POLL: Blind Stealing Strategy

[tminus]

Ive recently put alot of thought into blind stealing and have experimented with a few approaches. Most recently a friend suggested I become really aggresive at the higher levels on the button when folded to me, here's an example:

-'poker1929' is Semitight/aggressive.
-'topcop128' is tight passive folding to most raises.
-my table image is tight aggressive, either folding or raising and only showing monster hands

NL Hold'em $5 Buy-in + $1
Level:5 Blinds(100/200)
Seat 7 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 3: warthog999 ( $330 )
Seat 5: chicagomike ( $1280 )
Seat 10: FinancialEco ( $1945 )
Seat 9: poker1929 ( $1540 )
Seat 8: topcop128 ( $840 )
Seat 7: Tminus ( $2065 )
Trny:11860459 Level:5
Blinds(100/200)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Tminus9 [ Qc 7s ]
FinancialEco folds.
warthog999 folds.
chicagomike folds.
Tminus raises [600].
topcop128 folds.
poker1929 raises [800].
Your time bank will become active in less than 20 seconds. If you do not want it to be used, please act now.
----------------------------------------------------
Here are my thoughts at this point:
1) Topcop would definetly fold so i knew that i would end up HU if called.

2) The small reraise preflop suggested to me that he had something worth raising with but not a monster or we would have gone all in with blinds so high. This was my first attempt at testing him so I should definatly follow through. Folding to his preflop reraise would have been foolish with a pot that big that I was so invested in already and I may be able to bully him out on the flop going all in.
-----------------------------------------------
Tminus calls [400].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 5d, Jc, 5s ]
poker1929 is all-In [540]
-----------------------------------
Here are my thoughts at this point:
1) I am pot committed, he may be bluffing, and it would destroy my table image to back down.
----------------------------------
Tminus calls [540]

[Degen]

It depends.

Andre
P.S. Push evertime its folded to you and you should be alright. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[lastchance]

SB and BB have both less than 8x BB. Push preflop.

[nWirb]

I don't like the way this hand was played.
Either raise 450-500 and fold to a reraise or push preflop.

[JP Rocks]

If I had gotten into that position on the flop, I would have folded to that bet. You would still have 1000 chips, as opposed to <500 if you lost, which is a huge difference. Also, you are assuming that he is gonna beat you with a monster to preserve your table image, not with a middle PP he may well have. Trying to cultivate a good table image at a $5+1 is kind of like putting on an Opera at a trailer park- I think you are giving your opponents way too much credit.

[BradleyT]

[ QUOTE ]
-my table image is tight aggressive, either folding or raising and only showing monster hands

NL Hold'em $5 Buy-in + $1

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you see the irony of your image statement?

[TStokes]

i agree with everyone else if I was gonna steal I would just push here

[DasLeben]

I insta-poosh preflop. Punish those smallies. (Disclaimer: been drinking).

[Ryendal]

No, no and no.

[Nicok7]

PREFLOP
This is 5+1$ guys, the fold equity isn't great, the button only has 5 BB (wich is still enough to hurt hero), the SB has a big stack, and hero has enough chips to wait for a better spot. While I don't think stealing is bad here, it is a tricky situation with a marginal hand.

If you push, and the SB calls you, you are in big trouble. If you only raise 3BB, you might loose a big portion of your stack to a resteal from SB, or be commited for half your chips against BB.
If you raise just enough to cover BB and maximize fold equity, you are getting too commited against SB

Personally depending on the read on the opponents I would either fold or raise 2.5BB wich gives me a chance of stealing without risking to many chips yet.

THE RERAISE
A min reraise by a good player here always means trouble, he wants you to call him, with blinds so big, that is scary.
And then again the proportion of terrible players that do not understand the concept of fold equity means it could just be a bad attempt at a resteal.
It could also be a very clever attempt at regaining the initiative to make a push and go convincing, put I believe if SB mastered these concepts he would probably not play the 5$.

Either way the call is obious for 200 chips you have no choice put to stay in the pot, and often enough the flop will be very nice to you, say Q7A rainbow [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

FLOP
Given the analysis that SB is either slowplaying a monster or weak, when he pushes for all his chips you've got a give him credit for something good. I would only play 2 pairs or above given your hand (even if your queen had hit you're very likely to be behind IMO, especially given your read on the player).