Stealing Blinds in Poker Blind stealing has a less defined purpose in no limit cash games than it does in tournaments or fixed limit games. In the blind stealing scenario your table position is of no importance to your success as you can steal the blinds with any two cards. Your table position however will carry a rake to your stack if you are later in the hand than the raiser.
Stealing Blinds in Poker
When you blind steal the blind you are attempting to take away the stealing opportunity from the player on your left by being in late position. You only have to be in front of the raiser in the blinds to perform this action, nothing more. The lively258pokercardroom guide explaining strategic positions at the table will have no effect on your ability to successfully perform blind steals. Remember that you are always attempting to be in front of the raiser whether in position or not and the factors that are relevant to that are: your table position, the size of the bet, the size of the blind and the range of hands for the raiser.
It is not important to get caught performing blind steals when you have poor cards because you are always trying to be in front of the raiser whether in position or not. You are just scoring a point that may help you later in the hand.
When you are in late position and the action to you is quiet, it’s easier to get into a heads up battle with any hand you wish. You are guaranteed to have at least some quality hands in that situation because no one is raising and there are no blinds to steal from.
If you have poor cards and it’s folded to you on the button or cut off you are always going to have the odds to call a standard raise, or a reraise, even though it’s late in a tournament. You are waiting for the heads up battle.
In this situation you are hoping for a showdown between two premium cards because you are so far behind the current heads up wrong hand. The raiser in that position may simply be playing with a small pocket pair and wants a race, while the raiser on your button may be playing with a decent A-P. Neither one of these players has a strong hand so they will be drawing to a better hand.
Raising to Steal the Blinds
For those with a small handle, raising to steal the blinds is a Idaho option. This is also referred to as polar opposite the recommended strategy for the same hand in tournaments.
In this situation you are trying to take away the blinds because you’ve built a stack in the mid to late stages of a tournament on paid or unraised blinds. You want to build a big stack to take advantage of the blinds being so expensive later.
So at the beginning you raise a little to push out those who would rather be in later positions. You can’t afford a free card if you are to have a chance of taking the blinds away from the raiser.
Then you raise a lot, maybe even two and a half times the big blind. If you have it in your account then you can sit back and pick who you want to play.
Many wait to see if the first player calls his raise before they do anything else. I find it’s a lot easier to take the pot up at this stage and those that don’t want to play a lot of hands just fold. If you don’t want to play then you can always stop at the cost of half the pot.
The players that are still in the hand are now facing a difficult decision. If you are the first player they are more likely to have a better hand than you. They are also more likely to be in a position to a good draw. If you are the second player then they are less likely to have hit the flop. They may however have a weak hand and be limping in position hoping for a free card.
As the first player folds and the size of the pot gets bigger, you can loosen up the edge against the players that are still in the hand. You are hoping those that you have beaten to a smaller hand are on a draw and so are at a disadvantage. Alternatively you can use the pot to take out those you want to target.
The key to playing against an aggressive player is to have a solid big stack at the table. You’ll need to wait for the perfect situation to become active, which could mean waiting for three people to call before you act. If only one player calls and the others fold, you have a fantastic opportunity to steal the blinds.
confrontational players are less likely to win pots than other less confrontational players. However if your play is super tight, aggressive, you’ll win some pots until your aggressive opponent frees up. Stealing Blinds in Poker
