WSOP Deep Mistake #4: Not Defending the Button
The corollary is that you can and should play more hands on the button. This isn’t about blind stealing; it’s about setting yourself up to leverage your position after the flop. So while you can open raise with a very wide range from the button, you can also call and re-raise more raises, especially when there are already multiple players in the pot.
Tournament players are accustomed to calling and re-raising aggressively to defend their blinds, which makes sense when stacks are shallow. Not only are you risking less, but you are sending a message to the table bullies to leave your blinds alone. This is important when the blinds represent 5-10% of your stack.
With deeper stacks, blind defense is less important but button defense is more important. The button is like a gold mine that you have to share with eight other prospectors. When it’s your turn to reap the gold, you can’t let the others beat you to it. An aggressive player on your right who regularly raises the pot ahead of you needs to be discouraged with frequent calls and re-raises. After a while, he will stop trying to steal your button.