Ok, I've been thinking about this for a while, and I'm just going to post it.

We could all sit here forever with the typical tournament stuff like:

"I have ATo in MP and raise, the flop comes XYZ and I bet W. Z player comes over the top for A amount. What should I do?"

And while I do find it helpful to go through the situations, get help on some hands and help others . . . there's entire other levels of play that we really don't talk much about at all.

So without further ado, I'd like to talk about blind stealing in SNG's and MTT's.

At what point do folks here start making steals? Do you have hand requirements in particular positions? Do you have hands you always bluff with (92o, for instance, seems to be a favorite of Mike Matusow)?

Stealing blinds is a huge part of my tournament success, and I am very active once the blinds get up to about the third or fourth levels. I follow Phil Gordon's advice (Little Green Book), and look to steal at least 1.2 times per orbit. I will typically try a re-steal in the blinds about once every two to four orbits.

I usually do this with any 2 cards, though my favorites are suited connectors below 9T (due to domination) or suited semi-connectors.

I'll stop there, and see if this goes anywhere.

I'm sure this has been linked before on the board, but just in case:

Theorem of Blind Stealing

I'm not a big tournament player so take this for what it's worth, I'm also a little passive when it comes to stealing.

#1 - I don't go by any; I need to steal x amount of times blah blah blah. That said, here is when I usaully steal.

#2 - I almost never steal without some kind of hand -Ax, 68s- I don't steal with 39 and such, other than very specific scenario.

#3 - I will steal vs tight players. Firstly, they fold. Secondly, you don't have to raise as high an amount to steal their blind.

#4 - I really like stealing when 1 or 2 limpers have entered the pot. This is like stealing 3 blinds. To me this is the ideal time to steal.

#5 - The steal has to be meaningful in some way. I'm not going to steal 75 chips when I have a stack of 2,000.

Well blind stealing is definately the most important part of online MTTs IMO.

Your M start to shrink so fast online that you have to start it pretty early. In the standard MTT your M will be between 8 and 15 by level 8-9 even if you are doing pretty well... that means less that 60 hands most of the time.

So you have to be good at choosing when to steal and resteal IMO if you want to have some kind ofg succes.

I have no hand requirement to attempsa steal if I feel the situation is good.

Personaly, with tight BSB players I will steal with any 2 from CO arounbd 75% of the time if its folded to me... This % go down accordingly to my position and my oponents profile.

I also like to steal limpers as Steve said for obvious reasons. The risk is not really bigger in many cases and the reward is far greater.

I realize it was a more important part of the game than I tought reading HOH 2. Harrington shows how its a +EV play to go all in with t9o playing just before CO with an M of 10 and 2 tight + 2 loose players to act. Of course, if you dont do it on every hand.

I was simply stunned!!!!

Restealing is less mechanical in my game, but i'm working on it!

KJ

KJ

The tourney structure makes a big difference in my stealing strategy.

In the Party SNG's I used to play all the time, for every time I'd stack a couple people and cruise into the money, there would be at least 2 times I didn't pick up a single decent hand well into the 25-50 round. By then, I'd use my pokertracker stats on them to figure out "where my money was going to come from".

I labelled all the players as "airtight" (VPIP 8% or less), tight (VPIP 9-15%), average (16-25%), slightly loose (SL) (26-35%), and then loose and maniac loose. As the 25-50 round got closer, I'd begin to line up where my steals were going to come from . . . always targeting the tight players blinds.

The way I conceptualized it was like driving on the highway from my position to the blinds. The loose players were barriers - sometimes huge roadblocks - to the tight player's blinds. I looked for which positions around the table would give me clear avenues to those tight blinds (it's easier to graphically demonstrate), then would raise whatever I thought was the minimum that would allow an uncontested steal (typically 2.5-3.5 bb) with any 2 cards every single time. If contested, I'd simply lay the hand down.

Note I'd do this even UTG at times . . . in fact I've found it's often easier to steal UTG than on the button at times (because nobody thinks you're stealing UTG). That's right, I'd raise J2o UTG 2.5 bb if I had deduced that I could steal the blinds by making the play. Couple this with showing down the big hands if uncalled PF (I don't limp after the 25-50 round), and occasionally restealing in the BB (you have to fold once in a while to make your reraises plausible) and I can say with confidence I've won many Party SNG's with never seeing as much as a big pair or big ace.