[climber]

This is not something I've read about before or seen anyone post about and I tried the "search" feature with no luck.

Later in a Party 10+1, 20+2 SNG. I'm in the SB--its checked to me and I have rags. Not 96o rags but 24o or 53o--really nothing. I just complete--no fold no raise to steal. What do you guys think about this?

This is maybe a 30-50% of the time move for me. I'm pulling this move anytime I have total rags and a stack of 900TC or more. My goals are two-fold. First I want to steal on the flop almost no matter what hits. If they play back preflop I usually am folding unless its a min raise and they are really weak players overall. If the flop comes with an A and a K and they check to me I'll check and bet the turn to steal then when a 7-J comes out and I represent a middle pair. I bet 2/3 the pot on the flop or turn when I make my steal attempt.

I steal the blinds a lot preflop so people tend to get annoyed and start playing back at me eventually. Also I feel like my 3-4x BB raise doesn't get that much respect after they've seen me do it 5 of the last 10 hands at later stages. This seems to me like a nice way to mix it up a little and steal the blinds from weak players with less risk.

The second purpose behind this move is to gain information about how the player plays HU. Its nice to know who will get too much of their ego involved in protecting their blind and really pay you off when you pick up a monster. Even if I just do this once against a super aggro player and fold when he plays back I'm setting myself up in his mind as a weak tight player and then I can really take advantage of that when I'm dealt a real hand later.

I usually make this move at about Level 3 when the blinds are at 25/50 or sometimes 50/100 if I have a bigger stack and it doesn't cost much but seems to do wonders for establishing a weak image, inducing bluffs by aggro palyers and letting me mix up my stealing methods. It also adds another level of deception.

What do you guys think? This works well at 10+1 and I've had some success at 20+2 but less people will let me steal this way. At 20+2 it seems more useful for gathering information cheaply and early than as a stealing method.

Does anybody else do this? Am I deluding myself that this could be a profitable play.