Can I steal one more time, or am I a wuss?

[Glurfle]

I know very little about NL, and even less about tournaments. I wasn't very comfortable with this decision.

Party $11 NL SnG. 8-handed, blinds are 50-100, everyone's stack is between 700 and 1200. I've got around 900 or so. Very tight table, probably no more than 1 in 5 hands has a flop dealt. Very aggressive as well, lots of big all-in reraises before the flop. I'm not used to this kind of play at the $11 level. Usually the play is much more passive and I can just sit for the first few rounds waiting for great hands, but that wasn't happening this time.

I'm dealt KTo in the CO. I raise to 250, everyone folds.

Very next hand, dealt KQo. I raise to 250, everyone folds.

Next hand, dealt KJo. Raise it again?

I'd been playing extremely tight before this series of hands. I was a bit afraid that someone else would assume I was taking advantage of that image and stealing, so they'd come over the top with any 2, and I wouldn't want to call. One player in particular had shown off a couple of big bluffs. It seems in the limit games I play, on the rare occasions I get 3 raising hands in a row, nobody ever believes me by the third one and I get auto-reraised. Between that and my worsening position, I decided to just chuck it. Too weak?

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

With your raise being only 2.5x bb, I'd think you'd run the risk of getting reraised on your 3rd attempt by a pretty wide range of hands. Of course, since you just picked up 300 over the past 2 hands, you can lay this down to a reraise and still be 1/2 bb ahead for this ordit.

Like anything else, this is an "it depends" situation.

[ohkanada]

I would pass the 3rd time. I think the risk of being played against is higher and you really don't have a hand you want to call a re-raise with.

You have gained 300 this round, why give up most of that profit in one hand.

Ken Poklitar

[Greg (FossilMan)]

The more you raise, the more suspicious they get, and the more likely you get a call or a reraise. Usually, if you've been raising and taking it in successive hands (or nearly successive), each subsequent hand needs to be bigger and bigger to justify the steal attempt.

Of course, if you have a hand you're willing to back in a big pot, then you go for it. So, if you're the button on this hand, or otherwise know that what they fight back with might be very weak, then maybe you're wiling to go with KJ.

Most of the time, after 2 successive raises, KJ needs to be mucked.

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

[Copernicus]

You moved from the CO to the Button and now the SB. Raising out of position here is likely to be a waste of chips.

[Nate tha' Great]

[ QUOTE ]
I was a bit afraid that someone else would assume I was taking advantage of that image and stealing.

[/ QUOTE ]

Um, you are stealing. KJo is likely to be a losing heads up hand against anything that would call you. You don't want to be called. You're stealing. And, yeah, you're more likely to get called out when you try it the third time in three hands, because the other players will have deduced, quite correctly, that you're stealing.

[ohkanada]

"You moved from the CO to the Button and now the SB. Raising out of position here is likely to be a waste of chips."

You have this confused. You will be moving from CO toward UTG. You have already paid the blinds and will be moving toward them.

Ken Poklitar

[CrisBrown]

Hi Glurfle,

I agree. You've stolen enough lately that you're more likely to be "looked up," and you really don't have a hand worth being called. What's more, you've gotten lucky on two successive hands, stealing on decent but marginal cards when no one else had a hand. But the odds say that sooner or later, someone WILL have a hand and call you out.

So, as the others have said, for each successive steal attempt, you need to have a STRONGER hand, because it's more likely you'll get called. Lay down your KJos and be satisfied with your profits in this round.

Cris