WPT GTO Trainer Hands of the Week: Defending Your Big Blind With an Awkward Stack
This week we��re focused on a tournament scenario where you are defending your blind against a tough player on the Button who opened to 2.5BBs with a big blind ante in play.
Both ranges are extremely wide here with the Button��s range being uncapped and your range being quite capped. You will certainly reraise preflop in this spot with most pairs, big aces and broadway combos, however the direct pot odds you are getting preflop mean hands like 62s can potentially make a reasonable preflop call. With this dynamic in play the Button often has a large range advantage on most flops so checking to the button will be your default preflop play.
With the stack to pot ratio on the flop is around 4.5 we are very shallow and it won��t take many bets to get all-in quickly. You can utilize a robust check-raising strategy to counter the fact that the Button will be continuation betting quite frequently. The best bluffs to choose will often contain hard backdoor equity, such as a backdoor flush draw. You will be able to check-raise much thinner for value as well, often with top pair or better, particularly if you have significant backdoor draws to go with it.
In situations where the Button does check behind on the flop, you are often able to attack their capped range on the turn and/or river with large bet sizings. This larger sizing is meant to take advantage of those portions of the Button��s range that don��t continuation bet the flop that often can��t stand up to multiple streets of pressure.
To see more examples and test your skills, you can play through five free solved hands from this scenario.
To access the free five hands, visit this page.
Regular play on the WPT GTO Trainer will help you adjust your decisions closer and closer to GTO strategy.
You don��t have to be the world��s best player to use GTO Strategy, and thanks to the WPT GTO Trainer, now you don��t have to buy expensive software or have expert level knowledge to study GTO.
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The WPT GTO Trainer lets you play real solved hands against a perfect opponent in a wide variety of postflop scenarios for cash game and tournament play.
If your goal is to be a tough poker player then you should try the WPT GTO Trainer today.
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As you make decisions in a hand, you receive instant feedback on the specific EV loss (if any) and Played Percentage for every action you take as compared to GTO strategy.
The full selection of scenarios for the WPT GTO Trainer are only available to members of LearnWPT, however we��re giving PokerNews Readers free access to the Trainer on a regular basis with the WPT GTO Hands of The Week.
Use this series of articles to practice the strategies you learn on LearnWPT (or at the table) and test your progress by playing a five-hand sample each week
