K♣9♦ BB vs BTN, preflop, 100 bb

The spot

You: BB
Opponent: BTN
Your hand: K♣9♦
Board: preflop, no board yet
Effective stack: 100 bb
Pot: 3.5 bb

BTN opens 2bb, SB folds.

Best baseline action?

See the answer

Best play: Call

Why

Versus a 2bb BTN open you only need to win ~25% to defend, so K9o calls profitably from the BB; it plays poorly as a 3‑bet (dominated by the Ax/Kx it gets called by) and is too high-equity to fold.

Key idea

Getting a great price in the big blind, you defend wide by calling with hands like K9o rather than folding equity or turning a dominated offsuit hand into a 3‑bet bluff.