Fighting off blind stealers like Raymer?

[bulletspoker]

In this scenario what is the right strategy:

You have 3000 chips and the bully has been stealing blinds has 9000 chips.

Blinds are 100/200

Bully bets 600 chips (3x BB). You read that he trying to steal the blinds with rags, but your hand isn't so hot (say KQo or J10 suited).

How much do you have to bet so he doesn't have pot odds to call with rags? Is all-in the only option?

If he has rags and is a 2:1 dog, even if you bet 2000 chips, he only has to call by putting in 1400 more for a 2900 pot. So I guess all-in is the only option?

Dang it sucks being the short stack vs. blind stealing bully. The bully always seems to have pot odds to chase you down, no?

[MLG]

there is nothing wrong with calling 400 and looking at a flop here.

[random]

After you call 400 you still have 2600 behind. You wouldn't be very shortstacked. If you really read him as having rags and not being able to beat J high, call and lead the flop if big cards come. There's no reason to commit all your chis with a crap hand when he could easily have a hand that beats you.

I'm not a MTT player but it seems silly to push. As I see it, calling is the best option, with folding being second. Pushing is wreckless.

What's also important is the position of the other small stacks. Are they close to your left so you can bully them around? If those to your left are not shortstacked, how attached to their blinds are they? Also, how close you are to the money seems important.

[bulletspoker]

If you call and look at a flop, the bully inevitably goes all-in most of the time. And even if you hit the flop it's hard to call an all-in with one pair, weak kicker no?

At this point I think all-in pre-flop if you're sure your read on him having rags is probably best, unless other people have other thoughts.

[Superfluous Man]

Why not try a stop-n-go? Let's say you're in the BB and the bully is on the button. You flat call his raise for 400 more, leaving you with T2400. There's now T1300 in the pot (bully's raise + your call + T100 SB).

The flop comes and you push your last T2400 into the pot (no matter what the cards are). Now, the bully has to put in T2400 to win a T3700 pot. If the flop missed him or barely nicked him (and if he's stealing with rags, there will likely be at least one card on the flop that scares him), he'll be hard-pressed to call getting a little better than 3:2 from the pot with only the turn and river to come.

Also, if you do this, you send a message to the bully that he cannot just steal from you with impunity. And, you've won a decent-sized pot.

[SossMan]

<font color="blue"> And even if you hit the flop it's hard to call an all-in with one pair, weak kicker no?
</font>

It's not very hard to call an all in w/ top pair any kicker if this is also true:

<font color="blue"> If you call and look at a flop, the bully inevitably goes all-in most of the time </font>

unless he's cheating

[gergery]

You have 3 options:
Push allin. If you feel good about your read, then push in. A normal raise of 3x his raise of 600 would be over half your stack, so just push. Bully’s usually back off too aggression. However, he would only be risking 2400 to win ~3900 and risk &lt;1/3rd of his stack, so if he’s a loose calling bully (as opposed to a folding bully), you could be racing here (ok not great with KQ, bad with JT). So know how your opponent reacts to pressure back at him.

Call. If you’re not quite sure of your read, then call is good. Then bet the pot on most flops (he will miss 2/3s of time) for a stopngo type play. Most are much more likely to fold after missing flop. And calling his steals discourages future steal, tho maybe not as much as resteals.

Fold. This is weaker. KQ, JT are strong enough hands to defend with.