Blind Defense (In General)

[MarkD]

I don't really have time to add anything meaningful to this discussion but I do checkraise the flop alot in blind defense situations. I think that I probably 3-bet slightly less than some of you guys do (and think that some of you 3-bet too lightly). I probably need to 3-bet more.

I think that there are also situations where it is correct to simply call from the SB when you have a somewhate playable hand. This is not the default play of course but I probably call more from the SB than most here.

Here is a line I use from the BB against a SB open raise.

SB opens, I call. SB bets the flop and I call. At this point it really doesn't matter what my cards are. SB will now check the turn a lot of the time. The pot is small and he often gives up. This is even more true when the flop contains an ace or a king or a queen. He will be more inclined to bet those times the flop is all small cards. This is all anecdotal but it's what I have seen.

Ok, now you bet the turn and take the pot down much more than 50% of the time. This way of restealing the pot in this situation has been more effective for me than 3-betting pre-flop or raising the flop. You can balance this by sometimes "slowplaying" when you flop a pair.

[wheelz]

Wow, that pretty much exactly sums up my thoughts on blind defense. This is exactly what I'm doing. I have too few hands for any meaningful analysis and I'm running good... still making money out of the SB after almost 10k though [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[cartman]

[ QUOTE ]
I disagree. IMO, CR'ing the flop should be your standard. Everytime you decide to continue past the flop in a HU steal situation, you should consider taking this course of action. I'm a big fan of using other lines, but CR'ing the flop is the trusty standby.

[/ QUOTE ]

I typically checkraise the flop with any pair HU vs a stealer when the board is T high or less, but when the board is at least J high I often just call down with my middle and bottom pairs. It is not uncommon for me to check fold 3rd pair or worse on the turn if the board now has two cards J or higher.


Should I be usually be checkraising any pair regardless of the size of the flop?

Should I be showing down every pair heads up versus a steal attempt?

Thanks,
Cartman

[marand]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I disagree. IMO, CR'ing the flop should be your standard. Everytime you decide to continue past the flop in a HU steal situation, you should consider taking this course of action. I'm a big fan of using other lines, but CR'ing the flop is the trusty standby.

[/ QUOTE ]

I typically checkraise the flop with any pair HU vs a stealer when the board is T high or less, but when the board is at least J high I often just call down with my middle and bottom pairs. It is not uncommon for me to check fold 3rd pair or worse on the turn if the board now has two cards J or higher.

Is this too weak?

Should I be showing down every pair heads up versus a steal attempt?

Thanks,
Cartman

[/ QUOTE ]

I think it depends a lof on who the stealer is, but your default line seems ok to me. You should not be taking every pair to showdown. For example: 98 to showdown on a KQ8A board would be spewing.

[Lmn55d]

there's a great article by Jason Pohl about why checkraising the flop is usually superior. I don't have the link offhand, maybe someone can link you.

[ALL1N]

[ QUOTE ]
should i have check-raised the flop?

[/ QUOTE ]

You've gotta bet the turn in this hand, so either CR-bet or check-call-donkbet, depending mainly on which is less likely to get played back at (if he's likely to play back enough to make it hard to know whether to continue, checkfold the flop). Too frequently you'll be giving a 6 outer a free card by waiting until the turn to CR, whilst spewing chips against a better hand.