2 out of 9 hands you will be playing the blinds, so it’s pretty significant to improve your game around them.

Raising When You’re In The Blind.

Due to the disadvantage of your position throughout the hand, it is generally not a good idea to raise before the flop when you are in either the small or big blind. When you do raise, it will almost exclusively be to build a bigger pot, rather than to narrow the field. The exception here comes when you’re in the SB, a player has raised the pot from a late position, and you reraise in an attempt to eliminate the big blind. For the most part, though, raising from the blinds should be reserved for premium starting hands such as A-2-3-x suited, which have enough value to overcome their positional handicap.

Stealing Blinds Throughout Your Poker Tournament.

Why does stealing the blinds have to be a part of your game? If you start with 100BB and the tournament goes on, blinds are always increasing, your stack is melting and pretty soon you have 15BB then 10BB, and BAM you are out of the tournament. You need some tactics to win the blinds to stay afloat. Stealing the blinds is of the supreme importance that you keep accumulating chips. Say you have 15BB and you win blinds. That would increase your stack by 10%(which is a nice increase) and that would give you another round to wait for a better hand. You can’t steal blinds from any position. You need to steal from a late position, the best one is a Dealer button. Say you put 3BB and try to win the pot. You can do it with any two cards and fold it if there is any resistance. To blend your stealing in your game, do the same raise with your good hands. How to defend your blinds? You should totally defend your blinds especially if you are up against small rises or min raises. They are popular nowadays. For example, you play a tournament. Blinds are 400/800 and antes are 100 and there are 9 players. So already in a pot, we have 2100, someone bets 1600, so we need to call 800 to win 3700. It gives you 5 to 1 pot odds. If you get odds like 5 to1 – you should call with any two cards, because the math is on your side. Get in and then you just have to play it cautiously, so you don’t overplay if you say hit a top pair, but have a weak kicker. Sometimes you can also throw some bluffs to mix it up. As a tip – play tighter against people who play well.

Here are charts with starting hands to help you with your game.

You position is UTG (Under The Gun) and RFI (Raising First In).

You are in MP (Middle Position) and RFI.

You are in a LP (Late Position) RFI.

You are in HJ (HiJack) position.

You in a CO (Cut Off) seat.

You are in a Button (Dealer).

You are in a SB (Small Blind)