Defending The Blinds In Limit Hold Em

In Limit Hold Em cash games, many people either over defend or under defend their blinds when someone has made what appears to be an apparent steal raise. Understanding when and when not to defend the blinds can turn a significant loss into a win. Since very few people will fold to a three bet after they've opened for a raise, there are primarily three main factors to consider when deciding whether or not to defend your blind. #1 – the actual strength of your hand. #2 – the probability that the initial raiser is indeed stealing. #3 – the probability that the initial raiser will fold post-flop. #1 again is pretty straightforward. If you have the hand, put the money in the middle and make them pay. There will always be times where your opponent will outdraw you or have a better hand than you, but if you are aggressive and bet/raise when you have strong hands, you are going to come out ahead in the long run and that's what limit cash games are all about – the long run. For the second factor, if your opponent is very tight and would only raise with a strong hand, defending the blinds is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if they are the type of player that will not fold post-flop with a strong pre-flop hand. For the price of one bet, you might be able to win up to ten bets if you are able to hit the hand. If your opponent is the over aggressive type and makes steal raises often, there can be a lot of money made if you proceed properly. It is important to remember that these types of players will continue to be aggressive post-flop so you will usually need some type of hand or improvement in order to win the hand but the range of hands you can call and three bet with is much wider than with a typical opponent. Against these types of opponent's a hand like A-7 or Q-J has much more value as it is often the best hand, even unimproved. The last factor addresses the fact that many players will raise first to act from late position because it's what they've been taught and they do so without thinking about the consequences of their action. When you call or re-raise them out of the blinds they are unprepared and will fold their hand to the first sign of pressure post-flop if it missed them. Figure out who these players are – they are easy to identify, any one who raises pre-flop and does not make an automatic continuation bet post-flop generally falls into this category. Example: A solid but predictable player raises first to act from the cutoff on your big blind. You know that they are likely making a positional raise and that they will fold post-flop if they do not improve. You decide to three bet to extract extra value for their weak post-flop tendencies. They call and the flop comes 10-6-4. You lead out and your opponent folds and you pick up an easy 3 bets. Your hand? Does it matter?