Head Games: Big Blind Strategies in Cash Games

The Pros: David Randall, Jean-Robert Bellande, Simon Dahms, and Aaron Jones

Craig Tapscott: How wide do you defend the big blind (BB) in cash games? Perhaps share some examples.

David Randall: My cash game experience mostly consists of playing $2-$5 no-limit hold’em live in Vegas. In these games, I defend the BB very wide because I feel I have an immense edge over my opponents postflop. My range is approximately (in a vacuum) suited broadways (that I don’t three-bet), any pair (that I don’t three-bet), any suited connector, any suited one-gapper, and even suited two-gappers. One of my main arguments for defending the blind this wide is that there are a number of flops that I don’t hit super hard that I am still willing to continue with. At $2-$5, I would approximate that 95 percent of the players at this limit play their hands face up, so it is not difficult to navigate when you flop marginally. For example, if someone starts with $1,000 and raises to $20, if I flat with 7 4 in the BB, and the flop is 10-6-3. I check and the guy continuation bets (c-bets), and I can tell by his body language (not hard to tell at this limit) that he has an overpair. If I check/call the flop, and turn is a five, I will be able to check-raise the turn, and probably get most or all of his stack in. If I check the turn, he will likely barrel for about $80 into the $100 pot. I can check-raise to $275 total and certainly get a call from overpairs. This leaves $650 in the pot and less than $700 in effective stacks left behind. Depending on the river card and how fishy I perceive my opponent to be, I can either bet like $400 on the river or just jam and usually get called (on dry river cards). If a deuce or seven hits the river, I will be slightly less likely to get called, since it would put four to a straight on the board.

Jean-Robert Bellande: I’m generally not known for being a technically sound cash-game player. So most serious players would not be looking to me for advice on how wide to defend the BB. Yet my answer is…”it depends.” I’m certain there are books and charts out there with very specific preflop advice on optimal hands to defend out of the BB against the various raise positions. However, the main two things I take into account are skill level and stack size to proceed in the hand.

Simon Dahms: Let’s look at the most common button opening size: a min-raise. We are getting 3.5:1, which means that we need around 22.22 percent equity in order to be able to call (for bigger opening sizes you can calculate this number accordingly). If we were calling all-in, this would be the number we are looking for. However, there are three streets of poker left to be played. And because we are out of position, and the weakest hands we consider calling with are very likely to flop a bluff catcher, we do not realize all of our equity. Consider a hand like K-4 offsuit. When we flop a king, everything is (fairly) dandy. Flopping a four, however, usually leaves us with second pair or bottom pair. On boards like 10-4-3 or A-6-4, we probably do not want to put in much money, which means that we are going to fold the best hand sometimes. For disconnected hands including a low card, let’s assume that we realize about 65 percent of our equity postflop. This means that we suddenly need 34.2 percent equity instead of 22.2 percent. That’s what we need in order to call the raise. We can still three-bet some weaker hands. The typical regular player opens between 40 percent to 70 percent of hands on the button. Against the 70 percent opener, we can call almost 90 percent of hands based on pot odds (10-2 offsuit, 9-3 offsuit, and 3-2 suited being the weakest). Against the 40 percent opener, [we can defend] about 70 percent of hands (the weakest hands being Q-2 offsuit, J-5 offsuit, and 4-2 suited). Usually, I stick with the conservative number of calling about 70 percent of hands against a min-raise (and about 42 percent and 30 percent against 2.5 times and 3 times raises respectively, making slight adjustments based on the button’s opening range). Add about 10 percent (bluffs) that I three-bet, and you have my rough defense strategy against typical sizes and ranges.

Aaron Jones: This question depends on a lot of variables: What is our immediate price? Our price can be improved if we’re going multiway to the flop, where I’m likely to defend wider than against just one opponent.Our price can also be improved substantially if there are antes, where I’m likely to defend very wide against the small opens that players make in today’s games. How deep are we? If we’re deeper, I’ll tend to defend more implied odds hands. If we’re more shallow, I’ll look for immediate showdown value. For example, higher cards will be more important. How wide is our opponent’s opening range? The wider it is, the easier it’ll be for us to realize our equity (basically, getting to showdown). 

Craig Tapscott: How often do you reraise from the BB in cash games?

David Randall: My three-betting range in these games is relatively tight from the BB. There are certainly players that profitably three-bet wide from the BB, but I don’t feel like it fits in with my overall strategy in the game. Normally, when I am at the table I am opening a ton of hands. I must create some level of balance or else players will eventually snap and start playing back at me (which I don’t want if I can otherwise just run the table over). I choose the blinds to hold back on my aggression because normally players just flat when I three-bet, and then I am playing against a concealed range in an inflated pot out-of-position, not a great scenario. Even if I could find a way to profitably fit this into my game, why would I force it when it could potentially compromise the rest of my game plan? I want my three-bets to get some respect so I can use them to beat on people when I’m in position, where I can often get check/folds postflop.  

Jean Robert Bellande: If I’m up against an opponent that’s never continuation betting unless he or she hits, I’m much more likely to defend. Another consideration might be; is this the type of player that might stack off with an overpair or top pair? This is where stack sizes comes into play. Defending a marginal BB holding when stacks are 200 big blinds can often produce sweet results as well as enhancing a “donkey image,” and that is something I might know a little something about.  

Simon Dahms: Let’s start with our value range. If the button min-raises a 50 percent range and we three-bet to eight times the big blind, we are risking 8 to win 3.5. Not considering later streets, this bluff has to work almost 70 percent of the time. However, we also usually see a flop, thus realizing our equity. If we get four-bet 16 percent of the time, our bluffs have to work around half of the time. This means that button has to call with a 25 percent range (the top 30 percent minus the top 5 percent, which he four-bets. Against that range, our value range is A-10 offsuit or better and A-9 suited or better, 7-7 plus and K-Q suited. In practice I don’t usually three bet A-10 offsuit, I sometimes three-bet K-Q offsuit, and I exchange a couple of pairs for suited wheel aces. In order to find a bluff range, I am going to present my (very simple) approach of three-betting a polarized range, which performs well against all but very small four-bet sizes (against which we would choose a bluff range that can call, including many suited/connected hands). Once we have figured out the width of our range that jams all-in versus a four-bet (in the upper example that is about 7 percent), we can work on our bluff range. If villain four-bets to 18 big blinds, his bluff has to work around 60 percent of the time. If we never call, he never realizes equity with his bluffs, so for every combo we jam with, we can have 1.5 bluff combos. This means that we can bluff (in the example above) with a 10.5 percent range. In order to find this range, I simply choose the top 10.5 percent of hands that I could not call preflop with, bringing my three-bet percentage to about 20percent.

Aaron Jones: Relatively speaking, not that often. The BB is very different from the small blind (SB) because there is no one left to act preflop that can squeeze or realize their equity with their mediocre BB hand. In the BB, you can be pretty confident which hands you can easily defend given your immediate price, your opponents’ skill level, and your hand. For that reason, I don’t usually reraise very wide out of the BB, since there are more unknown variables in playing reraised pots if you don’t know how your opponent will respond to your reraise. If he’s weak and I think I can win it right away very often, I’ll probably choose to reraise with a range that includes a lot of hands that I might not be able to profitably just call out of the BB. If he’s aggressive and is wary of all aggressive plays I make, I’ll make sure I have a strong linear value range when I choose to reraise him. ♠