Ready for your championship run? LearnWPT is here to help with a free, six-part tournament preparation series designed to sharpen your skills and boost your confidence before your next big event.

Today’s session focuses on one of the most important and most misunderstood areas of tournament poker: Defense Strategy

You will face raises with a high frequency throughout the course of a tournament and fortifying your defense strategy must be a big part of preparation. Learning how and when to defend your blinds and your opens is one of the fastest ways to grow and protect your chip stack during long events. Let's get started ...

Defense Strategy Warm-Up Session

Aggressive opponents and escalating blinds combine to create a paralyzing force during a major poker tournament, especially given the increased odds with a Big Blind Ante in play.

Poker tournaments with excellent structures are full of aggressive opponents who attack blinds and pressure opponents to build their stacks. If you aren’t prepared for this level of aggression or lack confidence when facing a raise from the Blinds or on the Button, the likely result is indecision and bleeding chips.

In this session, Eric "Rizen" Lynch and Michael "Gags30" Gagliano take a deep dive into the specific strategies you can use when facing aggression in common defense situations at the poker table. We'll also examine the factors that you need to consider when deciding to defend in position vs out of position.

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Turn and River Play With Tony Dunst

Defending your Big Blind more often puts you in tougher postflop spots facing a wider range of hands. In many spots you're likely to face continuation bets, making it important to understand which board textures favor floats and when bluffing is an option. Since these out of position decisions are harder without an equity advantage, it’s essential to study postflop Big Blind Defense away from the table.

Join LearnWPT Instructor Tony Dunst as he explores 3 hands from recent sessions to break down optimal play on the turn and river when defending from the Big Blind. Watch this Strategy Episode as Tony uses PioSolver to demonstrate how ranges interact in this spot and what factors you should be accounting for.

🔘 Button Up Your Defense

The Button is the most powerful position at the table and it should be a priority to play as many hands as possible when you are in that seat. By entering the hand on the Button, you secure ultimate position postflop and can deploy a wide array of bluffs and creative plays on many board textures. While position plays a major factor in your ability to win, playing just any 2 cards is not viable and there still needs to be a structured response strategy to maximize value.

In this Strategy Episode Nick Binger analyzes the hand ranges you should be using to Defend your Button in Tournaments. Watch as Nick details key range adjustments for each positional group and gives you shortcuts for adjusting to different player types in real-time.

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🛡️ Defend Your Big Blind

The big blind ante creates more attractive risk/reward and increases the frequency you should defend against a single open raiser. Increased pot odds preflop allows for defending with shallower stacks more often, and the specific portions of your range that perform best across each stack size is constructed differently. Upgrading your defense strategy to focus on these specific stack size inflection points will reduce the stress around these decisions in real-time.

Watch this Strategy Episode from Nick Binger for an in-depth look at Big Blind Defense in tournaments with stacks ranging from 15BBs to 40BBs. Tune in as Nick describes the strategy for each stack size based on open-raises from late, middle, and early position.

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Tips for Defending Your Big Blind Like A Pro:

• Avoid calling with offsuit hands, suited hands and speculative hands are best
• This strategy only applies when you are up against 1 opponent and in the Big Blind
• Make sure you only defend by calling with specific hands. Don’t remove 3-betting from your game plan!
• Defend with tighter calling range against larger open raise sizes
• Default to checking the flop after you call the raise, no matter what cards you hold

Defending Your Small Blind...

Improving your play from the Small Blind can have a dramatic impact on your tournament game and help avoid leaking chips due to critical mistakes. Spend time studying your Defense Strategy from the Small Blind and improve your play from the toughest seat at the table.

Watch this Strategy Episode as Nick introduces a tool for your tournament game plan, Small Blind Defense. Nick also provides detailed hand ranges and discusses your approach to defending the Small Blind in Tournaments.

💡Note: Members must be logged in to view the Strategy Episode.

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