It’s a common scenario in low limit poker: you’re in one of the blinds, and everyone folds until a player in late position raises. Sometimes the raiser has a good hand, but often they’re just trying to steal the blinds by having the small and big blind fold and win the pot right there. It can happen a lot, especially at a tight table, and if you fold to blind steals with all but your monster hands you’ll be losing more money than you should.
When you defend your blinds against low level players, you pose a challenge to them. They have nothing to lose, and it’ll drive them nuts to see someone in the blinds fold after one hand. Sometimes they’ll actually win on the hand, which is sweet, but typically they’ll end up with nothing after the hand is over. Their frustation ends up dying away when they see you raise, so they’ll try to steal once more hand to try and steal the blind again.
This loose-aggressive player is going to be stealing blinds in the future no matter what level of poker they’re playing at. Their flaw is that they’re too impatient to wait for their monster hands and too afraid to get knocked out at the same time. They’ll pay you off with threes, but not with their big hands, which are the only hands that will defend you in these situations.
In defense of your blinds, you want to be coming out with a wide range of hands to represent you. You don’t want to be shooting blanks every other hand, so you want to make sure you’re playing with a wide range of hands preflop. Too tight a range and the low limit players will still steal with any random hand, but if you’re too loose a range and the low limit players come in with a wide range of hands, you’ll be blanked more often than not. Make sure you’re playing your range tight enough that the low limit players can still call you, even when tighter players raise you.
One of the nations best at defending his blinds is Daniel Negreanu. He’s famous for a plays like this; Daniel Negreanu coming out firing with top pair, top kicker on the Turn, and getting called by the Big Blind only to turn the tides and win the pot with 5-4 off suit. Make sure you’re firing blanks to prevent this from happening to you.
Bad Beats happen to good players
It’s amazing how many bad beats you’re going to take in online poker. It doesn’t matter how solid of a player you are, it can still happen to you. Your opponents are human and they’ll still make mistakes. Even the best players can still have bad beats, and no matter what your game is, you should be able to handle the bad beats better than your opponents will.
Remember, it’s okay to have ups and downs in online poker. It’s recommended that you handle them the same way as you would in cash games. You’re only a human being and will have down periods when you don’t come out on top. Don’t let it make you nervous. If you get nervous, get away from the game. Also, if you handle the bad beats the same way as you would in a cash game, you’ll end up losing money. You should still be playing but you’re not playing for money.
I felt that these 5 tips for playing Naga303 online made the difference between being a profitable player and a shark. Next time you’re sitting at your computer and want to make some money, remember to use these 5 tips. Welcome back!