Defending your bring-in
 

In HE there's the concept especially in tourney play of defending one's blinds. Does this same concept apply to the bring-in especially if someone is always rasing it up? Do the stakes matter for this?

Re: Defending your bring-in
 

yes, the same thing applies...
pay careful attention to the size of the pot (due to antes), your opponent, whether it's likely he's on a steal, and your hand. be more inclined to call the more favorable the situation

Re: Defending your bring-in
 

Are you playing shorthanded? In theory this doesnt matter but in reality people raise with any overcard door almost all the time here. I usually don't need to worry about defending my BI in full or near full games. Once things get 3 handed my calling standards are depending on the structure/ante are roughly any 2 overcards (maybe not if his door is an 7 and your hand is say T84), any ace with 4/5+ kicker, after that I call with an over and 2 straight flushcards, and a few other hands.

I raise with any pair with a decent kicker, if the structure is designed to be loose any pair with any kicker as long as they arent dead, I'll probably raise a hidden ace and suited big card, and probably just 3 big overs.

I really need to do some more pokerstove calcs in these spots though. There are more spots where knowing your true equity is important since the decisions will be close but very frequent, in fuller games you can get away with not knowing them since the pot will usually be big enough but may not be so sh.

A lot of this depends on how well you play HU and how well you play 5th street. Don't autobet 4th, if you catch bad and he catches good and checks to you the gig is up most of the time, take the free card when behind. Don't get showdown commited when you raise a BI steal on 3rd. There are plenty of times youre just going to catch bad while he catches good on consecutive streets. A lot of people get too stubborn here for no reason. 5th street is usually the big spot where i re-evaluate and decide where i want this hand to go.

You have to call pretty light against agro players SH. When you have a real hand sometimes your better off letting them bet it for you most of the way. Sometiems I really think its better to let 1 bet/raise slide on earlier streets if will get a guy to stop being super aggressive in similar spots against you later.

Anyway I dont play more than a thousand sh stud hands a week so my advice aint the best.

Re: Defending your bring-in
 

The value of the stakes don't matter so much as the ante-structure. For example, if you're playing in a high-ante structured game (BI .50 and small bet of $1), then you are probably correct to call something like (AK)5 vs. a villains door card up to a 10 or Jack, and even more so correctly to do so if they are a stealer.

However, ante-structures like this favor a lot of limping and seeing 4th a lot, so you won't be in the steal position as much.

It may be worth defending your BI against possible steals if it is happening frequently in a lower-ante structure game, if only for table image of "hey don't bully me around, I can be tough too"