When you play a game of online poker, you’ll take your seat at the virtual table and wait for your cards to be dealt.
As one round shifts to the next, you’ll likely see three things happen on screen – the button and the big blind and small blind indicators will shift one position to their left.
So what is going on here? What does it mean? And should it affect how you play?
What are Blinds in Poker?
If you think about it, one strategy that would lead to guaranteed cashing in an online poker tournament would be to fold every hand – eventually, other players would lose all their chips while your stack would remain shiny and unmoved in front of you.
That would be rather joyless for everyone involved, however, and so the blinds system was introduced to prevent this shoddy gamesmanship from being successful.
The poker blinds are a sort of tax that you will pay twice for every orbit around the table. The dealer position shifts to the player to the left with every hand, and the player to the left of the dealer (known as ‘the button’) pays a small blind and the player to the left of them pays the big blind.
The big blind is often the same size as the table’s minimum bet, so let’s say for argument that it’s £1. Every time you are sat two positions to the left of the dealer you’d pay the big blind of £1 into the middle of the table. When you are one position left of the dealer, you’d pay the small blind, which is usually half the value of the big blind. Once you’ve taken your turns in the blinds, everyone else sat at the table will have to do likewise as the button works its way around in a clockwise fashion.
As you can probably tell, the blinds are designed to encourage play – you couldn’t simply fold indefinitely, because eventually your chip stack would be reduced to zero.
Generally in poker tournaments, the blinds will increase in size. That’s to reflect the growing chip stacks of those in the lead, while also forcing those with fewer chips to play – otherwise, they will simply be dumped out of the game in time.
What’s the Difference Between Blinds and Ante in Poker?
We’ve established that only two players at the table are responsible for paying the blinds for each hand.
The ante, however, is different in that it’s a payment that all players have to make. Again, the object of the ante is to accelerate play and prevent players from constantly folding and easing their way into the paid places of a tournament without doing anything.
Different poker games and tournaments will have their own rules on blinds and ante. Some will have one or the other while some tournaments will charge both – it’s worth finding out the rules of each event you enter prior to taking your seat at the table.
The ante is typically a lot smaller than either blind – in fact, an ante of around 10% of the big blind value is not uncommon.
How to Play the Blinds in Poker
If nobody raises the pot before the betting action gets around to the blinds, it will cost the small blind half the usual bet amount to call (because they’ve already paid half as their blind).
The big blind, meanwhile, can simply check into the pot if they wish, because they have already wagered the minimum amount as their blind. Of course, if another player raises the stakes then both blinds will need to call to see the flop, while it’s not uncommon for the player in either blind position to raise if they like their hole cards.
The object of poker is to take chips off your opponents and dominate the table, but it’s also vital that you manage your chip stack so that you don’t get ‘blinded out’ – that is, to run out of money through sheer inactivity.
That’s not to say you should play every hand in an aggressive fashion, it’s just that as the blinds increase during a tournament, so too does the need to keep your stack topped up.
One strategy that many professional poker players use is to see their chip stack in terms of how many orbits – i.e. how many times they can pay the small and big blind – they can afford, therefore offering them a guide as to how many potential hands they have left. That certainly helps to concentrate the mind, if nothing else.
The Small Blind
Fold, call or raise – the small blind is a nightmare position in poker, particularly as you won’t be the last player to act in a round. But you will be giving chips away if you don’t play the percentages from the SB.
The small blind is also a position that gives away intelligence to rival players – if you only make the cheap call, rather than raising, then your opponents know that your hand is weak and that you can be probably be bullied out of the round pre-flop.
All of which lends itself to a pretty simple strategy from the small blind position: raise or fold. It can be very difficult to gain traction as the SB with a cheap call, while folding is no disaster if your hole cards offer little in the way of assistance.
How to Steal Blinds
Remember, the small blind only has to pay half to enter a pot while the big blind might have an opportunity to check their way to the pot.
That hands them a chance to look at the flop with minimal outlay, which explains why so many players will enter a round even with a poor or below-par hand.
One tactic to help keep the wolf from the door, so to speak, is to aggressively try to steal the blinds from players looking for a cheap route to the flop. If you are seated in late position, i.e. to the right of the blinds, and there has been little betting activity in the round so far, you can apply pressure on the small and big blind by raising the pot.
It will then cost them more chips just to get a look at the flop, which can lead to an increase in folds – therefore, you will win the round and their blinds without too much trouble at all. Even if they call or re-raise, you still have the advantage of late position on your side.
How to Defend Blinds
As mentioned, there’s a chance you will be able to call your way into the pot for half the cost (small blind), or simply check your way to the flop as the big blind.
It’s vital that you protect your blinds as much as possible, because otherwise you are simply giving chips away with little resistance. So if you believe a player to your right is trying to steal your blinds, fight back by calling their bluff – remember, only do so with a range of hands that offer some potential for the win if push comes to shove.
Being in the big blind position is about limiting the damage to your chip stack. You will, from time to time, have to fold hole cards that offer you zero leverage, but this is a scenario that should be avoided to help preserve your stack in the long run.