I am interested in some opinions on defending the blinds. I am talking about the serial raiser from the CO and Btn. I know these guys with 30% and better are pounding me but am disinclined to 3bet or call with crap or slim marginal hands.

hi cliff

merry xmas

I know the feeling you are having as i was in the same spot until i saw tims videos. Bottom line is this. You will have to try things that you are uncomfortable doing if you want to improve. If you think about it for a moment this is the advantage you will have over other players. Why do most microplayers never improve? It is lack of good poker instructioal info ( tims videos address that issue) or they refuse to follow the good instruction they get for a variety of reasons. Be it lack of discipline to stop limping or fear of value betting on scary boards or calling allin overbets w/o the nuts or the more common and reasonable situation you described.

What i typically do to work new and uncomfortable lays into my game is move down a stake level to test it vs players i think i have a bigger skill edge over and to reduse any losses that i might incur getting the hang of using the play properly. That being said i wouldnt try 3 betting "test play" below 10nl as they can be so loose that short term frustration of some bad outcomes might deter your willingness to add a more aggressive blind defense into your game

I suggest adding opponent call/fold to 3 bet to your stats in an easy to find spot of the hud
any player w/ 65%+ fold to 3 bet is ripe to 3 bet as they will typically be lighter and fold more in LP
Also, Look for positionally aware players as they will be raising light in LP, i use pfr utg, utg+1 co and button to do so, they raise light in LP so will fold alot
FYI, be prepared to Cbet virtually any flop vs most opponents, they mostly fold to 3 bet but still call with amazing junk that cant call a cbet

3 bet defend w/ AJo + and 88+ to start and you wll find they fold
if you get 4 bet
vs full stack push KK+
vs 3/4 stack + push QQ+, AK+
vs 1/2 to 3/4 stack + push QQ+, AK+
below 1/2 JJ+, AJs+

you can adjust range a bit depending on opponent and stack size
the smaller the stack the more you are priced in after they 4 bet/push

once you get comfortable with 3 betting to defend you will be amazed how easy it is and profitable it can be. It wont turn your blind winrate positive, but if you look at the hands you 3 bet defend you will show a profit which is much better than calling which leads to too many chk folds which is worse than just folding
Once you see how often they fold to 3 bets you will want to do it sometimes w/ q4o just for giggles.

maybe i will make video to demonstrate

hope this helps
rob

Alrighty Cliff,

you got me curious so i did some data mining on 3 bet defending from the blinds at the different stakes i have played from over 150k hands in this database. They look like this

Situation 1 i 3 bet vs a lone raiser

10nl
179 times in 33K hands (1/183 hands) few late positon raisers
Won +$115.61

25nl
381 times in 58K hands (1/152 hands)
Won +$134.45

50nl
276 times in 36K hands (1/130 hands)
Won +$126.85

100nl
236 times in 22K hands (1/93 hands) more late positon raisers
Won +$1656.03

200nl
10 times in 2K hands (1/200 hands)
Won -$195.00, AK flopped tptk vs AA, coolerland,
i was exactly break even on other 9 hands


Situation 2 i 3 bet vs a raiser and a caller(s) aka squeeze

10nl in 33K hands (1/868 hands)
38 times
Won +$74.09

25nl in 58K hands (1/651 hands)
89 times
Won +$197.27

50nl
65 times in 38K hands (1/584 hands)
Won +$297.30

100nl
62 times in 22K hands (1/354 hands)
Won +$260.48

200nl in 2K hands (1/333 hands)
6 times
Won +$264.59


Notice that as you move up stakes it becomes a more common situation as more players are positionally aware and raising light in late position. By 3 bet defending i make a profit instead of letting them steal my blind and me losing money. Same deal when pfr gets a caller and i squeeze. This also shows why better players don’t call alot of pfr and put themselves in a squeezable position.

One last thing for completeness


Situation 3 Results when i called instead of 3 betting

10nl in 33K hands
460 times
Won +$65.20

25nl in 58K hands
932 times
Won +$20.78

50nl
764 times in 38K hands
Won +$112.93

100nl
600 times in 22K hands (1/354 hands)
Won +$107.71

200nl in 2K hands (1/333 hands)
39 times
Won +$300.77


WE see that while i turned a profit overall in hands i called raises from the blinds. Simple observation shows the winrate of calling was way less than 3 betting. The results at 200nl just show i am running good. Good to be lucky. Looks like another leak to work on. Calling is clearly correct sometimes in blinds(mostly on bb, not sb) but it looks like i need to change my balance to more 3 betting

Fyi- i looked at sb calls vs bb calls

sb calls lost 150+, 170 at 100nl
bb calls won 756, won across all stake levels

looks like i should follow the advice , DONT CALL RAISES IN SB

hope this helps, i know i learned stuff i got to work on

hg

Thanks Rob, a very complete and insightful response. Just what I was looking for.

Good information! Thanks HG!