Pooh-Bah Redux: Blind Stealing.

[Pokey]

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Great post. If you were playing against yourself, what would you call with and what would you re-raise with out of the blinds?

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Good question. Against myself, I'd be reraising with a wider range of hands (say, top 10%) and calling with any hand that had potential. I'd also be check-raising the flop much more often when I hit, or when I thought my opponent DIDN'T hit.

AND, most importantly, I'd be losing money. Optimal play from the blinds against optimal play from other positions is not profitable. It loses the least money, but it still loses money. Whenever you are in the blinds, your goal is to lose as little money as you can, but realistically you can't expect to turn a long-run profit from the blinds. Recognizing that, my blind defense strategy isn't to try and dominate; it's to try and minimize my bleeding.

On a related note, when three people are dealt hands, who is going to make the most money on average: the one who is forced to ante a big blind, the one who is forced to ante a small blind, or the one who has no forced bet AND position on the other two all hand long? When you're the lucky one with position, abuse it. There's free money on the table -- take your share of it.

Oh, and remember one crucial piece of information: the blinds are typically not being defended by smart, aggressive, well-informed 2+2ers; they're being defended by the same useless, talentless donks who populate every other seat at our tables. Don't assume that they're going to adjust and start playing world-class blind defense poker. They're going to donk off money to you. All you need is a catcher's mitt.