Anyone else having theft problems?

[DVO]

I think this was touched on a while ago. I'm interested in other's thoughts. My nagging thought is, this represents a hole in my game.

I have found that open stealing in late position is a recipe for disaster, or at the very least, has become a formula for some very tough decisions.

Very frequently I face a significant re raise from the blinds (or button). This is true even if I have not been aggressive at the table.

Some of these re raises are with the goods, some are a pure re-steal. It just seems that, just as 'calling is the new raising' was in vogue, now what's in vogue, is, "blast the late position open-raiser."

For now I'm not open raising any more unless I have the goods.

Comments? Anyone else seeing this? Or have I just run into a bunch of aggro tables lately?

I'm speaking of the 150/300 blind level and above, typically stack sizes of 25X plus for the thieves / re- raisers. I play PP multi's.

[stragf]

[ QUOTE ]
Very frequently I face a significant re raise from the blinds (or button). This is true even if I have not been aggressive at the table.


[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe the others have picked this up in your play, and that is why they are doing it. You should always go with the goods, but sometimes call, and even ocassionally do it with a rag. If they see this, they can't get the read on you. JMO

[A_PLUS]

I had the same problem, and really started to think about each situation in isolation. My conclusion, was that I now have a MUCH laggier image than I did 6 months ago when I rarely got called when stealing blinds. Chances are you may have been opening up other aspects of your game at the expense of blind stealing. I found it helpful to go for less traditional steals (MP), restealing, and other LAg moves. The problem is that they take more creativity, and knowledge of your opponents. I think that is the reason most beginers fall in love with the uber-tight early, steal blinds later M.O. it is the easiest way to have 'some' success in MTTs.

[McMelchior]

[ QUOTE ]
For now I'm not open raising any more unless I have the goods.


[/ QUOTE ]
With this strategy there's a good chance you will not be called when you have the goods.

When you calculate the cost/benefit of stealing from LP remember to include the chips you win when your AA, KK and AK gets re-raised by the BB.

If there's no ante (I don't play Party, so I'm not quite sure) you need two thirds of your steals to succeed to break even. But even if you're re-raised on half of your steals and are forced to fold, the overlay from your strong hands being called (as opposed to everybody folding to your raise) should generously make up for it.

Best,

McMelchior (Johan)

[bruce]

If I am against passive opponents I will open raise with virtually any two cards if I am in the back. I just reviewed
my play from a $200 SNG which I won, and I stole, no exaggeration, prior to it getting headsup over twenty times without once being reraised. I was called BTF twice and both times my steal bet on the flop worked. I won the event without ever having a real hand. This is the norm for me, this type of play I encounter, rather than the exception.

Bruce

[Brad F.]

I've had a really good run in MTT's in the past month with four final tables and one win in 19 tourneys on PS and Absolute, and obviously I've wanted to evaluate my play to see if it's luck or if there is a pattern or what.

I spent a good time yesterday looking at my hand histories on Stars. I'm quite an aggressive player, and I usually win about 30-40 hands without a showdown in my good tourneys.

Smart players play back at my LP steals, but I luckily don't run into the positions where I'm put to the test too often.

For example, one of the better players on AP (TLB winner twice in the last two months on AP, but I won't name him)
noticed my raising tendencies, and played back at me with A-J in the blind. Lucky for me, that time I had pocket aces.

Getting back on topic, good players know the tendencies for MP3, CO, Button to all open raise with dead money in the pot. Therefore instead of just calling with good hands (calling is the new raising) they do reraise more often because they know that they can get you off of your hand.

But if you raise with a wide variety of hands and raise to an amount to which you can fold to big reraises, I think the open steal is a +EV thing to do. You get big pots when you do raise with premier hands, you win smaller pots when you are not called and you lose smaller pots when you are reraised.

You have to lose a lot of the small pots in order to make open stealing -EV in my opinion. Especially if you are a good post flop player, when you are called by the blinds.

Brad

[DVO]

"good players know the tendencies for MP3, CO, Button to all open raise with dead money in the pot. Therefore instead of just calling with good hands (calling is the new raising) they do reraise more often because they know that they can get you off of your hand."

I think I need to focus more of my note-taking on how specific players handle their blinds, and if they will play back. IOW, steal from the timid, but have the goods when open-raising from LP against blind defenders.