[Ross]

Your hand is almost irrelevant; you have to judge how genuine the raisers hand is. If he is a frequent raiser then you have less reason to credit him with a hand and more reason to try to defend your blind.

If you are making a move to defend your blinds generally reraise unless you have a big pair which you can count on being the best hand on the flop. There are number of reasons for this

1 You will have the worst position after the flop and a check will invite your opponent to bet thereby surrendering more chips than had you given up the blind in the 1st place.

2. If your opponent is habitual blind stealer with any 2 cards no flop is safe for you, so it is better to reraise forcing the raiser out of the pot.

3. In cases were the raiser has a genuine hand you can get away from it without doing further damage when you flop a good 2nd best hand.

An example in a NLHE tournament I try to raid the blinds with a raise holding 9h7h. The BB calls flop Ts6d8c. BB has AT and goes broke.

Had she raised I don’t call and therefore I don’t hit the flop but once I do she is in all sorts of trouble because she cannot put me on a straight.

However on the same flop if I have a high pocket pair she is also in trouble with AT a hand that she would not have stood a reraise with pre flop.

There is a case to be made for stealing and defending blinds with trash i.e. making a play with hand that if the original raise or reraise is called you are not going any further with. If by some strange twist of fate you hit the flop and you have to show the piece of trash you re-raised with it will completely baffle your opponents.

Regards

Ross