blind defense...

ive been thinking, and i was wondering if i never three bet the sb in my bb on a possible steal.


lately i have been just calling (or folding my crap) and waiting till the flop/turn/river to raise (or fold).

i feel that doing this all the time makes me fairly unpredictable... except that the sb will always have a cheap shot at taking my blind by never having to call a re raise.

any thoughts on how important that is?

tom c.

i feel that doing this all the time makes me fairly unpredictable


Actually, you are very predicatable. You will only call or fold pre-flop- never raise.

In fact, doing anything "all the time" makes you predictable.


You should be 3-betting quite often when defending you blinds against an obvious steal.

by unpredictable i meant that i could easily vary my postflop play. by often re raising i feel obligated to bet when checked to on the flop, setting up checkraise after checkraise (so it seems).


i guess what i want to know is why re raise preflop? i have position, and can wait to put pressure on him, and hes not folding to a bet with 5-1 odds unless he bet with absolute crap.

should i mix it up and raise half of the time i am going to play, should i call my big pairs like AA and KK? should i keep it real random?

definatly a hole in my game

by often re raising i feel obligated to bet when checked to on the flop


Stop feeling this way.


i guess what i want to know is why re raise preflop?


1. It discourages your opponent from raising himself since he may fear gettting 3-bet.


2. Because you have the best hand.

Tom,


Last night, I played in an online event, and

on a few occasions, I was the big blind, and

the player who sat in the small blind raised it when all others passed to us. The first two times,

I let him take the money, but then came a little surprise: I three- bet with nothing, he called, then when the flop came rags, he check- folded, and thereafter he showed no inclination to try

stealing again.


If a player senses your automatic tendency to bet when checked to, you'll find yourself in many more situations where check- raising is a positive EV semi- bluff play for him/her, as well as facing the better, or best, hand a lot, so you really won't know where you stand. You want the other guy to be guessing, not you.


perfidious