Poker preflop defense strategy from the blinds

So continuing on poker preflop defense,in part 2 we focus on defending the blinds. I recapture the frequency chart here as we need to refer to it on a regular basis. Also because SB vs BB is more specific due to the limps from the SB, we’ll have a separate post on it.

So the main difference defending from the small blind is the size of the 3bet but we’ll cover sizings in a separate post as it requires specific attention. Also we noticed already that Pluribus calls (vs 3bet) a lot more from the SB than “current best practice”. Anyway let’s look by aggressor position.

SB defense strategy

On SB vs LJ with 11.3% defend, we need 150 tuples. On SB vs Button we’ll have 331 tuples. Against HJ and CO we’ll be pretty much linearly in between, so won’t look at details.

SB vs LJ

SB vs Button

So what can we infer on ranges from the Small Blind ?

Ranges not really different than from position

22+

T9s+ even against early, but the worst ones sometimes fold

A2s+ as well, sometimes fold on the “so so” ones.

54s+ against early, apparently no fold

AJo+ against early position

Against the button we add: K7s+ Q8s+ ATo+, KJo+, QTo+, JTo, those getting some folds



Small Blind key learnings from Pluribus

Honestly who is really confident / happy of their SB defense strategy ? Not me anyway. Upswing Poker ranges recommend 3bet or fold, no call with a range pretty similar to Pluribus although less aggressive. Poker Snowie also recommends almost only 3bets without any medium/low suited connectors.

More calls than 3bet, except balanced against button

Mix all over (except super premium) between call and 3bet

Sometimes fold the worst hands of the range

Many suited connectors all the way to K7s, Q8s

Many Broadways

5x 3bet size but that’s a different post.

Big Blind defense strategy

As said before, we don’t cover BB vs SB here as it is really different. So the Big Blind as expected defends a lot and mostly calls: 25% to 50% , that’s 330 to 663 tuples… a lot. To be honest ranges are going to be pretty obvious and not really important. Let’s look at the hands played against the LJ and the button:

Against LJ Against Button Tuple Call 3bet Fold Tuple Call 3bet Fold AQs 1 2 0 AKs 0 1 0 A9s 1 0 0 AJs 0 2 0 A7s 1 0 0 A9s 2 0 0 A6s 1 0 0 A7s 1 0 0 A4s 1 0 0 A6s 1 0 0 AKo 1 0 1 A5s 1 0 0 KTs 0 1 1 A3s 2 0 0 K8s 2 0 0 A2s 1 0 1 K7s 1 1 0 AKo 0 4 0 K6s 1 0 0 KK 0 1 0 KQo 1 1 0 KJs 2 0 0 QJs 0 1 2 K7s 2 0 0 QTs 0 1 1 K5s 2 0 0 Q8s 1 0 1 K4s 2 0 0 Q7s 1 0 1 K3s 4 0 0 Q4s 1 0 0 AQo 0 3 0 Q3s 1 0 2 KQo 2 2 1 Q2s 1 0 0 QQ 0 2 0 AJo 2 0 1 QJs 2 0 0 KJo 2 0 0 QTs 1 0 0 QJo 2 0 0 Q9s 2 0 0 JJ 2 0 0 Q7s 2 0 0 JTs 1 0 0 Q6s 1 0 0 ATo 2 0 0 Q3s 2 0 0 KTo 1 0 1 Q2s 1 0 0 QTo 3 0 0 AJo 2 0 0 JTo 4 0 1 KJo 9 0 0 T9s 1 0 0 QJo 0 1 2 T8s 1 0 0 JJ 0 3 0 T7s 1 0 0 JTs 0 2 0 A9o 3 0 2 J9s 1 1 0 J9o 2 0 1 J8s 2 0 2 T9o 1 0 1 J3s 1 0 0 99 1 0 0 ATo 1 0 0 98s 1 0 0 KTo 0 1 0 96s 1 0 0 QTo 3 0 1 95s 1 0 0 JTo 3 0 2 A8o 2 0 1 TT 0 2 0 T8o 1 0 3 T7s 2 0 0 98o 1 0 4 T6s 1 0 0 85s 1 0 0 T5s 1 0 0 84s 2 0 0 T4s 1 0 0 97o 1 0 5 T2s 1 0 0 87o 2 0 2 A9o 3 0 0 77 3 0 0 K9o 0 1 1 76s 1 0 0 Q9o 1 0 2 76o 1 0 1 J9o 0 1 0 66 1 0 0 T9o 4 1 0 65s 0 1 1 99 1 0 1 75o 1 0 3 98s 2 0 0 65o 1 0 2 96s 1 0 0 55 2 0 0 95s 2 0 0 54s 0 1 0 A8o 3 0 0 53s 1 0 0 K8o 2 0 0 43s 1 0 1 Q8o 2 0 0 42s 1 0 0 T8o 3 0 1 53o 1 0 3 98o 1 0 0 33 4 0 0 85s 1 0 0 22 1 0 0 82s 1 0 1 A7o 1 0 0 K7o 2 0 1 Q7o 2 0 3 T7o 1 0 1 87o 1 0 3 75s 1 0 0 73s 1 0 0 A6o 3 0 2 Q6o 1 0 2 76o 3 0 0 65s 0 2 0 63s 1 0 0 62s 2 0 0 A5o 0 1 0 K5o 3 0 2 65o 2 0 1 55 2 0 0 A4o 2 0 1 64o 1 0 2 54o 4 0 1 44 4 0 0 42s 2 0 0 A3o 4 0 1 33 1 0 2 A2o 2 0 0 22 2 0 0

Well the least we can say is the ranges are very mixed between call and fold and some 3bets. 99 or 33 are sometimes folded, 82s can be called or folded, A5o is 3bet once etc. But overall strategy is similar to what we’re used to.

Just in case, I also checked defense strategy relative to size of opening of Villain. But as you can see, not much of an impact (or opposite really):