Big Blind Defending Range
Jan 12, 2017 Defend the Big Blind Strategy #1 – 3betting against Button The standard open raise in zoom poker is 2-2.5x from the button. Standard BB 3bets are usually 8BB, with BU 4bets around 15-16BB. Tight players are opening 40% from BU, and it’s not rare to see open ranges of 75-80%. We tend to defend the blind against the big stack (probably table chipleader) with premium hands to make sure that we are ahead of his range. Most likely he will call our raise and try to win on flop/post flop. While defending the blind we reraise more to have high fold equity, and raise less if. The range you've described (adding in broadways/big pairs) means you're only defending 35% of hands. So SB could raise any two cards and print money against you. Plus against SB you have a positional advantage to go with your increased pot odds. Many players make this play by default. When facing a raise from the big blind, they instinctively call because they’ve got it in their head that they need to ‘defend the blind.’ You might think, “well, I’ve already got some chips in the pot. This means I’m getting better pot-odds on a call than I otherwise would, so I.
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Defending your Big Blind Against Button Raise
Big Blind Defending Range Meaning
Published March 15, 2020 by Team ClubWPT
The Scenario
This week we're focused on a typical tournament spot where you are out of position against a tough player on the Button after calling their raise from the Big Blind.
There are a few flops where you could construct a leading range from the Big Blind in this spot, but for the vast majority of flops you can begin by checking to the preflop raiser. Checking is preferred as a default because the preflop aggressor in this spot will typically have an equity advantage.
It is however important to keep in mind that the player on the Button will have a wide hand range, typically at least 40% of all hands but sometimes much wider. This should cause you to take more hands to showdown in this scenario compared to spots facing narrower Villain ranges.
As a general rule, you want to check-raise the Button's continuation bet with some very strong hands and some lower equity draws (backdoor draws, gutshots with overcards, etc) so that your check-raising range is somewhat polarized. You can typically check-call with medium strength hands and draws.
Donk-betting, or leading out when you called the previous street, is usually only viable on equity changing cards. Leading out when a card comes that helps your overall hand range significantly can be a good strategy, whether your hand is actually helped by that card or not.
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Big Blind Defending Range
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