Stealing Blinds

Hi Everyone,

Everyone has been told when in a large tourny it is profitable to steal the blinds.

My question is how much do you need to bet to get the blinds???

Whenever I try to take the blinds I must go all in or they seem always to call.

Anyone know an article or have good advice on how to and when to steal the blinds.

Thanks in advance for the advice

Jonathon

Generally you want to steal blinds when tighter players are in the blinds and you don't have a lot of players to act behind you.

DONT try to steal blinds from players who always protect their blinds.

Sometimes this is the only way to succesfully steal. I usually raise the normal amount, which can be pretty large later in tournaments relative to stack size.

Hi,
Usually 10x the BB is a rule of thumb to raise and get the blinds. Dont try it too often as eventually you will get caught with your hand in the cookie jar. Be careful with the all in bluff,note the size of their stacks and see if they have you covered or not...going all in on a bluff isn't the smartest play as if they call your in deep trouble. However i would use the all in on a semi bluff if trying to steal off tight opponents, for example i would push all in with A x (generally the lower hands such as A 5 or A 6..hands which usually i hate to play due to the complications involved.) Remember you need late position too.
Good luck
John

Tighter the player the more you should try and steal. I usually don't try to steal too often against the maniacs or super calling stations.

stealing blinds is important in a big tourney...getting any chips is important...at first it might not be wise to try and steal all the blinds...but as the blinds go up you might want to take a couple to get a couple extra dollars

This is WAYYYYYYYYY too much. Late in a tourney some times the average stack is between 10-20 BB, so raising this much is pointless if you are on a complete steal becasue most of the time an all-in with look like a blind steal and one of the blinds will call you with a marginal hand.

Stealing blinds when they are very low is not profitable at all, adding another 30-75 chips to your stack through risking 80-200 chips simply isn't a good idea.

i would say 15x the big blind

How much depends on blinds and stack sizes more than anything. Something like 4BB is usually fine, just a standard preflop raise.

If you're low on chips and a 4BB raise will leave you with less than 4 or 5BBs behind, it's better to just push.

Remember stealing is only a good move when you're in late postition and it's either folded around to you or the pot is unraised, and the blinds/limpers are playing relatively tightly. If there are one or two limpers you may need to raise a little more to steal (add a BB per limper, maybe), if there are more than 2 limpers you probably don't want to be trying to steal in this spot. Also take heed of people limping from early position on an aggressive table - they may be looking to limp-reraise a big hand, so a steal might not be a good idea.

The 10-15BB people I hope were joking... risking 15 BB to win 1.5-2.5BB (depending on antes) with a crap hand is ever so slightly (read: incredibly) stupid.

My strategy on stealing blinds has nothing to do with how much you raise the pot.

Play tight-aggressive (how I play anyway) throughout the tourney. Only raise with the highest of premium hands. If multiple people call, begin trying to guess what they'd call with. If an un-favorable flop comes ( 7/5/2), and you make a big stab, you're likely to pick up the blinds.

As a rule I only try a bling steal when im holding a hand that i actually dont mind seeing a flop with, usually Ax suited or mid suited connectors or a "blackjack" hand, you wont get caught as often, nothing worse than when your blind steal is re-raised.

What do you do with your 10-15BB then guys ??????