How To Play Blinds In Poker
In poker, blinds refer to bets that certain players in certain table positions are supposed to place before flopping, or dealing hands on the table. If EVERY player around the table is required to place a blind before the flop, then those blinds are instead known as “antes”.
When players aren’t upping the ante (get it?), these two blinds are required to be placed from the left and right of the dealer button, a big blind and a small blind, respectively. If you’re at one of those key seats on the table, find out how you can deal these two hands as wisely and clearly as you can, whether you’re playing at offline or online casinos for real money.
What Are The Blinds In Poker?
Usually, the big blind will be equivalent to the value of whatever minimum bet is possible at the table, whether you’re playing Michigan online poker, New Jersey online poker, or real-world, IRL, away-from-keyboard poker. When the house forces your hand to go in blind, you don’t want to go all-in.
The smaller blind will generally be half the size of that minimum bet threshold. For example, if you started with the standard 4000 chips, that could be redefined as “100 big blinds”. The big blind here would be 40, and then the smaller blind bet would be worth 20 chips.
The ratio of two blinds increasing can start at 30/60, then escalate to upwards of 500/1000 by the end of the game. If you are wondering how phrases like “up the ante” have caught on in popular culture, betting games like poker are how. Furthermore, if you’re playing ante rules specifically, bets can start as low as 7 chips and go as high as upwards of over 125 chips.
These heavy bet increases are particularly common in traditional Texas hold ‘em games, where in addition to the standard five-card hand, two face-down “hole” cards are dealt as part of the hand too.
Poker Blind Position
As you’d probably assume from the name, the small blind isn’t a desirable poker table position, strategically speaking. Unless you’re able to hedge the small blind into a three-bet, you are innately put at a disadvantage by being positioned in the small blind seat.
Unless you’re able to do that, you may want to hold in the small blind seat until any opportunities to make better plays open up later in the game. A big blind position, on the other hand, obviously allows the player more leeway to play on the offensive.
Obviously, though, bigger blind hands will make you a bigger target for having those chips stolen, so play your cards wisely, know when to hold, and know when to fold.
With both blinds, the wise course of action is to wait for better hands, assuming you don’t risk it all from the get-go. But even if you don’t play your cards right the first time, you can get a second chance thanks to this great promo from DraftKings Casino!
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