Battle for the Blinds
There’s little surprise that the big money is made in poker by winning the big bets, but the oft overlooked blinds aren’t just dangling there too look good.
These little guys are extremely important in poker tournaments, and any chance you can snatch them up, you should take it.
The techniques to “steal” the blinds are numerous. Say, for example, you’re in last position, and everyone around you has only called. You have a decent hand, and you raise it up to about 4x the pot. Many times, you’ll see the table fold around, and you’ll have a chance to “steal” the blinds. If you’re at an eight handed table, you’ve just secured yourself at the table for another eight hands, considering the blinds don’t raise.
If you’re playing a standard ring game, then this is also important. Even though the majority of money in ring games tends to move money in the bets, a solid blind cache can bring you more table security, and help you from having to play catch up. As such, anytime there is an opening to take down the blinds should be taken advantage of.
There is an exception to the rule however. If you have a good hand, and you’re looking for someone to bet against you, you may not be in a position to take down the blinds. What you’ll want to do instead, is bait your opponent into betting with you by fishing, and hoping they follow you to fish school. At which point, you can bring out the bet after the fact.
But as a general rule, it’s always good to take down the blinds, because they really do add up. If you can take down 10 blinds in an hour, then you’ve freed up a bet 10x the blinds to be used with no harm to your stack. And for that reason alone, you should be able to see how powerful it is to take them down. Not to mention, you’ll begin to develop a dominant table personality because you’re taking down so many hands.
