Poker is becoming a popular casino game with each passing day with more and more people getting to play it. The latest craze is online casinos poker that people can enjoy playing from the comfort of their homes or offices. This game requires strategy and some knowledge on how to maximise your winnings by outplaying your opponents. One way you can do this is by using blinds to your advantage.
What are Poker Blinds?
If you are wondering what poker blinds are, they are forced bets that players post to the left of the dealer button, normally in flop poker games. There are usually two blinds although they can range from zero to three.
If you do poker blind stealing well, you can highly benefit from high profits. In case you are on the button, and all your opponents have folded before you, this is the best opportunity for you to steal blinds. Try stealing around 50% of the whole time. Most players are not familiar with blind stealing. Whenever you are doubtful, try stealing. If you do it often, you will end up with very high big blinds for every 100 hands.
How to Play Blind Poker
If you want to succeed in blind poker, there are several things that you should consider, including:
Steal Frequently from the Small Blind
You can do this by open-raising a larger range of hands where you can proceed to steal dead money that is in the pot frequently. This is by far, the easiest way to avoid loss from the small blind.
If you steal at a high percentage, you will exploit a widespread habit among players to finally over-fold their big blind. When you take down the pot pre-flop, you will not only end up stealing from the 1BB big blind but also the 0.5BB that you initially committed from a small blind.
When you are trying to steal from a small blind, it would be wise to use a bigger raise size than from any other positions. If you don’t, you will end up giving your opponent the best price on a call. This is something you should prevent since you are out of position with a wider opening range.
When antes are in play, stealing will yield you more profits. This depends on the ante’s size that has been added to the pot, ranging between 1bb and 1.5bb. This normally doubles its size. You should remember that stealing wide is a very exploitative strategy and you should, therefore, alter your game plan when you realise that the player in the big blind play adjusts correctly. If you notice that the opponents are aggressive and are betting frequently or even taking pots from your flop, you should reduce your attempts to steal thus, saving them for a less aggressive opponent.
Always Defend the Big Blind Often
Players frequently fold from the big blind, which should not be the case. Depending on the price that you get on a call, it is possible to defend a wider range of hands from the big blind. Nevertheless, you should always be prepared to fight for pots that are in desirable post-flop situations. Playing too poorly or and passively will lead you to burn more money than you would if you folded pre-flop. This does not mean that you should fight continuously to win all pots. What you need to do is pair your pre-flop adjustment using aggressive post-flop play. Do not expect to win more by just defending often from the big blind.
You can easily notice aggressive blind-stealers if you understand what you and your opponents are doing. For example, if your opponents raise too regularly, re-raise them. Prepare yourself to go beyond the top using anything that ranges from A-J, A-10 or even K-Q and medium pocket pairs. There are three reasons why you should go big, including:
- It shows the others that you have a strong hand
- It puts your opponents under extreme pressure, which can lead to them folding
- You gain pot control from the other player, which puts you in prime position to continue with a bet regardless of the flop
Understanding poker blinds can be a great way to increase your winnings. If you understand how online poker works, you will be in a better position to steal blinds from your opponents. Any player who posts the big and small blinds spins a single place to the left after every hand. When the game starts, the player who posts the small blind is normally seated to the left side of the dealer while the one who posts the big blind is normally sitting to the left of the player with the small blind.