Blind Defense with Problem Hands - An Introduction

» COLUMN

Blind Defense with Problem Hands – An Introduction

by Miiwiin

The blind defense is an important topic in No Limit Hold'em. Why should you let the opponent take your blinds when you have a playable hand? Unfortunately, playing from the blinds is never easy. You need to know what kind of opponent you're facing and how you want to continue postflop.

In this article we are going to look at blind defense situations with dominated or drawing hands. In the first part, we will introduce you to the general problems of a blind defense. In the next article, we'll have a closer look at the different plays that are possible with potentially dominated hands as well as drawing hands.

The hands in question

Dominated hands can be very dangerous for you. If you hit top pair, it's unlikely that you will get paid off by a weaker top pair; often, your opponent may be holding a top pair himself, but one with a better kicker.

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

Stacks & Stats
MP ($100)
CO ($100) (25/15/2.8/29/1012) [VPIP/PFR/AF/WTS/Hands]
UTG ($100)
Hero ($100)
SB ($100)
BU ($100)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A , J
2 folds, CO raises to $4.00, 2 folds, Hero raises to $14.00, CO calls $14.00

Flop: ($28.50) A, 9, 6 (2 players)
Hero bets $20.00, CO raises to $44.00, Hero...

This is a typical example of a dominated hand. Although it looks good preflop, actually on a flop like this you do have to ask yourself if there are any hands out there that you beat. AT maybe? Very possible, but would AT raise here? It's more likely that your opponent has AK or AQ; but these hands dominate you and you barely have any outs left.

However, if you think that your opponent could be holding AT here, he could also have something like A9, right? Again you'd be behind. If you didn't start thinking about your opponent's range before, it'll usually be too late by now.

Typical hands facing domination include AJ and KQ and we're going to focus on these two. Naturally, the problems that occur with these hands also apply to other hands (AQ/AT/KJ/KT/QJ/QT/...).

With drawing hands, you have one main problem: you rarely hit. If you do hit, you'll usually just have a draw. This draw will probably give you a good amount of equity, but you have to make sure that you adapt your game accordingly against certain players, in order to make profit.

If you are playing opponents who generally call with every hand, you don't necessarily want to play your draw aggressively as you wouldn't get the required fold equity. The question is: what else can you do after a blind defense out of position?

We will focus on hands that are unlikely to hit anything else besides a draw, so primarily hands such as 45s – 89s.

The problems of a blind defense

These are the two hand categories we are going to analyse now. What are the main problems you will be facing with them?

Your opponent's steal range is always significantly bigger than the range with which he is willing to call a potential 3-bet. This can be shown quite easily with the help of an Equilator analysis:

Please don't take the ranges as gospel. What's important is the principle behind them: if Villain calls your 3-bet, he does so with a range that is better and tighter than his stealing range.

However, as you can see this certainly doesn't mean that you are behind. This is where the real problems begin. If your potentially dominated hand hits after a 3-bet, you won't usually be able to get out of the hand. In the end, you want a weaker hand to pay you off. If that doesn't seem like a given to you, you should question the whole point of your blind defense.

Another problem is your position. You should realise how incredibly important position is. Also, it goes without saying that you will always be out of position in blind defense situations: you are the big blind and the only player who has entered the hand so far is the small blind.

Time to analyse your game and ask yourself: do you find it a lot harder to play out of position than in position (everyone does). This analysis will help you decide which hands you should defend and how.

It should always be your top priority to analyse your opponent. Above, we already discussed the differences between stealing and calling ranges. The hands in those ranges will vary from opponent to opponent. Stats are important here, but you also need to observe Villain to find out how and with which hands he will try to steal and with which he might call your potential 3-bet.

Here, too your priority needs to be the play postflop. If you are 3-betting a specific opponent and hit on the flop, there aren't many options to choose from. If you don't think your top pair is good enough to invest all your money on the flop, then you have to ask yourself if the 3-bet was really such a good idea.

You are probably well aware of the problems that can arise with dominated hands. However, don't forget that a marginal spot such as the one in example 1 is pretty much the best thing that can happen to you. In two out of three cases you won't hit anything with such hands. On the flop you'll find yourself unimproved and out of position with ace high or K high, the pot is relatively big and your alternatives are quite clear.

Should you contibet on this board? What do you do if you get called?

You have to think about these things preflop too and evaluate the situation based on your opponent and the flop structure.

You will often see hands that pick up a good draw on the flop after playing aggressively preflop, but then the players have no clue how to go on.

It's not difficult to see the problems that arise:

• You are playing out of position
• You only have one draw
• The pot is already huge
• If you don't improve on the turn, you'll have a problem
• Your opponent might not let go off made hands
• It's difficult to find the ideal way to play here

These are the things you have to worry about, but wasn't it possible to anticipate these problems preflop?

It is extremely important that you already think about your postflop play preflop and analyse whether it makes any sense at all to play your suited connector. If you do want to play it, should you defend aggressively or passively.

In the following parts of this column, we will discuss the aspects you need to consider preflop and the possible plays that go along with them.

Defending your blinds passively holds similar pitfalls: you have to ask yourself if you have enough fold equity to play your draw aggressively on the flop, or if you have sufficient implied odds to play your draw passively.

Possible plays

As mentioned before, there are two different ways that you can defend your blind.

Either you decide on an aggressive play, which means you want to 3-bet; or your choose the passive alternative by (cold) calling the open-raise.

Let's look at possible plays with our two hand types:

If you aren't that confident yet when you sit at the tables and haven't gained a whole lot of playing experience, suited connectors will probably not be amongst your favourite hands. You want things simple when you first start out. With suited connectors, however, this is rarely the case.

Still, there are many people that actually enjoy playing these hands. Maybe you have heard other players say things like "...I prefer to 3-bet 67s than AJ..." or "...I hardly ever find myself in bad postflop spots...".

Why is that so? You simply have a lot of options with suited connectors in a blind defense. The most simple one: folding.

You have the option of folding such a hand. You will usually be behind equitywise, so it's all about your hand's postflop playability against your opponent. If you think it will be rather low, you should simply muck your hand.

If you 3-bet, it is very unlikely that your hand will be dominated postflop. Either you've hit a playable hand or you haven't. Keep in mind the game plan you need to come up with when you 3-bet here. If you have practiced this a couple of times, you will know how you should continue on the various possible flops and realise that the playability of such hands could easily be pretty good.

Apart from 3-betting, you also have the option of passively defending your blinds by calling. Again you would need information on your opponent here. It's rare to play draws profitably out of position if you're only playing passively and waiting for a hit. You do have to make an estimation of your implied odds here. Again: your implied odds depend on your opponent's stealing range and how far he's willing to go with these sort of hands.  

Dominated hands make your life a little more difficult preflop. AJ and KQ are just too good equitywise. Could you imagine finding a simple fold in example 1?

The equity analysis also shows how well you usually fare with KQ. Generally, you have the following options: calling or 3-betting. You will usually not be able to avoid spots like this.

What should you do after a 4-bet?

This is one of the few aspects that shouldn't pose many problems. You will almost always have to fold here.

There may be situations in which you face such loose, aggressive comerades that you can see yourself ahead if you 4-bet/call with hands like AJ/KQ. However, this is the exception.

With suited connectors, you should usually find an easy fold unless you think you have a high level of fold equity and decide to bluff shove.

It's also important to notice when your opponent tries to move a lot, for example. This gives him the opportunity to pus your potentially stronger hand (AJ/KQ) or your hand with good playability (suited connectors) out of the pot with a 4-bet bluff. He will no longer have that option if you make a passive call preflop.

Postflop play

In the coming parts, we will take a very detailed look at postflop play:

• Blind Defense with Dominated Hands - Button vs. Big Blind
• Blind Defense with Dominated Hands - Button vs. Small Blind

But be prepared: you will often find yourself in tough spots with dominated hands. Let's look at the elements that speak against defending with AJ/KQ.

Passive defense:

• You aren't protecting your hand.
• You won't have many options postflop: a check/raise would be overplayed. It will be hard to stack weaker hands with this.
• You pretty much have to play way ahead / way behind.
• However, you are giving out free cards which might hurt you in the end.
• You wouldn't really want to call three barrels with a dominated hand.
• On the other hand, you are giving Villain the opportunity to value bet against you. However, he cannot take any free cards or a free showdown.

Active defense:

• You might isolate yourself against better hands.
• If you hit top pair, you will no longer be able to fold.
• The pot will get quite big.
• If you play way ahead / way behind here, you won't be protecting your hand either.

As you can see, this is not a dream spot for you.

With suited connectors on the other hand, you can avoid these problems by folding. Other than that, you can perfectly balance your range here depending on your opponent and the table image you have established.

You just have to realise that when you do decide to defend your hand actively you should also play your draw aggressively - hence, you'd be entering a situation with very high variance.

Blind vs blind

This situation can only occur when the small blind steals first-in and you are in the big blind.

Special circumstances:

• You are in position.
• You can go broke more loosely in a blind battle - postflop as well.
• SB open-raising ranges can vary considerably from player to player. Some are very loose here, others very tight. You need to pay close attention to that.