Stealing Blinds Repeatedly

[Jason Strasser]

I've been pondering this little nugget for a bit. I've heard many posters on this forum, and in the multi-table forum say that they hate stealing blinds twice in a row.

I had a situation come up in a STT the other day that was very interesting. On the bubble, 5 handed, I got dealt AQ, AT, KK, JJ, A6. In succession. Each time I went all-in to steal the blinds. These hands are on the upper echelon of hands I will steal with, so I did not hesitate. On the A6, the table big stack typed out, "I hate this bullsh** you ****" and called me with TT and I wiped out.

Of course, this play was all standard and everything, and regardless if I had pushed the first time or the tenth time, my opponent would call with TT, but I was just thinking. Does anyone consider the last hand, or the last two hands when determining when to steal? I tend to not care. But I do know some players who will fold marginal hands worthy of steals just to not appear like they are stealing too much.

Is there nothing to what I'm saying? I'm not sure...

[ZeeJustin]

Ignoring your table image would be foolish. At the same time, I think many people put to much emphasis on it, and not enough emphasis on whether or not their hand has enough equity to raise with.

[ludeyork]

IMHO, I think going all-in with A6 was definitely pushing your luck. Yesterday, I was playing in a tourney, sitting just to the left of a maniac (or maybe genius) and he was stealing blinds on all-ins. The first two times he showed 24o or 86o, and on the third time in a row I looked down at A9s and called. Needless to say he flipped over aces.

I agree that play is standard and that he would have called with tt regardless, but the more often you're all-in the more likely it will be for someone to call your marginal hand with their marginal hand.

Did that help?

Chris

[Jason Strasser]

A6 on the button 5 handed is auto-push for me. I am very sure it is positive EV for me.

[ludeyork]

Wait. So you wanted a call with your A6? My point was if your 6th all-in was a better hand I'd feel more comfortable, because you're going to get more people considering a call each time.

But then again, I might be confused.

[Jason Strasser]

No, I definitely do not want a call. I want to steal the blinds, and this hand IMO is good enough to do that. I guess you are saying I should've realized that by now they'd be sick of my act and call me.

[fnurt]

[ QUOTE ]
A6 on the button 5 handed is auto-push for me. I am very sure it is positive EV for me.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, yes but. To answer your question, I definitely take prior hands into account when stealing. On a marginal hand, it really makes a difference whether I raised last hand, because I do think it makes people more likely to call me.

As for A6 on the button, it's not just a question of whether the blinds have a bigger hand than you. A6 surely rates to be the best hand 3-handed. However, the problem is that because you just raised 4 hands in a row, you're likely to get called with a lot of hands you'd rather not play against for all your chips, like KQ, KJ, QJ, whatever. If some guy goes on tilt and calls you with 98s... well, that's not a great situation for you, even if it's technically +EV.

I wouldn't take this idea too far, but I think raising 5 hands in a row is one of those extreme situations. As odd as it feels, I've laid down hands in situations like this, and it's worth considering. When you get past the point where you can expect to pick up the blinds uncalled, you have to consider whether your hand is really one that wants action.

[Phil Van Sexton]

Being a 10/1-20/2 player, I'm not questioning your strategy, but I would have likely folded the A6.

Rather than having a fixed list of hands that I'll steal with, I try to steal a certain percentage of the time.

Your opponents will loosen or tighten up their calling requirement based on how often you steal...and they do this regardless of your cards (since they never see them).

Therefore, if my steal % is higher than what I consider ideal due a run of good cards, I will start tightening up considerably. Conversely, if I fold several in a row, I will then try to steal with anything.

If you know your opponents are adjusting, you must adjust also. Maybe A6 is still pushable after an adjustment, but that's for you to decide.

[aaronjacobg]

Jason,
Are u talking chip EV or $EV? As for Chip EV you will steal many times with this hand and you will win many times when you are called. However, IMO the push steal makes it a -$EV move because when you lose 5 handed you get nothing. you are either stealing a little or going broke. Maybe consider this.

Jake

[durron597]

You don't want a call with a middle PP with A6 - after stealing 4 hands in a row you no longer have a tight table image and middle PPs or hands like A8 will call you now. With A6 after pushing 4 times, I might try to minraise or something to make people think that THIS is the hand like AA, so now that I'm doing something out of character this is the real hand.