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A Defense with a
Pretense
Having a good pretense can be the best offense in poker. If you
happen to pick up a real hand in the blind, you'll play it
straightforward and hope that the strength of your hand is enough to
overcome your positional disadvantage. Some blinds are easy to
surrender. If you've got crap, you fold and wait for better times. But
if all you do is defend according to hand strength, you'll play too
passively, fold too much, become too predictable, and miss out on some
profit opportunities. So forget about cards for now, and focus instead
on the pretense-defense.
The first thing you need for effective pretense-defense is the right
kind of opponent, one of those guys who can't resist opening the pot
with a raise in middle to late position. They abound, you know. They see
a handful of folds in front of them and think, hey, maybe I can munch
the blinds. They don't need much of a hand to make this play, probably
anything from J-T up. But you've been watching them work, so you know
this. You also know enough about the numbers of the game to realize that
while they might be raising with a premium pocket pair, they're much
more likely to be holding unpaired high cards.
Okay, you're in the blind against the right kind of foe and he gives you
the raise you expect. For the sake of argument, we'll put you on 7-2,
just to demonstrate that in this scenario your cards don't matter at
all. Flying in the face of all conventional wisdom, you call the raise,
and turn your attention to the flop. There are various specific flops
you're looking for, flops which figure to hit the sort of hand the blind
is likely to hold.
Suppose the flop comes 9a-5a-3f. Put yourself on the flush draw.
Check-call the flop and plan to bet the turn if a third heart comes. If
the flop comes something like 8-8-3, it's likely that it missed him
completely, but since you're in the blind he can't be at all sure that
it missed you, too. Remember, the likeliest hand he has here is
overcards, not overpairs, so go ahead and bet out or, if you think he'll
make a move at the pot, go for the check-raise bluff.
A flop like 6-7-9 or 7-6-5 is a dream flop for you. Again, it's likely
to be a whiff for him, but you, in the blind, could easily have a big,
fat piece of that flop. Bet as if you hit. Your goal is to own that
flop. Your goal is to own most flops. The only ones you really fear are
those with an ace or a king or with two or more wheelhouse cards. These
are the cards that a frisky blind stealer is most likely to hold, and if
the flop could reasonably have hit his hand, your reasonable move is to
fold. Which means that your foe owns the top third of the deck, but you
own the rest.
The pretense-defense has the added benefit of slowing down blind
stealers. Once they recognize that you'll defend your blind boldly and
creatively, they'll be a little less willing - maybe a lot less willing
- to step out of line. But this kind of gamesmanship requires both
insight and fortitude. You need to be clear-eyed in your appraisal of
your enemies. Make sure you pick the right ones to mess with. And make
sure you have the courage of your convictions. It will do you no good to
get the kind of flop you can claim as your own if you're not prepared to
stake your claim by firing out some bets.
Next time you play, keep your eye open for opportunities to turn the
tables on nefarious blind-stealers. The best offense is a good pretense
and the best pretense can put extra chips in your rack.
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