Defending the Big Blind on High-Card Boards in Tournaments

We already covered the strategy for defending BB on ace-high boards with 100bb, and now we will see how to play with shorter stacks in tournaments.

To build a comprehensive strategy for playing from the big blind versus a c-bet, we will analyze both connected and dry boards with 40bb stack depth.

TLDR: See AI summary of this article.

High-card boards from the BB in MTTs require proactive defense. At 40bb, mix in aggressive check-raises; at 20bb, lean on tighter calls with top pairs.

Dry High-Card Boards at 40bb: Defend 60% of hands vs small c-bet. Raise 24%—top pairs, two pair, and gutshots. Call with weaker pairs and marginal Kx.
Dry High-Card Boards at 20bb: Strategy remains stable. Still defend 60% with a balanced mix of calls and raises, leaning into top pair aggression.
Connected High-Card Boards at 40bb: Defend 52% vs large c-bet. Call 45%, raise just 7%—mostly two pair or top pair with added equity.
Connected High-Card Boards at 20bb: Defend more often—64%. Raise 17% with more top pairs and combo draws, call with all one-pair hands.

Key Takeaways
* Stay Sharp on Dry Boards: Check-raise wide, including draws and top pairs, to push back against frequent c-bets.
* Simplify at Short Stacks: Maintain aggression, but focus on efficient top-pair value and controlled bluffing.
* Be Cautious on Connected Boards: Versus bigger bets, reduce raise frequency and call with stronger ranges.

Table Of Contents

Defending BB on Dry High-Card Boards – Ks8h4c
- Key takeaways
Defending BB on Connected High-Card Boards – Qh9h8d
- Key takeaways

Defending BB on Dry High-Card Boards – Ks8h4c

Today, we will use PeakGTO to analyze high-card boards 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

We call around 25% preflop against the button open while 3-betting our strongest broadways and pocket pairs, but still have quite a few Kx and Qx combinations on these high-card boards. Let’s look at the Ks8d4d example.

As usual, we will check our entire range in these spots OOP and should be facing a small c-bet on this board texture. In that spot, we will defend 60% of our hands by calling 36% and raising 24% of the time.

Since our opponent will be c-betting this almost every time, we will apply a very aggressive check-raising strategy and put the pressure back on him.

We will raise our two pair combinations, many top pair hands, gutshots, and middle pair plus backdoor draws. Other than that, we will be calling with all bottom pairs, middle pairs that we are not raising, and our weakest top pair hands.

In this exact situation with a 20bb stack depth, we will face a small c-bet around 70%.

Against that bet, we will defend 60% of our hands by calling and raising fairly even ranges. Our strategy is very similar to the one we would employ with 40bb, so we do not need to make a lot of adjustments.

Key takeaways

You check your entire range from the BB
Check-raise aggressively versus a small c-bet with both 40bb and 20bb stacks
Raise a lot of your top pair hands and draws, and call your weaker pairs

Defending BB on Connected High-Card Boards – Qh9h8d

The biggest difference on connected boards is that we end up defending fewer hands and raising less often, since we will most likely be facing a large c-bet size.

Key assumptions:

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 look at Qh9h8d.

Against a two-thirds pot size c-bet, we will be defending 52% of our hands. In this spot, the vast majority of our hands will be calls since we only check-raise 7% of the time.

We will be raising most of our strongest poker hands like top two pair hands and some one pair combos that have a gutshot alongside them. Lower two pair and one pair hands are almost exclusively calls. Other than folding some suited combinations of 8x that do not have runner-runner draw, we will be continuing with all combinations that have a pair and some of the draws.

When stacks drop down to 20bb, you will be mostly facing a smaller c-bet.

In this scenario, you will defend a bit more often and continue with 64% of the hands. Calling 47% and raising 17% of the time.

The actual hands you continue with do not change that significantly. You will simply add more top pairs and a few more gutshot draws to your check-raising range, and now call with all one-pair hands.