Stealing blinds???

Guys, i just wanna ask you with wat hands can one attempt to steal the blinds...
I have seen many ppl attempting to steal blinds at any position. IS that ok, or blinds stealing can be done only at cutoff, button, small blind positions???
Pls reply..

I like to steal blinds with aces. Seems to work best.

I think you're better off folding from the small blind than attempting to steal. If I'm in the BB and it's folded to the SB who raises, if it's the first time I might give him credit for a hand but if he tried it a couple of times I'd be calling with just about anything. SB is out of position and I think play from SB should be more about damage control than trying to make money (i.e. fold).

CO and button are best to steal the blinds from. Any earlier position and you'll probably be playing out of position to the CO or button (or both) with a weak hand (assuming you entered the pot to steal, and not on the value of your cards).

From CO I'll do it with any two cards T or higher, suited connectors, suited 1 gappers. From the button I'll also do it with any ace and any suited king or queen. I've only been doing this over my latest few sessions, but have had good success with this range for blind stealing.
Previously I didn't bother too much with blind stealing because I always seemed to get a caller or two, but the thing you have to remember is that any callers are playing out of position against the pre-flop raiser.

No one will try to steal early in a tournament buddy. I am talking about the middle phase of the tournament where u generally see good players stealing and restealing blinds... I love this phase and would like to master it...

My response was for cash games, I doubt it would apply half as well to tournaments.

it wuld be best to steal during BTN n CO. normally when stealing, u need at least some high cards to fall back too incase u get called... Ax, Kx, connectors i tink u can steal..

In order for it to be considered a "steal", I believe you need to be at least at the co in 6max....I think its the hijack for full ring. If you are seeing people trying to "steal" from earlier positions, it is probably just a raise (exception being a oop blind poster.) But here are my guidelines. I will steal ATC (any two cards.) from the sb and button when my opponent to my left is passive, has a high fold to cbet, and is tight. If you can see that they are multitabling and pretty passive, this is the optimal person to steal from. As long as there isn't a fish in the sb you should make money from this. On the opposite side, if you see someone has a high steal percentage from the button and a high fold to 3bet you can steal thier steal attempts back from them. But be careful, doing this with marginal hands is in effect turning your hand into a bluff. Be prepared to lay it down if you missed and dont have a strong draw. Most of the time people are not paying attention. So if you don't have a hud........I would say stick to stealing with solid pf hands and get a hud. Its probably -ev trying to take notes seeing how they react.

I basically agree with dcor. You have to be paying attention to the players and the way they play. There are some that are blind defenders. They calll with junk and make a move after the flop when junk flops. Also beware of short stacks. They will call if it is heads up with the hopes that they at least have live cards and will get lucky. So only make a move with good hands against both the blind defenders and short stacks plyers. For most other players you can make a move with any two cards and they will only make a call or move with really good cards. Also when stealing you have to make a bet to make them think about it. Doubling or even trippeling the blinds just prices them in for a call. Make the raise a minimum of 4 times the blind, 5 to 6 is prefered. Remember you have to have the chips to make the steal. If you are less that 15 blinds, you may get pushed all in and you may have priced yourself in to make the call. Remember that steeling the blinds is basically a bluff. If you have a pp or AK, it is most likely a race, so if pushed back it is an easy call.

BTN and CO are the two most profitable positions to steal blinds for obvious reasons. Those reasons being that the less people to act behind you, the less potential big hands there are to play back at you.

As for hand requirements. For me there are no hand requirements. I steal when I think im likely to make the blinds fold. It has a lot to do with their chip stack and your table image.

Stealing blinds is an art not a science. There are no definites. Its trial and error and you need good instincts. TBH you should already know when to steal blinds. If your paying attention, then you know who the tight players are, who the loose players are and what their perception of you is likely to be.

Its very obvious stuff tbh.

Stealing from any position is suicide. It's not stealing when you bet from early position, it's "getting involved in too many pots with bad hands."

Maybe you mean a semi-bluff? Like, someone will raise with suited connectors, so that even if they don't take the blinds they have a decent chance of hitting something substantial to beat the better hand that is fairly likely to call.

When the blinds are people who only play 12% of pots and they allow people to steal 80% of the time, I walk all over them if I have position on them, betting into any unchallenged pot with any two cards. Not only do I show a profit from steals over the long run, but sometimes I win a monster when they fight back when I have a big hand, or when they call and my J/7 flops two pair.

I'm also well aware of what those steals is doing to my image to the other players at the table, which has other benefits.

To be a steal, you want there to be a good chance that nobody will play back at you. The later in position you are the better your chances. From early position the odds of someone playing back at you are too great. So stick to steals in the hijack, cutoff, and button, with the fewest steals in the hijack and the most from the button.
It's OK to mix things up a little, on occasion, but for the most part stick standard. There is a good reason why that is standard.

It depends on your image and the players,

if you been playing tight, you can try a raise with suited connectors from EP, but don't overdo it and avoid doing it when there are good LAG players at your table unless you are comfortable playing post-flop.

I wouldn't try to steal too early on in the tournament though, if you wait till the antes come in play you will benefit from your tight image and pick up reasonable pots.

I wouldn't advise raising from early position with the sole intent of stealing, no matter how tight your image is. For this reason alone:

The odds on getting dealt any one pair are about 221 to 1. Now Say the minimum requirements for one of your opponents playing back at you with your tight image is a pair of jacks.

Well your opponent will have a pair of jacks or better every 55 hands on average. Divided by 8(number of people behind you, if your UTG) =6.9

So every 7 hands on average one of your opponents will have a pair of jacks or better and play back at you. When you consider the fact that they will also give you action with AK,AQ,KQ and smaller pairs, then you realize that basically its too risky to try and steal anything with so many people to act behind you.

Just wait untill your on the BTN or in the CO because your odds become so much more favorable.

Depending on your postion at the table, how many players are left, how tight the players have been playin, how many players left till the money in a tourny, and what 2 cards u may have, and how many players are in the hand pre flop, and how short stacked or big stacked you may be, are all factors i use before stealing blinds. maybe this will help ya

i always bet the min. at the table when everyone checks infront of me...i love stealing blinds i look at it as free money that goes into someone elses pocket if i dont take it lol

you really have to choose your spots. it helps, if its a mtt, if you've been at the same table for a good while. even if you haven't gotten anything worth clicking and taking notes on opponents, you should be concentrating on how these people react to certain things. i don't always consider a blind steal to just be when all hands have been folded to me in late position, i always think of it as a way to backhand limpers i've got enough of a read on (limping any suited, any suited with face card, any ace, any suited ace, any hand that could result in a royal flush (T3o for example) or A high straight, any hand that could result in any straight (37o), small pocket pairs), whatever the case may be, and they're pretty passive like "ooooh man, why did someone raise, i really wanted to play this hand but now i must fold"...and i'm sure you're playing pretty small stakes so i think this is relevant. pay attention to what people are playing, even if you've got 7 other games going and you have to click back just to check. you're really trying to find the passive ones...but the reason you want to check is some people don't know how to do anything other than limp and call, even if they're holding AA/KK. that's noteworthy.

the reason i bring all this crap up is in micros, until the blinds are ultra mega chicken high, its limp city, or at least there's always one who's having the luckfest of his life, always limping in, and if he's the only one aside from the blinds, you need to know whether you can make him fold. you also have to keep track of the "big blind warrior" who will protect it to any kinda raise most of the way through a tourney...he takes it personal. doesn't mean he'll re-raise, but he'll call, and call, and call...if that's your target, you need a different approach.

all that said, i'm not that much into abusing blind stealing, not in the cheap-stakes. sometimes its just best, that if its one of those games, to wait to steal when its just all-in or fold time....and sometimes a table is so fishy, you just have to realize that's your best chance to start dominating the table. have to pay attention to people's calling ranges, donkfullness, whatever that you can exploit or that will cause you to adjust. seems sometimes in a mtt, you get the hang of a table, nothing to worry about, know what you can get away with, then all of a sudden, you get moved into a table of chaos, but hey, take notes, you'll see them again

*edit* and i'll edit this...i think you'll find you'll end up making more chips show up in your stack by playing the better hands and just choosing some hands postflop to raise and re-raise, you don't need as much of a read once you're pretty sure your hand is better...you're either doubling up, going home, or taking the stack of some guy who's chasing a 3-outer (well, if you're going home, he had you the whole time or the river flooded, oh well)

I feel like the reason people call it a steal is because you don't need a hand to make the move. So you can steal with ATC.

I agree with most of the posters on here that stealing from EP is risky-- it is much more likely you will run into an actual hand when there are five or six people left to act, whereas those chances decrease against two or three, i.e. when you raise from the BTN or CO.

Most everything I can say would be just repeating the previous posters, but I would add that most players understand that BTN, CO, CO+1 are steal positions, and some players may choose to re-steal from the blinds. You won't really know if the players to your left will attempt this play until they actually do it, either against you or a neighboring opponent. So be on the lookout for this, and take advantage of it if you actually do have a reasonable hand

For the most part it depends on who you are playing against. In 6 handed cash games if I notice there are a lot of passive players I suspect are multi-tabling I'll steal if I'm not likely to call. Not exactly 6-3o steals. But if the players are likely to call me, I'm more like to tighten up a bit and only try to steal with suited connectors or solid hands, and even then, it's more a raise than a steal.

My hand history has tons of hands where I'd steal with crap like J3o and 74s because I knew it would work based on the players I'm playing with.

I try to reserve stealing for tight tables though. Otherwise I'm able to get enough action on my premiums I don't need to worry about stealing.

As far as tournaments go, I'm not very well versed.

is it profitable if i raise 2.5 times the bb i need folds 2 out of 3 times hand history says it should work just fine very much like the c-bet i just have to be able to play with either junk or good cards in the best position it would seem to me to be exactly what a good player is looking for?

it depends on the table,,how deep you are into the tourny,,and your chip stack to start,,if your playing against shrot stacks,,you can try to steal with just about any 2 cards,,especially if your a chip leader,,bully the pot!!! if stacks are close to the same,,your very likely to get called and lose your bluff,,you must pay attention to the type of player against you a loose player will also likely call you with anything..making your range of "stealing' hands will tighten considerably,,so...your chipstack in relation to the blinds,,the type of players on the blinds,,how deep you are into a tourny,,when stealing the blinds can really really count,,are all factors to consider when attempting to steal the blinds

Id say you can steal the blinds with 7 2 really just evaluate the players your up against and then if there tight raise it and steal if they have alot of chips and will probs reraise be more careful.

Depends on your opponents, your image, your chip stack....
Of course you can just steal if no one else has entered the pot!

you can steal from any position with any hand....it all depends on RTT (Reads, Timing, Table Image). Blind stealing is very critical, and tbh I haven't, maybe other than a few occasions, gone on to win a lot of money without stealing....a lot!

I also have developed another concept about a certain pattern that occurs when you make your stand as the aggressor at the table and take control. Eventually, and usually when the small blind and big blind give up to defending themselves they start to do this automatically, not only in those positions but once you establish yourself as a defender of your own blinds as well as an offensive stealer, then while you are in the big blind/small blind position, then the Button and the CO will start to lay off and fold to you as well...I like to call this "the siphon effect"

+1, you'll NEVER win a tournament without stealing blinds and antes, it's an integral part of the game. Position as always is important, though when it comes to stealing after the flop, your not betting on what you have, but what the other player doesn't.

I totally agree with u about the siphon effect...
But i think without stealing its very difficult to win a tourny...
And almost impossible when u are playing with very good poker players. This is my experience...
And yes, may be stealing has no role in cash games, but in tournys it has a very crucial role...