hand I might be more inclined to call and then fire at the pot even if I missed. If I hit it great but if not I'm firing anways as my intention was to resteal from the start.

[Sam T.]

Maybe I'm doing this wrong, and I'd be happy to be told so, but I tend not to play around with my resteals. Whether I do it pre-flop or via the stop and go, I'm usually pushing. I do this for three reasons:

1. You get the max FE (the logical premise of this is that the villain is not a big stack who may call just out of spite).
2. You don't have to worry about playing a flop OOP.
3. I don't do this until the blinds are fairly high compared to my stack or the villain's. Am I going to defend my t15 BB to a t45 raise? No. But t200 to a t600 rasie? Usually, yes, and the chances of both me and the villain being at 40BB this late in the tournament are slim.


Sam

[McMelchior]

Personally I'll re-steal from the BB - like once in every tournament, if that much.

But. I do a lot of value-re-raising from the BB.

Meaning, if the open-raise is coming from the SB, I can safely put the raisor on a wide range of hands, where even the more modest range of my holdings will be ahead.

If my read on the raisor is that he's like to open with a lot of hands and is good enough to fold to a re-raise, I re-raise with an even more hands.

But most of the time I'm not really re-stealing - I simply raise because I believe the be ahead more often than not. Limiting your re-raise range to AQ-AK & JJ+ against a LP opener is way too weak/tight. Dig deep.

Best,

McMelchior (Johan)