Ultra-basic Question

[hutz]

I'm semi-new to tournament play and have a very basic question. As evryone knows, the strategy-changing factor with last-table tournament play is that the blinds escalate so much that stealing the blinds once each round (on average) is very important. If you're down to the last 6 or 7 players in a tournament and the guys to your left are about the same stack size as you, what's your minimum range of steal raise hands on the button or SB when it's folded around to you? I have been raising all-in from those positions with any ace, any king, any pair, and any large (T9s or above) suited connectors. Too loose? Too tight? This range of hands is much different from what I'd play in a normal ring game, by the way. Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to offer.

[eMarkM]

I'll assume your stacks sizes are average. Since there's probably antes at this point, make the raise at least pot sized, sometimes pot sized + a BB worth. Somewhere in that range. Now if making this raise takes over half your chips, then you might as well go all-in in the first place.

You have to be careful going all-in on some of the hands you mentioned at this stage unless you're very short stacked or the boss stack. Every player knocked out means you move up a peg in the money. So if you're an average stack and there's 2-3 smaller stacks, you do best not to make these all-ins on marginal hands that might get called and bust you out, or double up one of those shorts stacks you're waiting on busting. Survival is the name of the game at this stage and you'd be risking too much going all-in on steals.

[Copernicus]

That sounds too loose for the last 6 or 7 players unless you are short stacked. Unless it was an extremely tight group the blinds probably arent that huge vs stacks yet.

If its down to 4 or 5 and you are threatened by blinds then your hands dont sound too bad, though Ive been rethinking "any A or K" after having lost with it and finishing 4th a few times. I may be tightening that to A8 or A9 and K9 or KT. You also may be overvaluing "suited". At this point you arent looking at big wins your looking for survival, and the extra edge that suited gives you isnt critical. I play the large connectors suited or not.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

I'll usually only raise all-in if raising 3x the bb is 1/3 or more of my stack. As to hand selection from the button or SB, I try to listen to TJ Cloutier on this and not try to steal from these obvious steal positions. So I'll try to limit my raises from these positions to solid raising hands.

[DaNoob]

So you make your steal attempts from EP and MP? Any chance I could convince you to elaborate a bit further on this idea? It seems like a very interesting approach.

I assume part of the reason is that people are expecting you to steal from that position and play back at you with marginal hands a lot more frequently than if you are raising from EP/MP. At the same time, however, you have a greater chance of running into a better hand along the way.

Curious to hear more on the topic....

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

You got it right. People give raises from the button & SB less respect than from one or two to the right of the button. Now, obviously, a lot more consideration goes into steal strategy than just that. How big are the stacks of the blinds? If the player on your immediate left is weak-tight in the blinds, then, sure, steal on him. If the guy three seats to your left defends his blinds stubbornly, don't steal from the C/O.

Let me ask you this. You're in the BB holding, say, K9s. UTG raises 3x. Are you even tempted to reraise? Now say the raise comes from the button. Most players perceive those two raises differently, thus their calling/reraising standards change.

At that stage of a tournament, it's a cat and mouse game.

[DaNoob]

Thanks for the explanation. The theory makes a lot of sense and will be experimented with this evening (hopefully to my opponents' dismay).

Thanks, as always, for the thoughtful posts.