Steal raises at micro limits

[rjc199]

Does anybody notice that steal raises at $0.50/1 and 1/2 never work? How do you then go about playing your good hands in LP when it is folded to you?

[antidan444]

Uh, raise?

[rjc199]

umm. Yeah, well post flop is where my problems are genius. Maybe you could post 10 of your steal raise hands and I could learn something from you master. You are obviously so good at stealing that you only have time for one word answers. Lol.

[Sent]

I think what he is trying to say is that if you have a good hand in LP you raise not to steal the pot, but to gain money from the blinds staying in.

-Sent

[antidan444]

This was your original post ...

[ QUOTE ]
Does anybody notice that steal raises at $0.50/1 and 1/2 never work? How do you then go about playing your good hands in LP when it is folded to you?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, the obvious answer is, if the blinds are never folding, then of course you raise your good hands in LP to get the bets in now. (Personally, on these micro tables, I riase my good hands no matter what. Let the bad players do what they do best, call with junk.)

[rjc199]

My question is. When both blinds call, or the button and both blinds. The flop misses you so you only have overcards (no backdoor opportunities). Your bet will get called (either by trash or a pair), so that doesn't make you any money.

Is the key here to continue your steal tries, but when you finally hit something to make them pay at that time and not throw money away with overcards?

[kureido]

Uh, raise?

Bravo, Dan [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

rjc199, if they think you're stealing when you raise in late position with a good hand, this is a *good* thing. It means they'll put more money in the pot when they really shouldn't.

After some number-crunching with pokercalculator, if you're holding a hand from Sklansky's groups 1-4 and are up against two random hands in the blinds, you'll hold the winning hand about 50% of the time. Combine this with the fact that you'll play well after the flop, and your steal-conscious opponents probably won't, you're definitely in winning territory with the open-raise.

-b

[antidan444]

Alright. Postflop play. I've got overcards but no other draws. So, six outs (if I'm not still the best hand, which is possible). Since I'm in late position, I bet the flop even though I know they'll call, hoping they'll check to me on the turn and I can see the turn and river cards for one SB. That's always my goal with overcards. (Of course, if the turn card hits me, then I'll stay aggressive).

Now, if the button's still in and he raises my flop bet, I'll call and see the turn, but if I don't improve, I'm gone.

(EDIT: Unless I have pot odds to catch one of my six outs on the river. Usually in a three-way pot it's close, but headsup it's not.)

(2ND EDIT: I'm assuming the button will bet out on the turn. Guess I should have said that.)

[kureido]

Is the key here to continue your steal tries, but when you finally hit something to make them pay at that time and not throw money away with overcards?

What hands are you attempting to steal with, exactly? If you're open-raising from late position with hands that you would still play if there were already other people in the pot, that's not really a steal attempt, you're raising them for value. I will occasionally steal-raise with hands like A9o, but I will just about always raise a premium hand too when it's just me and the blinds. If they fold to the raise, sure, I stole their blinds, but I also had the better hand and had a reasonable expectation to take their money anyway.

-b

[rjc199]

The problem is that I don't see how it can be correct to see every flop to the river with just overcards. How can I be getting the right odds. Frankly, I take simulation results with a grain of salt (unless it is exclusively preflop hand strengths). We don't know what these guys are calling with. Sure most of the time they just have unpaired cards, but often they have a pair (more often they will have a pair then me).

My question is, is it +EV for me to see every river as long as the board isn't scary??