Blind Defence

Im currently doing a lot of grinding online, the usual cash games bollox applies but iv worked out my strengths and (more importantly) weaknesses. Im good at extracting full value from hands. Good at telling how strong my opponent is and whether another continuation bet on the turn is gonna lose him. Im bad at making big big calls (usually all-in fest's) when all my opponents ever turn over is the immortal nuts - usually, and im by no means being all big headed, its because the lucky asshole has improved on the turn and i cannot see how i am possibly losing. For example, board comes Ac 2c 5h and i raised preflop with AsKs. He calls my bet on the flop, then some mindless 9 comes on the turn and he check raises me all-in. More often than not he has hit this 9 to give him 2 pair. Or when some donkey calls a check raise for 1/3 of his stack with a gutshot, although this i can live with. Im thinking long-term nowadays, short term isnt bothering me so much.

Trying to lose the hanit of throwing away good money, opponents at this level dont know how to bluff very well so why pay them off. As it turns out, my bluffs are working with reasonable success. You need to find an opponents pain threshold and compare it with the price you give urself. For my rockier opponents, im finding 2/3 pot sized bluffs work well. The looser opponents call me too thin to make any bluff worthwhile.

But the main point i want to make today is blind defence. As most of you know, i adore short-handed cash game poker. Simply enabling yourself to play more pots 'should' mean that the more experienced, disciplined and learned players can make more money here than in a full ring game which advocates a rockfest strategy most of the time. One thing that happens a lot is you steal other ppl's blinds, and they in turn steal yours. For the most part, i wont tolerate a table where a strong opponent has his button on my BB. Its too much like hard work. But in the rare instances where tabel selection dictates that you must put up with it to break the 3 fish present, you have to work out 'proper' defence.

So here goes, 'broke' alex's blind defence strategy. Mix it up a lot. Whenever i get specific combinations of cards, im coming straight over the top of them. If they make it $4, ill make it $12. I usually assign face cards a value of 10 and the other cards their respective number. Whenever i get a combined score of 9 i re-raise preflop. This keeps them on their toes but is a very high risk/low gain strategy.

Most of the time ill just fold (say 60%) unless he takes the piss.

The rest of the time ill call and see flops. This is where the fun starts, but it works better when you have a 1/2 stack as then the smarter opponents realise they have no implied odds for any draws they might have. If the pot is $8 preflop, THE STRONGEST PLAY IN TERMS OR RISK REWARD is to lead out here. Lead out regardless of your hand on a non-ace board with any 2 cards for the full pot. This shows immense strength and is rarely used. But in terms of risk reward from the Big blind, it is strong.

The second strongest play (but again is very risky) is to check raise any Face,x,x flop. Knowing as we do that most hands miss most flops, he has to be holding this face card in order call.
But (sadly) the check raise bluff has become very well-used and good players are snapping it off.

Failing everything, find a new table full of weak passive players that fold to your every bet. Havent seen one of those in a very long time.....................