Playing the Blinds Against a Nit
The big blind discount tempts you to defend wide against everyone; against a nit open, the discount is a trap. Their range does not care about your price: it beats your wide defends on most boards for most stacks.
From Poker Ascent: 110,000+ drills across 10 skills, graded against the player type you are facing.
Defend narrow and honest
Pairs (deep enough to set-mine), big suited broadways, AK, AQ. The suited-junk defends that print against steals are lighting money against a range of premiums; you flop second-best constantly and pay to learn it.
Set-mine only with the right stacks
The nit blind-defense special is flatting pairs to crack overpairs, and it needs roughly 15-to-1 behind or better. At 100bb it is fine; short, fold the small pairs and save the blind.
Postflop, their c-bet is real, and so is the rest
Play fit-or-fold without shame: out of position against a premium range, the clever floats and check-raises that work against stealers become donations. Hit your hand or release.
Worked hand
Worked hand
Nit opens under the gun at 140bb effective, you defend 8♠ 8♣ in the big blind. Flop K♠ 8♥ 2♦: middle set under their favorite card. Check-call the flop (their overpairs and AK bet once for sure). Turn 5♣: check-raise. Their kings pay the raise because a nit cannot map your blind defend onto exactly 88. River: bet whatever they have behind. The narrow defend range exists exactly for this hand.
Want to drill this exact spot?
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The mistakes that cost you
- Defending suited connectors for the price (price is not the problem; their range is).
- Bluff-catching any street (their bets beat one pair, from the blinds same as anywhere).
- Checking the river shy (charge the overpair while it still feels strong to them).
Practice beating the Nit
The app has a dedicated nit mission: hundreds of drills where the correct answer is graded against exactly this player type. Same hands, same reads you just learned.
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