Defending your Blinds

Most poker players fall into the basic categories of play as you would expect. By that I mean that you have loose, aggressive, passive, and solid poker players. Some players are hybrids of each player type. But there is another kind of player that is not mentioned nearly as much as the others player types. This kind of player is called a Defender. By Defender I am referring to that players Blinds.

Anyone that plays tournament poker realizes that you are going to have to steal the Blinds and Antes more than a few times in order to keep your stack alive long enough to pick up a few hands. As the tournament moves forward and the blinds increase this becomes even more important because the Blinds and Antes add up. There are some players that lay off of the blinds and antes early because there is really no value in stealing so little. On the other hand these players tend to be more interested in establishing an aggressive image and therefore how much is actually won from the blinds is irrelevant that early in the tournament. Ultimately, you will encounter a number of players that attempt to steal blinds in various ways as you progress from tournament to tournament.

So how do you defend against a blind stealer?

You can deal with blind stealer's in a couple of ways. However, you do not want to be foolish in defending your blinds especially early in the poker tournament. First, you want to have some kind of hand to defend with. Usually, we are talking anything from Ace Ten to Pocket Eights or better. Defending your blinds does not mean you have to push your chips in the middle with mediocre hands. What it does mean is that you have a hand good enough to re-raise and / or see a flop and trap when your opponent bets on the flop. Don't think for a second that the blind stealer NEVER has a hand because that is exactly what they want their actions to have you believe.

Second, sometimes you have to meet aggression with aggression and that means that you re-raise the blind stealer an amount that they are not likely to call with a marginal hand.

Each of these techniques can be applied to just about any situation but the most important thing to know is that you need to understand what the person doing the stealing is capable of. If you think he will call your all-in when you are holding a small or middle pair then that is not the play to make. On the other hand if you are confident that you have a good read on this kind of player then you can raise with just about anything knowing that they will lay their hand down. You have sent the message that your blinds are not free and you will defend them. Trust me, it only takes a couple of re-raises to get the blind stealer's back in line. So don't be afraid to get involved when it comes to your blinds. Just pick your spots.