Defending your Big Blind is one of the most critical aspects of winning poker. 

Yet, most players get it completely wrong. 

In this article, you will get 5 quick Tips to defend your Big Blind. 

Furthermore, I will focus on pre,- and postflop play to improve your game from this position.

Foreword

The Big Blind is the most challenging position to play in poker and one that is impossible to win from. 

So if you have a negative winrate from the BB, don’t worry. That’s completely normal.

What should worry you, though, is if your winrate from the BB is worse than -1bb/100 over a large sample. 

In that case, you’re making big mistakes and would be better off just folding every single hand in the BB, equating to a -1bb/100 winrate.

So don’t expect to win from the BB, but try to lose less than 1bb/100. 

And in this article, you’ll find 5 quick tips to help you do that.

Tip #1 Don’t fold too much

Don’t fold preflop too much! 

A big mistake that a lot of micro/low stakes players are making is to overfold pre flop.

 Nowadays, there are multiple ranges that you can buy. Just choose one. 

In Bluff The Spot, we use the ranges inside the “Preflop Bible 4.0”. 

You are probably underestimating the EV it costs you to overfold in certain spots because they are very marginal.

However, if you are overfolding by only 5%, this EV will add up and let you bleed money in the long run. (It mainly affects your red line)

Two of the most common spots you will face from the BB are open from the Cut-Off and Button. 

To show you how wide you can (or should) go, here are the original charts from the Preflop Bible 4.0, which MMAsherdog is using himself to defend his BB. 

Tip #2 3bet aggressively

3Bet aggressively vs. every Position.

Let me repeat that:

3BET AGGRESSIVELY VS. EVERY POSITION.

In the BB, it’s easy just to hit the “call” button because you’re getting good odds, and you can’t get squeezed.

However, in theory, the problem with this strategy is that your opponent will realize too much equity with his zero EV hands.

So if you make a mistake by not raising enough, all of his zero EV hands suddenly become +EV, and you are the one paying for it.

I’d recommend you memorize the charts above and start 3betting like MMAsherdog TODAY, it will make a massive difference immediately.

The Preflop Bible 4.0 and the Preflop Bible Light cover Big Blind Defense in great detail. I’d recommend you to have a look at the store here: https://www.bluffthespot.com/store

Tip #3 Float more continuation bets

Don’t overfold to continuation bets! 

This is also a big red line leak which leads to negative non-showdown winnings. 

Especially when you face small bets, which are most often range bets in a micro and low-stakes pool. (This means they are making this bet with every hand on every board.)

This doesn’t apply as much to a mid-stakes player who knows that we should use many small bets with a polarized strategy. 

So overfolding vs. range bets is a huge mistake regarding EV on the flop. 

Folding hands that you should never get folded are pure mistakes in a GTO Toy game. 

This hurts your win rate. Especially your red line.

Tip #4 Check-Raise Aggressively

Have an aggressive check-raising strategy vs. small bets! 

This mistake falls in the same category as tip number 2, where I told you to 3bet more.

It's easy to press the call button because we will always see the turn. 

By raising some parts of our range, we can face re-raises and are put in a tough spot, especially when you have a hand like top pair.

However, don’t be afraid to check-raise very aggressively.

Otherwise, you are allowing your opponent to realize too much equity.

Every time you make a mistake and lose EV, your opponent gets the EV. 

And at the end of the day, poker is about making fewer mistakes than your opponent.

Tip #5 Be careful against big bets on the flop

Final Tip No.5:

Be careful when you are facing big bets on the flop! 

Especially on low limits, most players don’t have enough bluffs in their range when they’re trying to apply a polarized strategy.

They are missing quite a lot of the unnatural parts, which leads to a massive under-bluffed strategy. 

Our exploit should be to overfold the hands that are close to zero EV on the flop.

Conclusion

This article obviously is only a rough overview of many concepts covered in great depth in the Preflop Bible 4.0, which I’d recommend if you are playing NL50 and higher.

If you are below these limits, I highly encourage you to check out the Preflop Bible Light, which will give you a condensed but good enough version to beat the micros.

I hope you find these 5 tips valuable and will help you improve your winrate from the big blind! If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments below or email us at [email protected]!