Blind Defense

[DesertCat]

I was looking at my PokerTracker stats for Blind defense and I'm guessing they are way too loose (5,000 hands).

Folded SB To Steal: 58 %
Folded BB To Steal: 20 %
Fold BB to Steal HD: 25 %

Are these numbers good, bad or ugly? I'm trying to tighten up and only call raises in the BB, and only with big cards, suited A,K, or Q or suited connectors. Is there any other rules I should be following?

[illunious]

The blind steal stats are especially dependent on sample size if you play something like .5/1 Party.

If you play in nice loose games, steal attempts are extremely rare. I think 5k hands may not be enough.

I don't have PT on this computer so I can't tell you what mine are. But I will tell you when I see blind steals I start deciding whether the table is worth sitting at.

[DesertCat]

I'm playing PP 1/2, and I'm not worried about stealing the blinds myself. Though I agree 100% about tables with lots of blind stealing not worth playing, I have noticed with my effort to be more aggressive I'm getting some blinds as an extra benefit.

I'm just worried I call too many raises out of the blinds, and it seems like these numbers indicate I'm too loose, but I don't know what they should be.

[Cerril]

It's almost entirely situational, you really need to know who's doing the stealraising. I mean, I'll try to steal with most aces, kings, ATSWD... but some people only raise with quality even first in LP, I'll see a lot of button open-limping from ultra-passive players.

I think the general rule is about 40% SB, 70% BB to a blatant (100%) steal. Scale your numbers back as you scale theirs back, and of course reraise a true steal with anything of quality.