What Is the Big Blind In Poker?

If you are a casual poker player, you might be aware of what position means in poker, but you might not be aware of its importance. The dealer is generally regarded to be the best position available in poker because they are able to dictate the hand, providing they have some level of skill. This is because they have the ability to act the last, providing that none of the blinds decides to enter the hand. All of the other players at the table know their position for the hand in relation to the dealer. 

The blinds are positioned to the dealer's left, but what do they represent and why is one called the small blind, and why is the other called a big blind? This should soon all become very clear to you.

Poker and the Importance of Position

A full-ring Poker table should have up to 9 players, while short-handed ones may have 6 or fewer players. The most notable poker positions are the Dealer (or Button) and the two blinds.

The Small and Big blinds are important because they place the starting bets in every game. The blinds are different from the Antes, which is the bet every player must place before the game begins. It is also important to note that antes are not always part of aDpoker game, especially cash games.

The Blinds in Poker are placed by the two players on the immediate left side of the dealer. After every hand, the dealer button moves to the left, and every player has a different role for the next hand. If this didn't happen, the game would be very unfair, as someone would always have a positional advantage.

Are Antes the Same as Blinds?

It is quite easy to confuse Ante with Blinds. After all, they are the chips the players must place before the game begins. However, while Ante is the mandatory bet all the players at the table must place before the game begins, Blinds are restricted to two selected players. This basic distinction guides how the players interact with the game because they both determine how the pot increases. In tournaments, the blinds increase every 10 or 20 minutes to help speed things along. While in cash games, they determine the game's stakes. The larger the blinds, the more money will be played for on average.

How to Determine Blinds in Poker

Like every other position in Poker, the blinds are subject to the position of the Dealer. Unlike the general perspective that the Dealer is a professional that does not partake in the game but only hands out cards and chips, Dealers are actually players.

Let's presume we are playing a cash game where the small blind is 5 cents, and the big blind is 10 cents. In this instance, you will have a dealer with the dealer button, and the small blind to his left will place 5 cents while the person to their left will place 10 cents. The player to the left of the big blind will make the first decision in hand, meaning that the player in the big blind will act last.

Is Being in the Big Blind Good or Bad?

Being the big blind for a hand is generally not regarded as a good thing, as if you decide to play the hand, you will not have a positional advantage as you will be making the decision to raise or check first. Having said that, the main advantage of being the big blind is that you can occasionally enter the pot with some fantastic pot odds. For example, if there is a min-raise and 5 players have called, you can opt to see the flop at odds of 7-1 for example. This means you see the flop with little risk, and if you like what you see on the flop, you will then be within a chance to win a massive pot.

The best-case scenario, of course, is that you wake up with a monster hand, and the pot is already big. In this case, you can make a sizeable raise and hope to either win the hand there and then play the hand against, preferably only one player. The big blind does give players the opportunity to play with some fun hands they wouldn't consider playing with if they were playing from an earlier position.

Each Position Merits a Different Strategy

To be good at poker, you need to know the importance of the position. The most important aspect of the game is the two cards you decide to play the hand with. When you understand the positional aspect of the game, you will raise and call with hands in some positions and simply chucking them away in other positions. Therefore, if you want to improve your poker game, you need to know how you will play each hand based on your position at the table.