Taking Blinds Strategy Seriously

In higher level Texas Hold’em cash games you may see an ante; but not very often and in this poker game there are blinds that serve the same purpose. Big and small blinds are forced bets that rotate around the table getting the action started. Without the blinds, everyone would just wait until they had a perfect hand to play, which would bring the action to a screeching halt. There are two blinds: a small blind and a big blind.

The big blind is typically set as the amount of the pre-flop bet and the small blind is usually half of the big blind. For example, in a $10-20 limit poker game, the big blind is $10 and the small blind is $5.

If you want to win at poker, it is important to understand the blinds and take blind strategy seriously. On every round you're forced to play both a big blind and a small blind. In online poker, you'll receive between 60 and 70 hands per hour. (More if you're multi-tabling.) At a full table, this means you'll be posting blinds 6 or 7 times per hour. In a $10/$20 game, that's between $90 and $105 each hour. When you do the math it is easy to see how this amount adds up and becomes relevant to your strategy and your bankroll management.

Use the simple poker blinds formula below to try and figure out how much money you put in the pot for blinds each hour:

(Rounds per hour x big blind post amount) + (Rounds per hour x small blind post amount) = Total dollars put in the pot from blinds.

There are two perspectives to consider when thinking about the blinds:

• Defensive - You want to protect your blinds when you're in the blinds.
• Offensive - You want to steal the other players' blinds when you can.

Being able to steal blinds is necessary to be a winning player in a tough game. Stealing blinds in the tough games become more important because players are usually playing tighter. Take advantage of your table position and play aggressively, raising pre-flop. If you succeed and blinds fold, you’ve won a free hand of poker. And of course you have the advantage of stealing a blind from any position if you’re holding a premium starting hand.

You'll need to defend your blinds from this strategy from other players as well. Good poker players know when to be selective about the hands they play. But if your blinds are stolen every round by a raise, then you're losing a significant amount of money. The bottom line is that dealing with the blinds is something you'll have to learn how to do to be a successful player. Especially in tournament play.

If you possess any of these types of qualities, then you are on your way to becoming a winning player!