Stealing the blinds in NLHE

[DavidC]

I'm not suggesting making a standard 4xbb pfr to steal.

[DavidC]

I know that in a tourney you need to steal to win. However, that's now what I'm thinking about here. I'm talking about making a few extra bets / 100 hands as a result of carefully applied stealing of the blinds.

I'm talking about raising the BB in SB with T9o or 98o and stuff like that. I'm not talking about raising from the CO with 54o.

The problem is that stealing in NLHE is much more complex than stealing in LHE, for the reasons stated in my initial post.

I haven't the foggiest clue as to how to do it properly and with the most EV, and I wouldn't mind participating in a constructive discussion on how one should proceed to steal.

Stealing blinds / antes / forced-bring-ins is a fact of life in poker.

No one's trying to make a living by stealing blinds... I'm just talking about adding to your bb/100 as a result of stealing.

--Dave.

[DavidC]

So how about a discussion on how to maximize EV in those situations where you're "raising light" (stealing), then?

I mean, if you're going to do it for meta-gaming purposes, then you may as well make money while you're at it, right?

[Usagi_yo]

You're pre-flop steals are only as good as your steal continuations on the flop.

The game I play in, following through with the steal on the flop is quite lucrative.

[arkose]

I think an important factor to consider when determing your strategy for a session is how the table is playing.

If there are a lot of timid, weak, tight players at your table, then strict blind stealing becomes more important because you will be involved in less big pots. In NL, the big pots are what affect your bottom line more than anything; if you aren't able to play in many big pots, then the money made from blind steals will be a larger percentage of your earnings for the session. In this sense, the stack sizes are somewhat irrelevant (someone may have $5000 in front of them, but if they are playing very weak, tight, it doesn't really matter because you will be hard pressed to take it away from him).

On the other hand, if your table is looser and more aggressive, blind stealing becomes much less important because there are big pots occurring more frequently. In these situations, it makes less sense to try strict blind steals when you know the blinds are going to call you (or reraise) a large amount of the time. The live NL games at the RiverRock in Vancouver where I play are extremely loose and usually somewhat on the aggressive side. I play a lot of hands preflop but I do a lot of limping and calling of small raises because I know I can get paid off later if I hit a good hand. I am not thinking about how many times I can steal $9 in blinds (3-6), but rather, how many times I can take people's stacks.

The first two times I went to Vegas (both recently) I found that the NL games, compared to the Vancouver game, had a lot more weak, passive play. I therefore went into blind stealing mode a bit more often because it was more difficult to get people's money into big pots.

Overall though, I think you should stop looking at blind stealing as a way of making a few extra bucks every hour, and look at the bigger picture within which blind stealing plays a role. In NL, you are trying to double your stack in a few select hands that you'll play in your session. If you are raising from late position with the proper frequency as part of an overall strategy (based on how the table is playing and the stacks sizes, and your known opponents, etc), it will help you attack the entire stacks of the other players. If you were to never raise preflop without a very good hand, then people would notice and you'd never get any action. If you raise preflop everytime on your button or the CO, then people will notice that and start calling/reraising a lot because they don't respect your raises. So you want to find a happy medium based on the table and your own playing style that you are comfortable with. You want people to know that sometimes when you raise, its with garbage, and sometimes its with Aces. They also have to know that you are able to follow up a preflop raise with a continuation bet on the flop (and even a third barrel on the turn sometimes) whether you have something or not. Let people see that you are a tricky, strong player and you'll be able to control/manipulate the table to your liking (against typical opposition anyways). You will no longer view raising from late position as 'blind stealing', and instead see it as part of your strategy for gaining the upper hand against another opponent in a big hand.

As an aside, I really don't think min-raising from late position will be a good strategy in most situations. Unless the other players are clueless, they will adjust. They will start reraising with good hands and not so good hands if they think you are raising too often with inferior hands. Or if they think you are doing it with a lot of good hands, then they'll gladly call the cheap raise with a variety of garbage designed to crack whatever big pair you have. Unless you're a *really* good postflop player, I think you'll just get 'played' with too often. Instead of being the aggressor making the big bets and putting pressure on other people (which is what you want), you'll be forced to make tough decisions in the face of other people's big bets/raises.

[The_Bends]

[ QUOTE ]
You're pre-flop steals are only as good as your steal continuations on the flop.

The game I play in, following through with the steal on the flop is quite lucrative.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree with this. Stealing is worth it if you have players who will call to keep you honest but fold to repeated shows of strenght.

[DavidC]

Makes sense, thanks man.