Defending many hands preflop from the BB will put you in many tough situations postflop, but this is exactly what you need to do to avoid being exploited. We already covered how to defend your BB on ace-high boards with 100bb, and today we will dive into the tournament environment.
We will analyze 40bb stack depth and cover both dry and connected ace-high boards, so you always know how to play in these situations.
Defending BB on Dry Ace-High Boards – As9h5c
Today, we will use PeakGTO to analyze ace-high flop examples when you call from the BB vs BTN open and see a flop.
Key assumptions about the hand:
- We are playing 40bb deep with 12.5% ante
- Our opponent raise from the BTN
- SB folds, and we call from the BB
- We check to preflop raiser and face a bet
Let’s firstly look into the As9h5c example.
On this dry board, your opponent should be c-betting his entire range, so we will need to defend quite a lot. It is also worth noting that the BTN will have different bet sizes, but we will analyze the strategy against a small c-bet, which he should use most often.
Against a small c-bet of 25% of the pot, we will continue with around 57% of the time. This includes calling with 42% and raising 15% of our hands.
Two pairs and strong top pair hands are the primary candidates for raising for value, and we balance this out with gutshots and some runner-runner draws, such as 74s, 64s, T8s, and similar hands. With all other hands that have some equity, we opt for a call.
With a 20bb stack size, we should almost always face a larger c-bet in this situation, so we naturally will need to defend less often.
In this spot, we fold 75% of the time and only continue with 25% of our holdings.
Apart from an occasional raise with K9, we will be calling all of the hands we continue with.
Key takeaways
- Defend around 57% of your hands with a 40bb stack
- Have an aggressive check-raising strategy by doing it with 15% of your hands
- Mostly have just a calling range with 20bb, and continue with 25% of your range
Defending BB on Connected Ace-High Boards – Ah9d8d
Key assumptions about the hand:
- We are playing 40bb deep with 12.5% ante
- Our opponent raise from the BTN
- SB folds, and we call from the BB
- We check to preflop raiser and face a bet
Let’s take the example of Ah9d8d.
In this spot, our opponent should be betting with almost their entire range, split fairly evenly between small and big bet sizing. Since we will pick bigger bets a bit more often, we will concentrate on the strategy of playing against two-thirds pot size c-bets.
In this spot, we will call 35% of our hands and check-raise 8% of our holdings. All our two pair holdings go into check-raising range together with weaker draws, and we call with other Ax hands as well as other one pair combinations.
When we face the same situation with a 20bb stack size, things become a bit more straightforward.
Here, we will be facing a larger c-bet of two-thirds of the pot in most cases, so we will only defend 29% of our holdings. We will call with 23% and raise 6% of our hands.
Interestingly enough, our strategy shifts slightly, and our strongest two-pair hands become pure calls. As for one pair hands, we will check-raise most top pairs, since with short stacks, we are fine getting those in. That said, some 9x and 8x suited combinations that do not have runner-runner flush draw potential now become folds.
Key takeaways
- Check your entire range from the BB
- Defend 43% of your hands with 40bb
- Raise your two pairs and some weaker draws
- Defend 29% when your stacks fall to 20bb, and do not be afraid to commit with top pairs
