Theory: Raising from the SB in 6max

[dtbog]

Situation: Any 6max table.

Everyone has folded around to you, and you're sitting on the SB. Assume full stacks.

I was discussing this situation with a few people the other day; some favored stealing here a lot, while others would simply lay down and move on without a decent hand.

Personally, I don't particularly like to play big pots out of position without a good reason.

This is particularly significant in this situation because the raise from the SB always looks like a steal; you know that BB/villain knows this, so it's easy to piss away chips interpreting his aggression as resteal aggression. This is bad -- you either end up folding when you shouldn't, calling when you shouldn't, or playing a giant pot with a mediocre hand that happens to be best.. this time. This seems like a dangerous spot that could be avoided by folding your mediocre SB hands and forefeiting the 0.5 BB.

If you're loosening up to steal here, you're going to flop top pair with a vulnerable kicker... and what do you do?

When I'm the BB in this situation, I take the positional advantage and absolutely demolish players who raise too much from the SB. If I know they do this, I'll raise almost every flop.. giving me the upper hand IN position.

The best argument I can construct for raising often here is to allow you to get paid off with your strong hands... but I don't think this is worthwhile in most SSNL games.

What do you guys think? How often do you make a "steal" here? What are your PF raising standards in a blind battle?