Playing right before the blinds increase

[morgan180]

In bubble time (any time really) you can count the number of hands left before the blinds increase again, and figure out who it is going to hit first.

How does this factor in to your strategy as:

a big stack
a mid stack
a little stack

As a little stack do you loosen up excessively in hopes of winning some blinds to get you through the next blind increase (stealing 300 in blinds before you pay 300) or do you tighten up not wanting to risk your chips to ensure you get through the blinds in hopes of finding a holding you can double through with?

As a big stack do you know the mid-stack is about to be punished with a 400 blind so you try to steal anything that they limp with, or do you respect the limp more because you assume that person knows they are about to pay a big blind as well?

How else do you use the increasing blinds to pressure other opponents?

Or is your pressure strategy so strong that this is such a minimal factor that it doesn't influence your play to a great deal?

[(my name it is) Sam Hall]

My only concern about my own stack size is to have enough chips let so I can throw in big raises without looking desperate. Usually I'm a medium or medium-small stack at the point where blind increases start to matter. Four-digit chip numbers are good since visually you won't get targeted as a short-stack.

I'm more interested in the combination of the player+stack I'm playing against than the stack I have. Loose players who go way up and then start to lose it often tighten up big time with a short stack, so you can steal almost at will. TP players with a short stack are often better players who will re-raise your steal attempts and outplay you (well... me anyway) after the flop, so I try not to steal from them, although I will play a few more (high card) hands because they are also loosening up as they run out of chips.

Big stacks I think the opposite is true: tight players slightly more likely to fold, loose players more likely to call with a worse hand. Adjust accordingly.

Medium stacks are often in a major flat spot in their chip utility, and so it's also easy to steal from them.

Sam