Does the Board Cut To The Defense Of Blind?, By Ed Miller

This week we have a translation of an article by Ed Miller, which addresses the issue of stealing and blind defense of the different strategies that we adopt best short and long table table Stealing the blinds and defend the blinds. What hands should I? Should I do more shorthanded? What factors are important when trying a blind steal or defend my blind? These questions are very common. I question in many ways. Unfortunately, a complete answer could fill a book, a book is not particularly what I would write. So I will answer one question from Jim, one of my readers: "I have a question for Ed in regard to defense table full table or short. Do they change the requirements for defense / theft blind in some way between the two games? The short answer is that change and not change. The short answer never give enough information, right? How about this: do not change from a theoretical perspective, and change from a practical perspective. It is not 100% accurate answer but it's enough. This is what I mean. Everyone retires against someone who is one off the button.

She goes up. Everyone retires to you in the big blind. You Kh 9s. Should you pay? Well, I do not know if you should pay. After all, do not know yet if the game is with or without limit. But this is not my position in this example. It is this: Do you need to know how short is the table to answer our question? From a theoretical viewpoint, no. The only theoretical difference between a table of 10 or 6 in the table given this situation is how many people have been removed before. Once removed, are irrelevant. When I say, "everyone retires to one before the button?, All those who retire are irrelevant. Who cares if they were 2 or 6? Who cares if it was none or were 12? Never mind. They are in hand. Not in our picture. Do not change anything our game.

That is the theoretical response. In practice, however, everything changes. Why? Because all this has to do with rank. Range. The range is the hands that would have to try to defend your blinds, which depends mainly on the range of hands that your opponents attempt to steal the blinds. If only "steal? with a big pair or AK hand, you should not defend them very often at all. If you try to steal very often, then you should defend yourself with a lot of hands. To defend or not depends mostly on the strength of the hand against which you would expect to have to face. That is essential, and always will be true, whether you're playing at a table of 10 or a table of 4, and play limit or no limit - or even if you're playing triple draw deuce-to-seven or follow-the-Mississippi Badugi queen. Also, the hands that try to steal depend on the range of hands you expect your opponents defend the blinds. If you are going to defend with relatively few hands, then you should try to steal a lot of hands. If you are going to defend with a lot of hands, then you should try to "steal? short-handed, but do value increases by many.

This is all about hand ranges. But what does this have to do with changing your standards if you're long or short board? Although theoretically there is no reason to adjust your ranges, in practice, your opponents will be adjusted. Now you see why. In a table of 10, you can virtually ignore the whole issue of stealing and blind defense and still make money. If someone tries to rob you, just give it (without a good hand). And never try to steal the blinds from anyone else. It is far from being the best way to play, but in a table of 10, you can still do so. Relatively few end up in the hands of blind stealing situation, since the people most of the time played from early position and from the middle positions. A lot of people who like to play shorthanded like this feature of this type of game. They like the fact of never having to deal with theft and blind defense. They do not feel comfortable playing marginal hands that sometimes you get trapped in such situations. So do not play.

When everyone folds to them in the button, do not steal. And when the button opens the pot, do not try to defend their blinds. Moreover, when a player makes a foray long table in a shorthanded game, many of them come with the vague notion that they have to "defend more?. Typically, the logic goes like this, "I get the blinds more often, so they all cost a lot more hands. If I keep playing tight, I lie down by the blinds, so I have to start playing many more hands to compensate? That "logic? is very defective. As demonstrated earlier, if everyone retires to the button player raises, no matter if the game started at a long table or short. The hands you play depend only on the range of your opponents, not how fast you "reach the blinds?. The flaw in this logic is to think of the blinds as "price? that "pay?. No "pay? the blinds are dead money. Bets are already made. And these bets already made relatively much worth against a few players against a table full of players. So do many more blind in a shorthanded game, but these bets have a much greater value in a shorthanded game, so the "price? total is maintained.

So although theoretically not have to make any adjustments between games of 10 or 6, in practice you will notice that your opponents play more aggressively in the short tables. You do not have to adjust to the different number of opponents, you have to adjust to the different ranges they play. Source: Noted poker authority.

...