Big blind special

Big blind special is a term in poker that refers to occurrences when the player sitting in the big blind position wins a hand despite holding poor cards - because no one raised (or at least raised significantly) prior to the flop.

Normally, a player not in big blind position with poor cards would fold before the flop, because their hand is a weak, money-losing one. But because the big blind has a forced bet, if no one raises preflop then they have the opportunity to see the flop for free. If the flop increases their chance of winning enough, they may then choose to play through the rest of the hand. Even if a small raise is made preflop, the big blind's pot odds are better than that of other players because they only have to match the raise rather than cold call the entire amount.

Examples

In Texas hold 'em, the person in the big blind holds 7Unicode|♦ 2Unicode|♠, the worst starting hand possible. All other plays at the table fold except for one player who calls with AUnicode|♥ 4Unicode|♦. The big blind player then checks.

The flop comes down AUnicode|♠ 7Unicode|♠ 2Unicode|♣.

The player who called the blind has hit top pair, and will most likely consider himself to be holding the best hand, because much more often than not, this is true. But in this hand, the big blind has the best winning percentage now, because he picked up two beneficial cards on the flop after starting with a poor hand.

Big blind specials most seriously affect heads up play. Because each player finds himself in the big blind every other hand, the probability of a big blind special dramatically increases.

The 2003 World Series of Poker main event was decided on a hand that can be considered a big blind special. Sam Farha not only began with a better hand (JUnicode|♥ 10Unicode|♦) than his opponent, Chris Moneymaker, but also caught a jack on the flop to have top pair. The flop also gave Moneymaker (5Unicode|♦ 4Unicode|♠) two pair. Both went all in and Moneymaker won.

ee also

* Poker probability
* Glossary of poker terms