Tackling the intricacies of playing the blinds, the Hold’em behemoth that is Barry Carter.
The blinds in poker force the action, they make something out there worth winning and often they will break players that have gotten too attached to them.
When nobody else in the pot has something worth putting money into the pot with, the table is left with a blind vs. blind battle which often involves two players going into No Man’s Land with cards they would never play at any other position on the table.
BLIND WARS
The most pertinent fact about blind wars is that most of the time neither of you have anything that resembles a real hand, and for the most part you are playing the player as much as your cards. A good mantra to go by in these spots is to treat top pair like it’s the nuts - unless your opponent gives you reason not to - and value bet it relentlessly. If you really struggle with blind wars you might want to practice playing some heads up SNGs, which force you to play imperfect hands one after the other.
Not only are top pair hands usually good, the other reason to value bet them strong is that nobody will actually believe you, as everyone seems to reason, “he can’t have it, he’s the big blind” and you will be surprised what sort of junk people will snap-call you on three streets with because they don’t want to fold against your supposed wide range, or they want to look like a big shot by calling you down light.
Perhaps the biggest mistake players make in blind vs. blind situations is not being aware of whether they are the small or big blind; they just treat each equally, when nothing could be further from the truth. Being the big blind at a normal table is a massive advantage over the small blind because you have the positional advantage (not at a heads-up table, which usually gives the small blind the button) and often will be getting good pot odds to play your hand too. The small blind really is the worst position at the table in poker and you won’t really be at a big disadvantage if you never played a hand from that spot, because you always have to act first no matter who you are against.
The Small Blind
You need a good reason to open a hand from the small blind because you have to act first on every street. This is made worse because you have no idea where you are as the big blind’s range is so wide. When I am opening the small blind I want to have a playable hand (it doesn’t have to be a premium hand, just a good co-ordinated hand) and/or a weak opponent I can outplay in the big blind.
I am usually raising if I’m playing the small blind, because if I am going to give up position I want to at least put pressure on my opponent and give them a chance to fold. The sort of opponents I want in the big blind are either rocks who will just give me their money one blind at a time, or players who are loose pre-flop but play ‘fit or fold’ post-flop, meaning I can steal bigger pots after the flop.
If my opponent is very loose, very aggressive or very good – I am usually just giving them a walk (open-folding to the big blind) until I have a real hand. I don’t want to get re-raised by a good aggressive player when I’m holding rags, because I don’t want to get into a situation where I feel I have to play back at them. I’m not going to try and bluff a donkey on three streets with air, because expecting them to fold when you think they are a muppet is a big leak. However, these are exactly the sort of guys I want to bet into when I find a big hand in the small blind, which is why there is no shame in giving these players a walk until you have the goods. Considering you are only giving up half a big blind yourself, you are not exactly going to go broke folding most of your small blinds.
The Big Blind
It’s a very big leak to defend your big blind too much at a 6-max or full-ring table, and too often you will be out of position with an inferior hand. But it is also a very big leak to not defend your big blind enough against the small blind when everyone else has folded. Against the small blind you want to be defending and even re-raising much more loosely than perhaps any other spot at the table, because their range is so huge and your position is so beneficial.
Choosing whether to fold, call or re-raise when the small blind bets into you is also opponent-dependant. I think it goes without saying that if a complete rock opens the small blind, then I’m not putting another penny in the pot without a hand myself, but against loose or aggressive players you can really mix things up. Some people mindlessly raise when the action is folded to them and others simply hate being put under pressure. Against these players I will be three-betting from the big blind a lot because it will show a good profit when they fold a high proportion of the time. A good way to find out if they fold easily is to just bet and see.
If I have a playable hand with post-flop value, I’d be slightly more inclined to call because I want to extract more value from it every time I hit and they are much more likely to make a mistake with a second best hand. If they like to call three-bets quite liberally, I am more likely to reserve re-raising for when I have a very strong hand - for pure value - and flat-call with all my playable hands and fold the rest.
If I am against an aggressive player, I am expecting them to continuation bet when I flat call almost 100% of the time, which is good because there are lots of ways to counter it. If the player is very aggressive and has been regularly betting three streets for value or a bluff, then I will be looking to call them down very light with reasonable top pair type hands. This is because it will probably get more money in the middle when we are good than re-raising them and letting them off the hook. If it’s the sort of player that will fire a c-bet on the flop all the time but give up on the turn often, then I am going to float them a lot of the time, i.e. I am going to call their first bet regardless of what I have and bet the turn to take down a bigger pot when they check to me. It may seem like this is spewing money but it’s very profitable at the mid-stakes games where players continuation-bet way too much, and is even more so in blind wars because their range is much more weighted to weak hands.
Carter’s Top Tips
1. In a blind war, you will make several times more money from the big blind than the small blind, so play the small blind like a rock and the big blind like a maniac.
2. Until you have reason to suspect otherwise, treat top pair like it’s the nuts in a blind war.
3. Players have their widest range of all during a blind war, so don’t count certain holdings out of their repertoire too hastily.
4. It’s hard to observe everyone at your table, but try and play close attention to the two players either side of you because these are the guys you will tangle with the most in a blind war.
5. You are very unlikely to go broke folding your small blind so if you are in doubt, fold it - it’s the worst position at the table.
6. Playing heads-up cash or SNGs will give you a real edge against the field in blind encounters. |
