The objective of any game is to start, play and end. The same goes for even the best online poker games. However, the problem arises when you have a table full of people who are not ready to risk and don’t bet any more chips than they already did for the flop. Hence, Blinds.
Poker, just like everything else, is not free to play. After every round, poker players online are to give a form of what we can call ‘monetary tax’ to push every player to put in monetary bets, just so that the game can move forward.
In this article, we shall discuss:
- What are Big blinds?
- Tips on Defending Big Blinds
- Conclusion
- What are Big Blinds?
In a simple line, blinds are forced bets that are put up by the player sitting two seats to the left of the dealer. The round is played clockwise around the table and after each round, the stakes are increased by the player sitting for the big blind.
Now, why is this big blind necessary?
Like we mentioned earlier, the objective of the game is to start, play, and also end. However, in times where the players are not ready to bet any higher till they are dealt with premium cards, the game can go on forever. That is where Big blinds and small blinds make an entry. They induce player participation by forcing every single player to get stakes in the game regardless of them having been dealt with good cards or bad cards.
Big Blinds area way to motivate players to collect more chips promptly. Throughout the game, the number of blinds steadily increases to compensate for the huge sizes of chip stacks. By understanding this strategy of Indian online poker sites, we can conclude that by manipulating the blinds, it is possible to change the duration of the game on each table.
- Tips for Defending Big Blinds
Since we have understood what the big blinds are, let us understand how we can defend our big blinds to get the game to favor us.
Before we proceed, what does the term defending the big blinds mean among poker players online?
Since the concept of blinds is now understood, there are multiple positions you can be in when the blinds play out. One of these situations is defending the big blind by calling from another player after you have posted your big blind.
Being in the Big blind position (sitting two seats to the left of the dealer) is supposedly a favorable position because you can get better odds to call raise from a preflop raiser. It means that you can increase the bet amount before viewing the flop, thereby intimidating the weaker players on the table and increasing your chances of winning.
However, one must be careful when doing this as although calling a raise may seem like a good idea but it may not work for you in the long run if someone else has favorable odds on the table or holds better cards than you.
Keeping that in mind, here are some helpful tips on how you can defend your blinds. These strategies can work from the most beginner tables to the best online poker tables depending on when you apply these strategies and how skillfully you defend your blinds.
- Game Plan.
Although this may not sound like much heavy of a word, defending your blinds is all about a game plan. Study your opponents and the way they are defending. If you feel that you should call and your hands can land you a win, go ahead.
However, if you know that your opponents hold good cards, calling won’t do you much and the only way to go about is by folding. Deciding between calling and folding is solely dependant on your skill to read your opponents.
Being in the second position, you will likely be playing out of position, which does not give you a good view of what bets your opponents will post, so it is better to fold unless you hold strong cards preflop.
- Bet small when C-Betting
When playing blinds, bet only about 30% of your total pot. What this does is that it pressurizes your opponents into folding since you C-Bet, portraying the image that you have strong cards, and at the same time it puts you at little risk.
Going all in is fine if you’re sure to have good cards but C-Betting the whole pot is a very risky strategy. Many players bet everything they have, this is for two reasons. They either hold very strong cards like pocket aces and pocket kings, or they have terrible cards but want their opponents to fold so that they can win the pot.
In this case, C-betting gets the weaker opponents to fold, thereby leaving you with fewer players to compete with, and also minimizes the risk of you losing everything in case the odds are not in your favor. It is a good strategy to defend your blinds when you’re up against amateur poker players online
- Simplify your Strategy
Playing a wide range of hands preflop is a good idea to defend your blinds. However, it does make it harder for even the best online poker players to keep track of and balance multiple ranges. An alternate way to play is to have a basic strategy that may reduce your expected value (EV) but also prevents you from making some expensive mistakes.
One example of a simple strategy is to either C-Bet the whole pot of check 100% of the time, based on the flops which are advantageous or disadvantageous for your hand. Yes, I know that I advised not to C-Bet 100% of the pot, but I also mentioned that it is only when you want to minimize your risk and play safe.
In this case, managing multiple ranges may prove a challenge, and C-Betting 100% of the pot when the flops are favorable is a 50-50 chance. It is a strategy for all those players who are unable to balance many ranges at a time or are new to the game.
The oversimplification of your playing strategy is just one of the hundreds of ways to protect your Big Blind and play on Indian online poker sites. You can try out multiple strategies to find out which one suits you the best and play accordingly.
Conclusion
As you can see, poker is a game with a load of variety and multiple playing strategies. It is of utmost importance that you protect your Big Blinds and you can do that by playing safe or in an aggressive play style. The important thing is to make a conscious decision to maximize your win rates on Indian online poker sites.
