When to start stealing blinds

ATM_GPATM_GP
in Brags, Beats & Variance
Someone once told me that Danny N. likes to steal blinds later into the tournament...I'm curious as to when people around here start considering it.

I've recently been focusing on my Tournament play on Supreme and have found that if I can get a few good hands in, and build my stack, then I can wait until the blinds get to 150-300 and start stealing almost all of them.

Thoughts I'm considering when continuing with this management of play are:

1) Am I being allowed to steal because I've been pretty tight and not play every hand.
2) Is 5 times the Big Blind too risky a move for stealing blinds? aka I have a 12000 chips stack, blinds are 100-200 and I'm making it a 1000 to see the flop. Average chip stack is 4900 at this point. My thoughts are that I have to make it hurt the blinds if they call, anyone else calling probably has a decent hand.

Lastly I've only been trying to attempt to steal with A-10 off or higher...so what about 30% of the hands out there :) (for reference I do not consider pocket 9's higher the A 10 off at Supreme)

ATM_GP

Comments

  • BBC ZBBC Z
    Not enough information. Are you talking about a SnG or a MTT?

    SnG you have the fear of busting out of the money that allows you to steal. MTT's it's gonna be more image based.
  • ATM_GPATM_GP
    good point, my mistake... MTT with > 100 people, roughly 1/2 the field gone.

    atm_gp
  • ArnoldusArnoldus
    What to respond to first!.... Okay, 5x the BB is too much, and, I find generally unnecessary. If you're making it 3x with say KK and 5x on your steal attempts, anybody who's paying attention will quickly figure out what you're doing. I like to keep my raises at the same amount - only making adjustments for things like limpers, or bad post-flop position. I might increase it though, if the players were extremely liberal with their calling. But 3x is perfect because with every 2 successful steals, you make up for the 1 time you get caught and have to release your hand. And, if you showdown a strong hand or two after having made a 3x raise pre-flop - players will never know when to call or when you might be stealing.

    The other thing is that you're going to be stealing from later positions, so even if you do get called, you can still decide how to continue once the flop comes, depending on what you know of your opponents. For example, you raise with 94o, and the BB defends with A6o - flop comes J92, he checks, you bet, he folds (usually).

    Which brings us back to the 5x BB raise... The bigger the pre-flop raise, the bigger the post-flop pot (seems logical), the more you'll need to risk to take try to take the pot down. So whatever the outcome, whether you take it down without a fight, or get called and make a hand, by keeping the pot smaller, you minimize the damage when you run into trouble.

    And lastly... You said that you only steal with A10 or higher and that you don't consider 99 to be higher. Ummmmm.... unless I'm misundertanding you.... then you're not stealing; you're raising a pretty good hand for value. If you find that people have a lot of respect for your raises (due to both your stack size and your early tight play), then raise with anything when the situation presents itself. It's often easier to raise with total garbage because you don't have a decision to make if you are re-raised. But that A10s just looks so pretty... Especially if it's diamonds....

    On a side note... this is the first time I have posted an answer to someone's question, offering my poker wisdom. How did I do? (you can use whatever rating scale you feel comfortable with)
  • MidnightMikeMidnightMike
    I agree with arnoldus that 5x the big blinds is too much. If the blinds were early on in the mtt 10/20 - 20/40 ok 5 to 6 times the bb might be alright. With blinds at 150/300 I would drop down to 3 to 4 times the bb (4)max. I think the answer by arnoldus was correct when it was said that if your only playing a-10 or better than your not really stealing, your playing good cards. Anyone else have a thought on this?
  • WolffhoundWolffhound
    if you go to Dave Scharf's site at http://www.canadianpoker.com/

    pkrface and Dave did a bunch of work on this subject. Just search the sites "articles" there's tons of good information in there.
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