Stealing Blinds

[Fonzi]

It can be a tricky thing to steal blinds. Do it too much and you’ll find a lot of players fighting back by re-raising. Do it too little and you’ll find yourself blinded off when you run out of chips because you haven’t been aggressive enough.

If you’re going to survive and thrive in no limit hold’em tournament play, you’ll need to master blind stealing. The term stealing is used because players often raise the blinds with mediocre hands in hope of winning the chips in the blinds uncontested when those players fold. If you’re raising with a big hand like Q-Q or A-K, you’re certainly not “stealing.”

Here are some tips on blind thievery in tournament play.

Steal a lot late, not so much early. You don’t want to aggressively go after blinds in the early levels of tournaments because the blinds are small relative to everyone’s stack sizes. For example, in many tournaments you might start with 1,500 in chips and the blinds begin at 25-25. You can win 50 in chips in the blinds, which represents 3 percent of your starting stack. I’d rather limp in with a mediocre hand and hope to flop a big hand that I might be able to double up with rather than try to steal very little in blind money. In the latter stages of a tournament, the blinds represent a much larger percentage of the average stack and must be fought for at all costs. If you’re not in there fighting for the blinds then you will slowly lose your chips by attrition.

Be careful stealing from early position. Don’t try to steal much with weak or medium hands from a position close to the left of the blinds. If I’m attempting to steal the blinds I usually don’t want to try it from anymore than two spots to the right of the button. There are too many players to your left who could wake up with a big hand and re-raise you otherwise.

Pick on the weak. Sit and observe your table for an hour. You’ll see which players are aggressive and which are timid. Most importantly, you’ll be able to determine who to target as your victim. Go after the blinds of the weak players -- even with weak hands -- if you think they will fold and you are reasonably close to the button. Be careful, though, because other aggressive players may catch on to your tactic and re-raise you if they think you are just raising to pick on the weak.

Don’t risk too much for too little. I generally prefer to raise about 2.5 to 3 times the big blind anytime I raise, whether it is with A-A or a blind stealing hand like 7-8. The risk just isn’t worth the reward if you bet 5 or 6 times the big blind and someone calls or re-raises and you ultimately have to fold your unsuccessful steal attempt. You’ll have to steal the blinds 3 or 4 more times just to make up for what you lost after your big raise.

By Johnny Kampis

[mundybags1]

i play about 2/3 tournaments a day and make it to the money in about 1 of every 5. not as good as i would like but i am always timmid to play this strategy. i might even be one of them people that people watch and take advantage of. what advice would you give a player like myself to try and change from my play to this play you have in your post. i always say that i would like to play that style then play too tight.

Thanks.

[Assistanc3]

you can also gain the advantage of a steal when your player notes are good

player A is very tight, player B is very loose... who would u steal from ?

player C respects your rasies, player D will call x5 bb, even tho u have only shown top 14%

[eaglezoners]

mundybags1 like everything else in poker -- we start with certain basic rules of play -- typically the people who do some reading in advance of playing -- see the rank of starting hands and numerous articles advocating that the tight aggressive player in the long run will do the best. What I see happen is these players are patient, wait for the "nuts", and make enough money to survice late into tournaments but invariably end up short-stacked. They are too timid to steal blinds and also when a table they are on becomes short-handed they won't loosen up to adjust to the circumstances.

I find they are quite good short stack players, and with some luck make it to a final table, but win very few tournaments but cash quite a bit.

Well since the game has greater complexity to it, and there are periods when u must become more aggressive if u wish to be rewarded with better results including winning your fair share of tournaments, I think you just have to keep practicing blind stealing and being more aggressive at short-handed tables -- even if it does not agree well with your comfort zone -- if you keep at it enough, you will get more and more used to it and more comfortable playing both tight and looser as needed. I hope that helps.

[Mist]

Blindstealing is a very complex subject, but I'm just going to post some basic things you need to remember when stealing.

1. Position

Normally you should only steal from late position, f.ex. the cutoff, the button etc... By doing this there are less people left involved who might have a legitemate hand to play back at you.

2. Image

If you have a tight tableimage you will often be able to steal blinds easier than if you have a loose/agressive image. But remember, if you suddenly start playing really loose after playing like a rock earlier, your opponents will spot it and play back at you.

3. The table

It's important to realize how the other players at the table play. If the table is very tight it can often be a lot easier to steal blinds than at a loose table where there is a lot more action.

4. The action behind you

Normally you should only steal when it's folded around to you. Of course there are a lot of different plays you can do (different squeezeplayes f.ex.) but since I'm only covering the very basic blindstealing strategy in this post I will not involve these plays.

5. Your stack and your opponents stack

Normally you should try to steal blinds from players that are playing tight or have small stacks (though not too small). It's generally not a good idea to try to bully the chipleader as he has a lot of chips to play with and can easilly put the preassure back on you.

6. The stage of the tournament

Early on in a tournament it's generally not good to steal, seeing as the risk isn't wort the reward. The deeper you get the more you should try to steal and accumulate chips. A good time to do so is at the bubble where many shortstacks are just trying to fold their way into the money.

These tips are meant for beginners that aren't really familliar with the term "blindstealing", and only cover the very basics of the subject.