Defending blinds

[Ghazban]

I've only recently started playing no-limit online outside of tourneys and I see a lot of people raising to steal the blinds when its folded to them in late position. Obviously, you don't need to be holding a monster hand like AA to call this sort of raise but what kinds of hands should you call them with? (assuming the steal raise is about 4xBB) Thanks in advance.

[Ghazban]

And also, what sort of hands would you reraise with?

[fsuplayer]

I would reraise here with 88-QQ and most of the time AA or KK. I would sometimes just call with AA and KK to try and trap them. I would prob. reraise with AJ or better, maybe KQ.

What hands to call with is very player dependant. Does he often try to steal the blinds or does he actually have a legitimate hand most of the time raises in that position?
this question is hard to respond to bc it is so player dependent.

Online I dont defend my blinds as much, bc its harder to get a sense of the situation.

FsuPlayer

[Ghazban]

Thanks for the response. Personally, if its folded to me on the button, I'll raise with anything I was going to call with anyway as well as some pure bluff steals if I suspect I can get away with it. I just don't see any reason to call and let the blinds flop something when they would've folded to a raise. I think a lot of other people in the cheap NL games on UB think along those same lines as I see a lot of late position raising with hands that aren't quite raiseworthy in my opinion (QJo, JTs). Obviously, it is all player dependent as well but I just was looking for some general guidelines (which you provided [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img])

[Acesover8s]

Reraise with total junk, bet the flop no matter what comes, show it and say "These blinds are not for sale, bitches"

[Ghazban]

[ QUOTE ]
Reraise with total junk, bet the flop no matter what comes, show it and say "These blinds are not for sale, bitches"

[/ QUOTE ]

This is the funniest thing I've read all day [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] Laughing out loud at work is going to get me in trouble......

[fsuplayer]

Love it AA/88!

Def. doing that at my next home game! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

thanks for the advice,

FsuPlayer

[Matt Flynn]

.... or my favorite: "What's that smell!?" "Is that your GAME?"

First, get over the idea of defending your blinds. The idea in no limit is to defend your stack. Calling from the blinds is bad for your stack.

Of course you can play. It all depends on the individual matchup. Opponent has to be weak for you to want the situation unless you have a pair, AK or AQ. If you have a big advantage in that poker dyad - enouugh to overcome the huge advantage of position - then you'll want to play a lot of hands.

Main thing though again is getting over the idea of "defending" your blinds. That's a limit concept that will kill you in no limit. Fold your blinds!

Matt

[nicky g]

"Main thing though again is getting over the idea of "defending" your blinds. That's a limit concept that will kill you in no limit. Fold your blinds!"

I agree with Matt. That a doesn't mean you never want to rebluff because you think the guy has garbage, but you aren't playing back to "defend your blinds", you're doing it to take everything that's already in the pot.

[Ghazban]

I understand what you're saying; I just was unsure as to how good a hand I needed to have to play for a raise out of the big blind when I had a good reason to suspect the raiser was raising with a less-than-strong hand. In the event that you do see a flop, you're out of position to the original raiser, which can make things a bit harder as well. In general, I prefer to reraise or fold from any position with almost any hand rather than call but, in the blinds, you have an odd situation where, for the first round, you act last but, for all succeeding rounds, you have to act first. Its not that I have an ego problem with letting people think they can run me over in the blinds; I just am not as comfortable playing from them and I'm trying to develop some general guidelines (that will, of course, be refined with experience).