Defending Poker Strategy: Best Tips for Online Poker Beginners
Table Of Contents
- Make Your Opponents Regret Raising Your Big Blind Every Time
- Tip 1 - Improve Your Preflop Play: Loosen Up and Get Aggressive
- Tip 2 – Defend More When Short-Stacked
- Tip 3 – Three-Bet Strong Suited Connectors When Deep-Stacked
- Tip 4 – Check-Raise More Against Flop C-Bets, Especially Small Ones
- Tip 5: Defend Against Opponents With Low C-Bet Frequency
- Tip 6: Be Selective When Probing With Strong Hands
- Tip 7: Get Involved in Pots With Recreational Players
- BONUS: User Jurojin's Free Online Poker Range Builder to Play Like a Pro
- Defending Poker Strategy Conclusion: Should You Always Defend the Big Blind?
You will struggle to consistently win chips and money when playing in the big blind, regardless of how good you are at poker. The positional disadvantage you have in the big blind is too strong to overcome, even for true legends of the game. However, there are several tips you can apply to your game that can stem the inevitable losses and make your opponents think twice about relentlessly stealing your big blind.
In addition to teaching you how to become a nuisance from the big blind, this article uses Jurojin Poker's range builder and other features to highlight ways you can start winning more pots and, hopefully, increase your win rate. We'll touch on table position, stack depth, aggression, and more. Let's get this show on the road.
Make Your Opponents Regret Raising Your Big Blind Every Time
The power of position is one of the first things online poker beginners learn. They learn to play tight in the earlier positions and loosen up the closer they are to being on the button. According to Jurojin Poker's free range builder, a typical opening range from under the gun is 12.7% of hands, which increases to a quite staggering 43.7% on the button.
This not only means the button will likely attempt to steal the blinds almost half the time the action folds to them, but they will be doing so with some relatively trash holdings, such as king-nine offsuit, queen-three suited, and ten-six suited. Bear that in mind for these blind defense tips.
If you allow your opponents to help themselves to your blinds whenever they feel like it, you will become an easy target. Similarly, if you only defend your big blind with premium holdings, you will rarely get action and struggle to extract value from those hands. This leads us to our first tip.
Tip 1 - Improve Your Preflop Play: Loosen Up and Get Aggressive
You need solid foundations on which to build your poker knowledge, and those foundations start with your preflop starting hand strategy. Many mistakes that online poker beginners make often begin preflop, and future streets amplify those errors.
Most newcomers learn the phrase "tight is right" and adhere to it like glue. This results in them playing an overly tight range of hands, which may work against non-thinking opponents but will come up short against more seasoned grinders.
As mentioned earlier, Juorjin Poker's free poker range builder suggests you should be open-raising from the button with 43.7% of your hands. All the pairs and suited connectors are in that range, but so are nine-six suited, jack-five suited, and all aces, and all suited kings and queens. Most newbies wouldn't dream of open-raising from the button with queen-deuce suited, but they should.
Because the button should be opening so wide, you can afford to defend your big blind more frequently; let's not forget that you already have chips in the pot after posting the big blind, increasing your pot odds.
Jurojin Poker suggests you should play 38.6% of your hands from the big blind when facing a button opening raise, three-betting pocket tens through aces, ace-jack suited or better, and ace-queen off-suit or betting. You should also call with many of the hands that the button is opening with, including king-seven suited, jack-four suited, and even lowly holdings like seven-four suited, and other suited baby connectors and two-gappers.
It's not only about playing more hands but also playing them with more aggression. By not betting and raising, you can only win the hand by having the best hand at showdown. If you are aggressive, you can force others' hands to fold and build larger pots when you have the goods.
Tip 2 – Defend More When Short-Stacked
Nobody likes being short-stacked, but it will happen to you in tournament poker in most events you play; it's just how it is. What beginners must realize is that you can still defend your big blind with a short stack. Why? Because you get to realize the full equity of our lesser-strength hand.
You only realise your hand's full equity if you get to see all five cards. Defending with king-nine with a deep stack means you're unlikely to see all five community cards. However, if you only have 20 big blinds, you could call, make a pair, or hit a draw, and get your short stack into the middle, meaning you get to see all five cards or force your opponent to fold.
You may find that your opponent continuation bets less when you are short-stacked because they're worried about getting jammed all-in, meaning you could get to see more turn cards for free.
Tip 3 – Three-Bet Strong Suited Connectors When Deep-Stacked
Suited connectors are the perfect hand for three-bet bluffing from the big blind when facing an opening raise. Three-betting with offsuit Broadway hands can lead to difficult decisions postflop, and, as a beginner, you may be left in a situation where you do not know what the best play is.
By three-betting with hands like eight-seven suited, you can play aggressively postflop by continuing your bluff your draws
Tip 4 – Check-Raise More Against Flop C-Bets, Especially Small Ones
Check-raising is a powerful play in poker and one that you likely need to utilize more, especially when facing a small continuation bet. Suppose a late position player raises, and you call in the big blind. The flop comes 10♠6♦4♣, you check, and the initial raiser makes a small continuation bet.
A small continuation bet often represents a wide range of hands, with some players making a small c-bet on the flop with their entire range. If you look at the hands, Jurojin Poker's range builder suggests defending your big blind with that range, which smashes into that flop. By check-raising with hands like top pair with a decent kicker or even draws, you will likely get your opponent to give up and fold. If they do call, you can reassess on the turn, assigning a tighter range of hands to the villain.
Tip 5: Defend Against Opponents With Low C-Bet Frequency
If you notice that an opponent frequently raises preflop but then doesn't fire a continuation-bet, you should defend your big blind more frequently against them. Most pros suggest a c-betting frequency of around 75-80% so anything less than this is considered low. If an opponent is only c-betting 50% of the time they have the opportunity to do so, that is a very low figure.
You can defend wider because your opponent is less likely to make a continuation bet and put you under pressure, allowing you to see more turns and improve your hand. On the other side of the coin, an opponent who has a high continuation-bet frequency can be a royal pain to deal with. You can either tighten your defending range so that you are defending with a stronger range of hands, or check-raise more because they are likely c-betting 100% of their opening range.
Tip 6: Be Selective When Probing With Strong Hands
Probe betting has its uses, but you should be careful not to overuse the move. Probe betting refers to when you bet out of position after a preflop aggressor doesn't make a continuation bet on the flop. For example, the button raises, you call in the big blind, and check the flop. The button checks behind, and you lead out on the turn. Your lead is a probe bet.
Many players will make a probe bet 80 %+ of the time they have top pair or another strong hand, which may seem logical. However, if you probe with all your decent hands, it makes your checking range look weak, opening the door for your opponent to bluff whenever you check. Instead, consider check-raising some of your stronger hands, which will keep your opponents guessing, leading them to make more mistakes.
Tip 7: Get Involved in Pots With Recreational Players
It should be obvious that you are more likely to win more chips and money by playing against players who are less skilled than you. Many recreational players have a tendency to play a certain way, which allows you to exploit them once you have identified it. For example, they may only continuation-bet if they have a massive hand, they may have a super-tight opening range, or they could c-bet 100% of the time.
If you identify a player you think is weaker than you and has tendencies you can exploit, consider widening your big blind defending range so that you can play more pots with them. The more mistakes they make, the more likely it is you will help yourself to their chips!
BONUS: User Jurojin's Free Online Poker Range Builder to Play Like a Pro
Knowing what hands are good to defend your big blind with used to be a case of trial and error over thousands, if not millions, of hands. Thanks to Jurojin Poker's free poker range builder, you can see what hands can be profitably used for defending your big blind with, and be able to play poker like a pro.
While the Jurojin Poker range builder is free to use, it is still extensive. It includes presets such as opening ranges for all positions at the table, ranges for how to act once another position has opened, a section for defending the small and big blind, and even four-bet ranges for when pots get spicy.
Defending Poker Strategy Conclusion: Should You Always Defend the Big Blind?
It may seem like this article suggests always defending your big blind, but that is not the case. While you should probably defend your big blind more than you currently do, it is important not to start defending it with any two cards against every steal attempt.
Consider where the opening raise is from and from what type of player, the effective stack size, and your opponent's postflop tendencies. By using Jurojin Poker's free range builder tool, you can quickly and easily nail down your preflop hands, meaning you're halfway to solving your big blind defense worries.
