Stealing the blinds

Everybody knows the importance of stealing the blinds. However, how and when to steal seems to be a bit more blury. What action for what purpose? And what results?

My observation of other player, reading and discussion on the forum showed me a wide variety of stealing, means and results (often surprising results).

Here is how I was doing and how I do now.

I used to start to steal when blinds were big enough to really matter, that would be one level before antes are introduced to the game, I would also try to steal with hand I could do something with just in case, at least a drawing hand. This worked, most of the time but not consistantly enough to get a big profit out of it. Also, if I get caught, investing thes 3-4 bb steeal could hurt my stack so having to fold trying to steal twice could put me in a difficult spot.

Now, I start to steal right away regarless of my cards and if nobody or just one limper is in the pot and if I am as far as 3 from the button. My raise is 3 to 4 BB early, than go down to three and eventually 2.5 BB when blinds are really high. I get very good result with this. It is incredible how obvious my steals are and more incredible how everybody fold to them or call check-fold on the flop. It seems most players are just forfaiting there blinds to me IF I start to steal consistantly and early ( a table break can be a problem here ).

Stealing those blinds early doesn t seem like much but I get to the next blind level with more chips then I used to and that allows me to steal even more and don t put my stack in dire straits if I have to fold my J3o if someone pop-it after me.

What I think I ve learned and seems to work well is:

1) steal early.
2) steal a lot ( doesn t matter if it is obvious ), people will let you do.
3) the bigger the blind, the lower a raise is necessary ( from 3.5/4 BB to 2.5 BB )

Please comment on that and share what your stealing strategy is, we shall all benefit about it I m sure .

I start in the 15/30, when I have at least some idea of how my blinds are playing, in the 10/20 the players will almost alway call since it's just 40/60 more...

Actually, as there are a lot of multi limp before I get in the action I cannot raise it ( and steal it ) but if the opportunity arise, I ll raise it anyway, if called and check to me on the flop I bet.

Like RB, I like to let the table go a lap or so. That way I can also look at who might be using the same game plan.

That brings an interesting point. what if someone have the same plan as you? What do you try to do if the player is to your left and what if he is to your right?

if he's to my right I start threebetting him when the blinds get higher, at the start, though, I let him do what he wants because it's not worth it to get tangled in 3bet pots. (also he will call often making me play a bigger pot, which I'd rather not do in the beginning.

I try not to tangle with him to much, unless I have a correct hand as he s got a great chance to go broke anyway as a huge majority of players are not using this play correctly and try to bluff to many chips on later street.

I m not gonna try to put more pressure than him but may call him more than I would do and let him bluff his chips to me if I can find a spot to do that.

Had a guy JUST like that on my table in that tourney the other night. 3 bet anything decent. After awhile, I typed in "We need to be on separate tables" and he agreed. It was obvious that we had the same plan. We avoided each other when we could. BTW, both cashed.

I was reading Matusow s book where he explained what was behind his little show in 04 with Raymer when he told him he s loosing because he ( Matusow ) had big cojones and Raymer had small Cojones. The reason behind that was that he tried to "tell" him stop fu.... with me and lets share the profit at this table so nobody gets hurt and we increase our chip stack without risks.

Usually you don t have to say it and when two people are doing better than the rest of the table, both understand that.

its pretty well documented that i steal whenever possible. ill even raise 56sooted UTG if I know the blinds are weak players but thats another topic.

i ran into a problem in my tourneys on monday night that i havent had much of before. the big stack on my immediate left was playing extremely loose passive. basically, he was flat calling everytime i raised preflop even as the SB. Late in the tournament he busted me with 22 vs my 88 after flatting my raise and hitting a set on a 245 board.

Any ideas on how to steal effectively with a loose passive behind you? I think, after looking into the HH, i found a way to exploit him post-flop but I am still lost pre.

I think you may want to make raise pf as usual and simply do a hecheck-youbet-hefold on the flop no? Be careful at the size of your stack, you may have to reduce a bit the size of you pf raise to be able to make a flop bet significant enought to have him fold without hurting you if you get called.

I tend to play conservative early so I can get a read on the other players. Then I try to steal blinds after a few laps around. If I notice another player trying to steal blinds, I try not to get into a game of one up with them and instead work to increase my chips and let them do their thing. Of course this assumes the other player is thinking the same way in that we can both work the table to increase chips. If they want it all for themselves then I will look to up the bet on them whenever possible.

I actually like to try to get a least in one pot with a stealer so I can call pf and check raise him on the flop ( if oop ) to take a free pot. Works pretty good unless he has a hand of course.