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60-Minute Master: MTT Part 4, Playing from the Blinds

In the previous lesson, you learned about how to play starting hands from early position to the button. Playing from the blinds, however, can be a little tricky, and not talked about enough in my opinion (hence the reason I’ve dedicated an entire lesson to it). Most players have big leaks from the blinds by either calling way too wide or not defending enough. Finding the sweet spot for defending your blinds is easier said than done, but the trick is turn your poor position at the table into a positional advantage. So without further adieu, here are some great tips on playing the blinds profitably in MTTs.

PLAYING FROM THE SMALL BLIND

In general, calling from the small blind produces a negative expectation (-EV), so don’t make this mistake of calling too much or or limping with trash hands like A6o or J3s. It’s simply not worth it. There are certainly hands we can call with but taking a (re)raise or fold approach with most hands is much better in the long run. This is even more important when it is folded to you in the small blind. In this case, you should be raising vs the BB player with a fairly high frequency. Some players defend their big blind in this spot religiously but others fold entirely way too much. Find out which player type they are and adjust your strategy accordingly.

The same goes for playing against late position raises looking to steal. If you’re in the small blind facing a raise from a player that steals way too much, putting in a re-raise (3-bet) will often result in winning the pot right then and there. Obviously you don’t want to be bluffing here against players who never fold to re-raise. So instead, widen your range of “value” 3-bet hands to include hands such as KJs or AT. When re-raising as a bluff (hoping your opponent folds), you will generally want to do it with hands that A) have blockers and B) have some postflop playability when called. A hand like A3s is a perfect example, since it makes it less likely your opponent has an Ace, but if called, can make straights and flushes as well as top pair).

So let’s talk about hands we can call with from the small blind. Well, implied odds* are super important here, especially when multiple players have already entered the pot. Statistically, if you are getting 7-to-1 odds or better from the small blind, you only need to win 20% of the time to be profitable. So, limping behind with speculative hands from the small blind is perfectly acceptable as long you’re getting great odds – both preflop pot odds as well as postflop implied odds.

*Implied odds are the potentional chips you stand to win on later streets should you hit your hand.

PLAYING FROM THE BIG BLIND

This is similar to playing from the small blind since you will be playing out of position postflop, except when facing a small blind open. Again, the best way to defend your blinds is re-raising. You can call slightly more often in the big blind, however, because you’re out of position you want to put maximum pressure on the players. Taking back the initiative by re-raising is what transforms our blind into a positional advantage. Obviously you will need some wiggle room in your stack to make this play. But if you have a good read that your opponent is raising with a wide range of hands, don’t be afraid to fight back.

If we decide to just call preflop, we can again rely on implied odds when making our decision. We can also call preflop with the intention of leading out on the flop. This is referred to as ‘Stop and Go’. By using this move, you can severely reduce your opponent’s calling range as well as pot equity, assuming they missed the flop. This requires more caution than a standard preflop shove, but it can be very profitable against loose preflop players. Just don’t over-use it.

Here is an example. Hero is in the big blind with 99 facing an open raise of 2,000 from the player in the cutoff. The blinds are 300/600 and both players have 10k in tournament chips. If we go all-in here, our opponent is getting favorable odds to call (more than 2 to 1). When he does, we’ll most likely find ourselves in a coin flip situation vs high cards (or crushed by a higher pocket pair). By calling however, we can decide to shove on the flop and force him off a hand like AT or KJ.

The advantage here is to make our hand look stronger than what it is. Your opponent will miss the flop over 60% of the time and will be throwing away a lot of hands. Also, when he calls with marginal hands, it reduces his odds to improve since there are only two cards to come as opposed to five.

CONCLUSION

By now, you should have a solid understanding of how to play preflop for each position at the table. You will notice that I have not included hand charts for the blinds. The reason for this is you will need to constantly adjust your range depending on the situation. Don’t expect to be perfect, especially in the beginning. But as you develop your game, you will become more comfortable when defending your blinds. If you have questions at this point, feel free to leave a comment below. In the lessons that follow, you will learn more about specific adjustments throughout each stage of an MTT, as well as common postflop situations.

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