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Playing the big blind. Do you know how to maximize this poker strategy?
Many people would agree that poker is one of the most exciting card games globally. Amateur and professional poker players enjoy every poker session as they perform their best strategies to beat their opponents.
One of the most important positions during a poker session is the big blind. You will see many flops in this position in every poker game that you play. Playing the big blind is also a challenging position in your poker sessions, which is important in making a profitable game against your opponents.
Only a few players know how to properly perform the correct strategy when in a big blind position. You must know most of the strategic considerations in playing the big blind in poker. This way, you will improve your win rate and advantage over your opponents. Here are some of the poker strategies in playing big blind.
Tips for Playing the Big Blind
Measuring the Pot Odds
Successful poker players first learned how to measure or calculate the pot odds. It is the process of finding out their chances of gaining profit from their opponents and placing their bets. Your opponents will have the tendency to bluff most of the time, which would make you fold frequently. This situation is called the minimum defense frequency (MDF) used when defending the big blind.
You need to call at least 50% of the round duration to prevent your opponent from gaining profit by over-bluffing. The MDF will determine the part of your capacity to continue playing and avoid your opponent’s bluffs. This strategy applies to river play that has no future streets to continue.
It is also not that useful in other poker situations like the flop play, where nut advantage and range advantage rules the play and might make a player fold more often than the MDF on some particular board textures when up against a bet. Players will try to match the MDF and place their money into the pot that contains many weak hands, which will be their disadvantage against a stronger range of their opponents.
Measuring the pot odds is almost the same as when players steal the blinds. Players can also use MDF as their rough guide to support the big blind in making sure that they have enough defense, but it is not always the best approach.
Some players will make this as a bench-mark percentage for their blinds defense and create a strategy for themselves. There are also better strategies for using the minimum bench-mark percentage to guide players on preventing a steal from earning. Players should consider the hands that will profit them upon calling from the big blind. It also includes considering the size of the antes and blinds, the amount of raise a player may face. It is best to know the big blind position to continue improving your win rate because players cannot expect all hands they are receiving will be good odds to call.
Know the Equity from the Big Blind
Every poker player must know the importance of position, which dictates the flow of the game. One element of knowing the positions in a poker game is a big blind player’s range. It may not include the strongest of hands, which is a disadvantage on later streets. A player’s skills also dictate their levels of play. Seasoned players always have the advantage against new players.
Equity realization is a hand’s capability to claim its calculated equity that factors in the skill level, position, and post-flop playability. It has the ability to increase or reduce the chance of a hand in winning a calculated part of the pot.
Different hand ranks can also affect equity realization, which gives information of a big blind’s positional disadvantage. Knowing equity realization will help players create strong ranges in playing the big blind.
The Range of Your Opponents
Determining your opponent’s range is a good factor that goes along with equity realization and pot odds. Once their range becomes tighter, you need to pursue raising and calling to gauge the equity disadvantage. Many poker players commit big blind mistakes by calling a raise with any hand combination that contains an ace. These hand combinations perform badly against tight ranges, and they are dominated frequently.
Tight ranges are hard to handle because they have a lot of equity against all hands. Players can also work on their range of board textures post-flop. When you experience wider opening ranges, you may anticipate weaker hands to gain more equity.
Another common practice that poker players do is pitting their hand against an opponent's range. This will let you compare to the pot odds, consider the equity realization, and decide which is the best hand to proceed with.
Equity Re-Enforcement and Stack Size Adjustments
There’s not enough time for short-stack players to operate in order to get chips. You can also pick up dead money from the pot by raising or re-raising and expect great rewards as you compare the size of the pot with the dwindling stack. This is an aggressive move when short stacked.
Players who are in a short stack should anticipate their opponent’s aggressive moves and must make adjustments immediately. This creates hands that have blockers to be useful for stealing because it reduces their opponent’s desire to call or re-raise.
Despite aggression when short-stacked, it doesn’t mean you can’t witness a lot of flops. There are limited decision points when short, and it helps weaker hands their equity realization. Now that you can often call, you can commit to the flop once they hit apiece.
Having suited hands, multiple decision points in hand and the combination of both are more useful in playing the big blind. These hands can frequently pick up straight and flush draws during the session. You will have more equity to continue playing and the chance to win the hand playing aggressively without a showdown.
You also need to consider equity re-enforcement after knowing how other hands work against various stack depths and ranges. It is when you play a hand that performs aggressively preflop, poorly post-flop, and take advantage of its blocker value and good raw equity.
Creating Ranges
You can now create some ranges upon entering the pot from the big blind. Your strong hands would go for 3-bet based on their ranges at different stack depths against equity, then combine them with semi-bluffs.
Your strong hands will profit from blocking parts of opponents that continue their range, equity re-enforcement, and provide you with board coverage. Your opponents will have a hard time playing against your strong ranges. You can create situations where you can play unexploitable ranges and adjustments for player leaks. This will make you a tough competitor from the big blind position.
Don’t Be Too Stiff
Playing the big blind does not mean you have to follow exactly all the set ranges. It is more important that you learn how to adjust to different types of opponents that you are up against on the table. If you are playing with lower stakes, you can defend your game more because your opponents will make a lot of wrong decisions post-flop. You can take advantage of this situation and receive great results.
Having a good base range guide for your reference is essential in playing the big blind. You can have a good sense of the capacity that you are deviating from your opponents or game situation.
You will also be able to formulate good strategies from default ranges and adjust appropriately to take advantage of weak opponents. It is all about how you adjust properly during the game with player pools or your opponent’s game style.
You can be successful with all these set ranges while having enough experience and review of the game. If you are playing against strong players, it would be best to follow the default ranges to help you increase your win rate.
Summary
You can improve your win rate by having the right strategy in playing the big blind. Playing hands based on the equity realization and pot odds will help you gain profit in poker. It is a disadvantage to have a forced bet during the start of the session, and you have to challenge the pot when out of position.
But with the right strategy, you can increase your chances of winning and outperform your opponents with your knowledge in playing the big blind. This situation will give you a bigger edge over other player pools and be more successful in playing poker.
Many players like to play the big blind because it gives them more opportunities to play more hands. This gives them more ways to play better than their opponents because of set ranges. You must get the right information, strategy, goals, determination, experience, and the right attitude in playing the big blind to outlast your opponents and win big in poker.
Have you tried playing the big blind? Share your experience with us!
