Blind defense is a contentious subject. Some, like peter_rus, the famous poker professional from Russia, claims that if there is even a single cold caller you can defend with any suited cards! Others, like Tommy Angelo, maintain you should be as tight from the small blind facing no raise as you are Under The Gun! Both players are solid winners, so it is tough to decide which, if either of these extremes to apply to your game. But what I advocate is a more moderate approach because defending your blinds in fixed limit Texas Holdem properly can mean the difference between winning and losing.
From the small blind your implied odds are doubled, because you are only putting in half a bet pre flop and so hands like Axs, Kxs and suited connectors can usually be played. Because of your poor position you want to be very careful playing in raised pots or short handed pots; you will find yourself on the short end of the stick most often. The same is true of the big blind, to a degree, but in large multi-way pots you can certainly defend with drawing hands.
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One mistake many players make is defending a hand like A8o. It takes a VERY loose opponent to make this a profitable call. While the pot odds you get with a blind already in the pot make this attractive at first glance, but the post flop complications often make this call a losing one in the long run, especially if you are calling against a tight opponent. The reason behind this is your opponent could easily have a higher Ace and if one comes up on the flop you could easily be "out kickered."
In a multi-way pot, especially with an ace, “suitedness” plays a huge role if you are the underdog. If your hand only has a 10% chance of winning, “suitedness” adds a 5% to that, making it 50% better. This is a fact that is often overlooked by 'tight' players, who frequently overvalue hands like AJo to a raise, and undervalue the worth of A5s.
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