Quote:
Originally Posted by Moshiach
I have a question about defending checks. In AoNLH you say that we're to defend ~57% of our flop checks out of position, and while I find this realistic from UTG/MP/CO, I'm finding it really difficult to construct a flop check defending range after opening in the SB and the BB calls.
You also say that letting our opponent show an immediate profit with any two cards is likely not problematic since they had to risk money to see the flop.
However in the case of SB vs BB, the BB gets a discount on seeing the flop, so presumably our checks need to be defended more aggressively, which I find really hard when I'm opening ~50% from the SB.
Do you also see this difficulty defending flop checks when opening from the SB? How do you resolve it? I can only consider greatly reducing my SB opening range, which initially seems bad in itself, or is this why a SB limping strategy is utilised?
Thanks.
The BB will not defend enough to prevent villain from profitably betting any two cards since the BB's range is much weaker than the openers. This one isn't even close, it's fine to check-fold at a pretty high frequency even if the bet is only 1/2 pot or so.
CO vs BTN ranges are closer in strength so CO should be able to defend more of his checks.
Really the times you prevent an opponent from being able to profitably utilize any two cards is when he raises. If you bet $6 into a $12 pot and he raises to $18 on the flop, you need to defend in theory much more than 50% of the time or villain should never fold to a bet.
I'm not sure how the SB vs BB should look in theory, so I'll refrain from commenting on that one too much as my guess is it's pretty complex since you also likely have a limping range.