[BPA234]

Here are some reasons why I think "stealing early" is important.

Early in a tournament, I like to raise the blinds from late position with a wide variety of hands. Raising from late will establish a pattern of looseness that you can later exploit when rising blinds force you to tighten up. Also, raising helps camoflague your hand value and your opponents, when they call from the blinds, are likely to mis-read your hand.

I think this has greatest value in the Sunday big field T's. A good number of the players are not very experienced and can get into serious trouble playing out of position.

Finally, when the blinds are low relative to stack size, I want to play as many hands as I can.