Stealing the Blinds

[Viera56]

1. It depends on what you consider steal. 2. When I realize the opportunity. Lots of passive players. A solid history on the table. And when I have a menacing stack. 3. Normally I avoid stealing with horrible hands like 72o. But the range increases or decreases according to the passivity of the opponents. 4. I try to steal in the standard 2x. All in is only if I have a stack of ~ 10 bb's. 5. I only push with air when I do not want to die blinded away.

 

[bc2017]

Depends on the group of players, if they fold very easily to bets I will try and steal the blind with middle of the road hands. It's amazing as well how many people in freerolls fail to realise the potential to steal blinds when both blinds are sitting out (as a good number of people will register for a freeroll and never actually play). If the blinds are sitting out, and everyone else folds to me, I literally just have to click bet to pick up the blinds and ante for the hand. If you see someone else exploiting this at the table, then you need to be more proactive in betting and raising to prevent them slowly building up their cash.

 

[pirateglenn]

Ok, major leak here. I suck at stealing the blinds. Any answers to my questions and/or extra tips would be really helpful!

1. How often do you steal blinds?
2. When do you start stealing more often?
3. Do you steal with complete air or what hands usually?
4. Do you try stealing blinds by going all in or by a big bet? And whats the usual bet sizing?
5. Shoving with air from early positions when you are not low on big blinds is a dumb move or am I being too nitty?

Hi There

Stealing Blinds is an art, my advice is to limit how much you do this, mix it up and often look to steal blinds with good hands, build a strong table image - its obviously easier to steal blinds when you have developed this but one of the biggest mistakes i see big stacked players do - is steal all the time..be clever and use position well.

 

[elizeuof]

I have difficulties in this regard, I try to raise whenever I have a very good hand or that can get very good, and I play according to the board and the reaction of the opponents, when I am 10bb or less I like to shove strong hands or good equity and I use the position more.

 

[whiskers77]

Thank you all for your tips. Believe it or not, I improved tremendously just by your posts! Thank you everybody!!!!!!

Now, I steal blinds more often, and from bubble boy, the last days I'm always close to final table! Please, give me more answers and tips!!!

Nice to see, that the recommendations bring you further in your game. It should be like this. And yes, I also think, sometimes it helps to go beyond ones own nose and try to play a different game than before. Different opinions help, if you are stuck in your game. I also realized it already pretty often, since I participate in the forum. I am opening ranges, that I did not before for example. I started to think more about my style of game, than before. Of course I am not always aware and sometimes I just play, but when I am not too sleepy, I try to include some advices.

 

[wacosteel]

#5 is definitely a dumb move!

 

[madhand228]

Hi,
Look at the push or fold tables based on Nash equilibrium. That's the best way to know with which hand you can steal or not depending of position. It works for the push or fold if your are short stack, as well as for to steal blinds. There is other factors you must know, specifically for tournaments. For example the phase of the tournament such the bubble, close to the final table, the payout level, etc, may count to take your decision of stealing or not. Overall, one previous advice was given to you upper by Mootizit : "Observe table dynamic,exploit weak players and taking advantage thru position."
I hope I've help you a bit. I have the push or fold tables but my docs are in french. Let me know if you are interested.

 

[HK_47]

There is alot of things that would go into this decision. Cash games its not that huge of a deal. In Tournaments it's crucial, not so much in the early game but in the mid/late you better be ready to ramp up a bit.

Factors that I would consider:

#1 Position
#2 Stack sizes
#3 Table image
#4 Opponents' VPIP stats if you have a tracker (Voluntarily put money in the Pot)

That being said you want to really make use of times where it's folded to you on the button, you can open pretty loose sometimes as little as J7 but just be aware if 1 of your blinds are short stacked, in which case I usually tighten my range a bit so I can make a profitable call if they allin.

 

[UberRogue]

I was actually going to suggest what HK_47 said. If it is folded to you on the button you might as well make a raise. If the BB or SB have anything they will call/raise and then just re-evaluate your hand.

 

[eggtart]

in tournaments, stealing blinds is crucial. To keep you in the game, and when you do have a big hand, you can be rewarded nicely...

 

[akmost]

Still a learner here but I will try to comment and answer your 5 questions based on my current knowledge and experience

1. I don't know if there is a magic number or percentage but don't steal every CO ,BTN or SB try to keep it within rational frequencies. If you always do it you will get exploited, sooner or later.Don't open raise only premium holdings.

2.The general rule says when the antes come in play , I play small stakes so not really something that bothers me at the moment in order to improve ASAP.

3.I don't know what you mean by ''complete air'' here. Hands like suited/unsuited connectors 67+ , suited one gappers 79s+ or something like J8+ and some suited Qx,Kx are fine for stealing attempts. Hands like T2 , 93, J3 are auto fold.
You have to think here that most of the times a weak opponent will put you ,most of the times in Ax , Kx type of hands so if you hit big this is where you exploit that kind of players who never fold their top top pairs etc. Always use this mixed strategy in your game. The deeper the blinds the better for you to mix up your open raise range , your steal range, 3bet range and the list goes on.

4.Apparently this is depend on how deep is your stack , with approximately 20bbs you can open raise, with stacks like 10bbs-15bbs is marginal to open shove. With some hands you can't open raise and fold to a 3bet shove. Some hands like mid pairs.They are more +EV to open shove than open raise/call. By shoving you apply more pressure to your opponents and you put them in the tough spot to call for their tournament life.I believe you can understand me here.

5.Nobody open shoves with air from EP , take a look at this very useful link:
https://floattheturn.com/wp/pushfold/

You can use this tactic if you are the chip leader by far and you are playing a satellite and you want to collect all the dead money effortless. Even the open raise tables are math based and show what range to open from what position.Math never lie as far as I know

To close this post I don't understand FRC participants who comment give advice blah blah blah and I see them at the tables and keep playing their own play style without evolution.Ok this is good for their opponents but since they play just dedicate some time to search in depth some leaks or some spots they always struggle with. Good Luck man. See you at the tables!!

ps Whoever spots a leak of mine in the above post please mention it haha.

 

[Spaceman]

Still a learner here but I will try to comment and answer your 5 questions based on my current knowledge and experience

1. I don't know if there is a magic number or percentage but don't steal every CO ,BTN or SB try to keep it within rational frequencies. If you always do it you will get exploited, sooner or later.Don't open raise only premium holdings.

2.The general rule says when the antes come in play , I play small stakes so not really something that bothers me at the moment in order to improve ASAP.

3.I don't know what you mean by ''complete air'' here. Hands like suited/unsuited connectors 67+ , suited one gappers 79s+ or something like J8+ and some suited Qx,Kx are fine for stealing attempts. Hands like T2 , 93, J3 are auto fold.
You have to think here that most of the times a weak opponent will put you ,most of the times in Ax , Kx type of hands so if you hit big this is where you exploit that kind of players who never fold their top top pairs etc. Always use this mixed strategy in your game. The deeper the blinds the better for you to mix up your open raise range , your steal range, 3bet range and the list goes on.

4.Apparently this is depend on how deep is your stack , with approximately 20bbs you can open raise, with stacks like 10bbs-15bbs is marginal to open shove. With some hands you can't open raise and fold to a 3bet shove. Some hands like mid pairs.They are more +EV to open shove than open raise/call. By shoving you apply more pressure to your opponents and you put them in the tough spot to call for their tournament life.I believe you can understand me here.

5.Nobody open shoves with air from EP , take a look at this very useful link:
https://floattheturn.com/wp/pushfold/

You can use this tactic if you are the chip leader by far and you are playing a satellite and you want to collect all the dead money effortless. Even the open raise tables are math based and show what range to open from what position.Math never lie as far as I know

Thanks for the detailed answer and the link man!!:rock::rock::icon_salu

Ps. I may sound dumb but what are the meaning of percentages on those ranges from the link you posted?

 

[akmost]

Thanks for the detailed answer and the link man!!:rock::rock::icon_salu

Ps. I may sound dumb but what are the meaning of percentages on those ranges from the link you posted?

There are not dumb questions dear Spaceman!I think is the range of the hands you are pushing profitable from each position. For instance 9.40% is the top 9.40% of the range.
I don't remember if I have mentioned it again to you but download Equilab , is free and super!
you can play with your ranges whenever you have some free time to kill.

ps.Most of the games have 10% antes as far as I have noticed.

 

[Spaceman]

There are not dumb questions dear Spaceman!I think is the range of the hands you are pushing profitable from each position. For instance 9.40% is the top 9.40% of the range.
I don't remember if I have mentioned it again to you but download Equilab , is free and super!
you can play with your ranges whenever you have some free time to kill.

ps.Most of the games have 10% antes as far as I have noticed.

Thanks again:icon_thum I will download it for sure :shakehand:five:

 

[pauloandre100]

Depends on size stacks, position, table image. If players are tight.

 

[Yonip17]

I steal blinds by raising minimum on udg. They're thinking that I have a strong hands. But it depends if I played with tight player probably easy for me yo steal blinds.

 

[babboonnexx]

I play super aggressive once the blinds raise to a major point, typically after the break. its make it or break it time and ill use any advantage of my position