Blind Defence with Dominated Hands (I)- Button vs. Big Blind

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Blind defence with dominated hands (I) – button vs. big blind

by Miiwiin

You have a potentially dominated hand. In such a situation you have to ask yourself: when should you defend your big blind? This column looks at some specific situations in which you want to defend your blind with hands such as KQ or AJ, for example.

Which lines you can use to defend your small blind is described in the second part of this column: Blind Defence with Dominated Hands (II)– Button vs. Small Blind

The problem with dominated hands

In the previous part of this column, Blind Defence with Problem Hands - an Introduction, we already discussed the problems that can occur. However, we still want to give you a brief review of the factors which force you into difficult situations and can lead to marginal spots.

Equity wise, AJ/KQ will usually put you ahead against a cutoff/button stealing range. It would be hard to find an easy fold.

If you want to defend your hand, then you can call or 3-bet.

Advantages:

• You keep the pot small
• You are playing weaker hands more often

Disadvantages:

• You are playing out of position
• You'll only hit a pair in three out of four cases
• You will often have to play way ahead / way behind
• Hence, you won't be able to protect sufficiently

ADVANTAGES:

• You are taking over the initiative
• You get fold equity preflop
• You'll get fold equity on the flop with a possible continuation bet

DISADVANTAGES:

• You are playing out of position
• You will only hit in one out of three cases
• You will be dominated more often
• Your hand is quite obvious, as you only hit on a high card board
• You can hardly fold your hand with a top pair, as the pot is already quite big
• You're playing a big pot out of position with a marginal hand

Both options are feasible in the right spots, both have their advantages and disadvantages. There is no standard decision here.

The following examples will illustrate this:

PartyPoker $100 NL Hold'em (6-handed) HandRecorder v0.9b

Stacks & Stats
MP ($100)
CO ($100)
UTG ($100)
Hero ($100)
SB ($100)
BU ($100) (26/21/3.5/43/23/900) [VPIP/PFR/AF/ATS/WTS/hands]

Preflop: Hero is BB with A , J
3 folds, BU raises to $4.00, 1 fold, Hero...

You are in the big blind, a fairly aggressive button tries to steal. As the small blind already folded, you are last to act and can either go for an active or a passive defense.

You will be far ahead against the buttons open-raising range. His Attempt-to-Steal stat of 43 is pretty big. The question is: How do you react if your 3-bet or 4-bet gets called?

If you only call, how would you play postflop in case of a hit or no hit?

Call option:

If you call, you will probably get to play way ahead / way behind. If you don't hit, the situation becomes tricky. Depending on the board texture, you may have to make a move.

3-bet option:

If your opponent 4-bets, you will have to fold. You don't have the reads necessary to go all-in. Looking at your opponent's stats, he is not very likely to call the 3-bet (a fold or a (bluff) 4-bet would be more likely).

If your opponent does call the 3-bet, you have to be willing to go broke with your top pair. Depending on the board and possibly the question if you have to balance, there are different options to choose from here.

The opponent is quite aggressive and has a high ATS stat. Since you don't have any history with this player, you want to show him that he shouldn't steal against you that often and therefore decide to 3-bet.

This Villain is likely to call weaker hands every now and then, trying to move you out of the pot postflop. Suited connectors and small pocket pairs are possible here.

Your plan postflop: If you hit, go broke. The only question is, how? If you don't hit, you should contibet and fold to further action.

The continuation bet is an important move here and should be applied more often than in normal spots. When 3-betting, you want to show your opponent that there are limits. You do not want him to steal your blind all the time. If you 3-bet preflop and check/fold the flop, you'd look weak and Villain might be tempted to steal even more (or call more of your potential 3-bets).

PartyPoker $100 NL Hold'em (6-handed) HandRecorder v0.9b

Stacks & Stats
MP ($100)
CO ($100)
UTG ($100)
Hero ($100)
SB ($100)
BU ($100) (26/21/3.5/23/900) [VPIP/PFR/AF/WTS/hands]

Preflop: Hero is BB with A , J
3 folds, BU raises to $4.00, 1 fold, Hero raises to $14.00, BU calls $14.00

Flop: ($28.50) A, 9, 6 (2 players)
Hero bets $20.00, BU raises to $44.00, Hero pushes all-in

You hit top pair. You contibet as planned and now have to go broke against this opponent as well.

PartyPoker $100 NL Hold'em (6-handed) HandRecorder v0.9b

Stacks & Stats
MP ($100)
CO ($100)
UTG ($100)
Hero ($100)
SB ($100)
BU ($100) (26/21/3.5/23/900) [VPIP/PFR/AF/WTS/hands]

Preflop: Hero is BB with A , J
3 folds, BU raises to $4.00, 1 fold, Hero raises to $14.00, BU calls $14.00

Flop: ($28.50) Q, T, 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $20.00, BU raises to $44.00, Hero folds

You didn't hit the board, but it's a very good one for a continuation bet. After the raise, you will often see yourself behind. Your gutshot and the overcard aren't enough to go broke profitably.

PartyPoker $100 NL Hold'em (6-handed) HandRecorder v0.9b

Stacks & Stats
MP ($100)
CO ($100)
UTG ($100)
Hero ($100)
SB ($100)
BU ($100) (26/21/3.5/23/900) [VPIP/PFR/AF/WTS/hands]

Preflop: Hero is BB with A , J
3 folds, BU raises to $4.00, 1 fold, Hero raises to $14.00, BU calls $14.00

Flop: ($28.50) 6, 5, 2 (2 players)
Hero checks, BU bets 20.00, Hero raises all-in

You can check/raise here. If you bet and Villain raises, you'll be in a tough spot. You'll hardly have any fold equity on your side. Also, if you don't hit or if you don't have any outs, it's okay to check/fold every now and then on this type of board. You can balance this with a check raise and you won't have any problems going all-in with two over-cards and a nut flush draw.

PartyPoker $100 NL Hold'em (6-handed) HandRecorder v0.9b

Stacks & Stats
MP ($100)
CO ($100)
UTG ($100)
Hero ($100)
SB ($100)
BU ($100) (29/12/1.3/23/30/1012) [VPIP/PFR/AF/ATS/WTS/hands]

Preflop: Hero is BB with K, Q
3 folds, BU raises to $4.00, 1 fold, Hero...

This time you're dealing with a somewhat strange colleague. Neither his PFR or his ATS value are within such a range that would suggest you should go right in with guns blazing. At a first glance, you can't assume that this player will use his position here - his stats dicatate that he only plays his hands. Thus the probability is significantly higher that your opponent is really holding a strong hand here.

Call option:

If you should find a call here, you basically have to build on a hit. Your opponent tends to be a weak player and you should forget audacious bluffs postflop against his type. You hit your top pair in one out of three cases, you should be able to extract enough value there.

3-bet option:

It close to say whether or not your ahead against his raising range, but the required fold equity is likely to be lower here.  You'll get a call very frequently and even on the flop, you can't assume you can fend off your opponent with a simple continuation bet. On the other hand, this opponent is more likely to go broke postflop with weak hands, which means with a top pair hit you'll clearly need to invest your entire stack here as well.

It's quite tight, but this time you decide on a passive defend. You want to take a look at the situation on the flop first and then, depending on the board, decide how you can extract the most value.

PartyPoker $100 NL Hold'em (6-handed) HandRecorder v0.9b

Stacks & Stats
MP ($100)
CO ($100)
UTG ($100)
Hero ($100)
SB ($100)
BU ($100) (29/12/1.3/23/30/1012) [VPIP/PFR/AF/ATS/WTS/hands]

Preflop: Hero is BB with K , Q
3 folds, BU raises to $4.00, 1 fold, Hero calls $4.00

Flop: ($8.50) 4, 5, 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, BU bets $6.00, Hero folds

You've totally missed the board. You have two overcards, however against this opponent it's hard for you to assess what they're worth. You don't want to bluff, so you simply decide on the variant check/fold and fold your hand.

PartyPoker $100 NL Hold'em (6-handed) HandRecorder v0.9b

Stacks & Stats
MP ($100)
CO ($100)
UTG ($100)
Hero ($100)
SB ($100)
BU ($100) (29/12/1.3/23/30/1012) [VPIP/PFR/AF/ATS/WTS/hands]

Preflop: Hero is BB with K , Q
3 folds, BU raises to $4.00, 1 fold, Hero calls $4.00

Flop: ($8.50) 4, 5, Q (2 players)
Hero checks, BU bets $6.00, Hero calls $6.00

Turn: ($20.50) T (2 players)
Hero checks...

You've hit your top pair on the flop and start off by playing check/call there. Thus, you're implementing the way ahead / way behind principle. Even if you consider your player to be weaker, there aren't many weaker hands which will pay out to you here on the flop. That's why you disregard the flush draw under the motto: pot control > protection.

The turn is more or less a blank, you check again. There are now two possibilties:

Villain bets the turn again:

In this case, it's a further check/call. Consequently, there will have to be a further check on the river. If you play check/call a third time here, it's rarely a big mistake, however, depending on the opponent, you can certainly weigh up wether a fold  might make sense.

This opponent doesn't appear to be particularly aggressive and bluffs a lot. You can see yourself behind quite a lot with a further bet on the river (requirement: blank). Thus, the option check/call turn // check/fold river would be possible here.

A block bet on the river would also be possible against this opponent.

Villain checks behind on the turn:

Now you have a light value bet on the river. If your passive opponent raises now, you'll generally see yourself behind. 

You should now deviate from the way ahead / way behind principle and play bet/fold on the river. A futher check for a bluff induce would be conceivable against a much looser / more aggressive opponent, as such an opponent will call less frequently with crap than the opponent in this case, but on the other hand, will bluff bet more frequently. There's even the possibility that he'll raise your river bet as a bluff.

PartyPoker $100 NL Hold'em (6-handed) HandRecorder v0.9b

Stacks & Stats
MP ($100)
CO ($100)
UTG ($100)
Hero ($100)
SB ($100)
BU ($100) (29/12/1.3/23/30/1012) [VPIP/PFR/AF/ATS/WTS/hands]

Preflop: Hero is BB with K , Q
3 folds, BU raises to $4.00, 1 fold, Hero calls $4.00

Flop: ($8.50) 4, K, Q (2 players)
Hero checks, BU bets $6.00, Hero raises to $21.00

In this case, you've hit a dream. The play tends to look standard, but you can already ask yourself, why you're check/raising now, when you only play way ahead / way behind with a clear top pair? Will this make you readable? Does a check/call on your part mean that you're holding a very strong hand?

The weak opponent is decisive here. The topic of balancing simply becomes secondary. Your opponent could be holding lots of hands here which would pay out to you (KK/QQ are very unlikely). You simply need to protect your hand now. If you just play check/call, you'll give Villain the opportunity to take a freecard on the turn.

The principle pot control > protection no longer applies here. Your hand is strong, your opponent weak, you're playing out of position, you need to take the initiative here and build up the pot.

PartyPoker $100 NL Hold'em (6-handed) HandRecorder v0.9b

Stacks & Stats
MP ($100)
CO ($100)
UTG ($100)
BB ($100)
Hero ($100)
BU ($100) (14/11/2.4/28/23/1200) [VPIP/PFR/AF/ATS/WTS/hands]

Preflop: Hero is BB with K , Q
3 folds, BU raises to $4.00, 1 fold, Hero...

Now things are getting close. Your opponent can be considered very tight. Neither his PFR nor his ATS indicate a very wide range here.

The main problem against this opponent: you'll rarely be able to play profitably out of position with your potentially dominated hand.

Nonetheless, a fold is very weak at the first glance. If you fold here, you'll rarely be making a big mistake. However, you certainly won't be far behind his raising range, you many even be ahead.

Call option:

At least with a call you won't push out any weaker hands, postflop you have the problem again of hitting quite rarely. However, you can certainly make a move against this opponent. Whether this happens in the form of a bluff check raise or through a float out of position, is a different question.

3-bet option:

With this opponent you can hardly assume that he will actually call a weaker hand here. If you hit your top pair on the flop and your opponent continues to create action, you can't really go broke profitably. Bet/fold with top pair on the flop would of course be a great shame.

On the other hand, Villain will fold a lot of hands. The fold equity is incredibly high, preflop as well as on a possible flop. Conversely, this calls for a 3-bet.

You can expect a bluff 4-bet more rarely, but you clearly need to fold against such an opponent, no ifs or buts.

It's more than just difficult to analyse a profitable play in this situation. As ever, both variants have their advantages and disadvantages. It really depends here whether you've already been able to gather experience about your opponent's game. However, he should certainly be aware that he shouldn't steal so frequently, although that doesn't appear to have been the case up to now.

Aktive defence

PartyPoker $100 NL Hold'em (6-handed) HandRecorder v0.9b

Stacks & Stats
MP ($100)
CO ($100)
UTG ($100)
BB ($100)
Hero ($100)
BU ($100) (14/11/2.4/28/23/1200) [VPIP/PFR/AF/ATS/WTS/hands]

Preflop: Hero is BB with K , Q
3 folds, BU raises to $4.00, 1 fold, Hero raises to $14.00, BU calls $14.00

Flop: ($28.50) K, 8, 8 (2 players)
Hero checks...

You've decided on a 3-bet and hit the flop perfectly. As a default, you should contibet now, which wouldn't necessarily be a mistake.

The question you need to ask yourself is: which weaker hands will you get value from here? Did a middle pair call down to you here? Do you believe that this opponent would call your 3-bet preflop with these sort of hands (or a dominated hand such as KJ/KT, for example)? This is quite unlikely.

Assuming you bet the flop and your opponent raises, do you think you can profitably invest your entire stack here? On one hand, there are hardly weaker hands which pay out to you, on the other, it's also a bad board for bluff raises. Why should he raise Kx here? A raise from your opponent would make little sense.

This is precisely why the option bet/fold is quite weak. Now you've hit a top pair and don't simply want to fold in a 3-bet pot. You can forget balancing here and simply switch to way ahead / way behind.

In relation to an individual hand, way ahead / way behind is definitely the most profitable solution. It's problematic if you look at your entire game! The board is now ideal for a contibet and what would you want to play with hands such as JJ/TT/99/87s/AQ/AJ? Bet/fold would be a wonderful option for you, only don't let your opponent see that you only play in this way if you haven't hit the board.

You should ask yourself: is balancing important here or not?

Passive defence

PartyPoker $100 NL Hold'em (6-handed) HandRecorder v0.9b

Stacks & Stats
MP ($100)
CO ($100)
UTG ($100)
SB ($100)
Hero ($100)
BU ($100) (14/11/2.4/28/23/1200) [VPIP/PFR/AF/ATS/WTS/hands]

Preflop: Hero is BB with K , Q
3 folds, BU raises to $4.00, 1 fold, Hero calls $4.00

Flop: ($8.50) K, 6, J (2 players)
Hero checks, BU bets $6.00, Hero calls

Now you find yourself in a way ahead / way behind situation again. It's not even about this actual example. The question is: how far can you follow this principle with this sort of hand?

Do you see the opportunity to call three opponent's bets as a given? Thus, at the same time letting your opponent decide whether he can value bet you or not? Or will he bluff bet often enough or even be of the opinion he can make value bets against you with weaker hands, as he believes that you are more likely to call loosely?

How is the board developing? Are there good cards, or more cards you don't like?

Your decision needs to be made on the turn: if you play check/call on the flop then the turn, can you then check/fold the river (as in example 2.b)? Why did you play the way ahead / way behind principle before, but not anymore? If your opponent bluffs, why should he stop doing so on the river?

Your reads at the table as well as the image and table history are irreplaceable. If you have the feeling you're being kidnapped and taken to value town, instead of inducing bluffs, you can also set aside your top pair now and again to a 2nd barrel, if you don't intend to call on the river.

The problem with this play is, as mentioned, that you don't just pay out to made hands, you even lose against bluffs if you muck the river.

LINKS
Related articles: Blind Defence with Dominated Hands (II) – Button vs. Small Blind Blind Defence with Dominated Hands (III) – Small Blind vs. Big Blind Discussion forum: Discuss the article