I have made a ton o'money stealing the blinds. You can see just these hands using the filters on PT. My "attempt to steal blinds" is 42% (50 out of 119 hands where it would be possible). My win % is 82%! I am winning 0.97 BB/hand on average stealing. My % is going to be a lot higher than 42% in the future......this is free money folks.
The first hand isn't a "steal" in the sense that I had good cards, but it is a steal in the sense that I overplayed the hand because I was in "steal mode". The second hand I gave up on the river and should have fired again. I chose these two to post since I wanted to illustrate how hard it is sometimes to know when to fold and when to keep pushing. The vast majority of the hands you win preflop or with a flop bet.
These hands aren't particularly tricky or well/poorly played (well, actually the first one kinda sucked ), I just wanted to spark a discussion about blind stealing and if others find it this profitable. Anybody else want to check their stats on PT for this?

PokerStars 2/4 Hold'em (9 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is Button with , .
6 folds, Hero raises, 1 fold, BB 3-bets, Hero caps, BB calls.

Flop: (8.50 SB) , , (2 players)
BB bets, Hero raises, BB 3-bets, Hero calls.

Turn: (7.25 BB) (2 players)
BB bets, Hero folds.
Final Pot: 8.25 BB




PokerStars 0.50/1.00 Hold'em (9 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is CO with , .
5 folds, Hero raises, 2 folds, BB calls.

Flop: (4.50 SB) , , (2 players)
BB bets, Hero raises, BB calls.

Turn: (4.25 BB) (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets, BB calls.

River: (6.25 BB) (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks.

Final Pot: 6.25 BB

Results in white below:
BB has 8s Tc (high card, ace).
Hero has 7s 4h (high card, ace).
Outcome: BB wins 6.25 BB.

Originally Posted by bboy

good numbers for stealing are around 35%. you should only be stealing with decent hands, not 74o because people do call and then you dont have to waste a bunch of money trying to make them fold like you did in hand 2. a "steal" is raising like K9s whereas that is not a premium hand, but it is good enough to raise where you are.

also, dont cap A9s preflop. however, you should be playing much more aggressively in a steal pot.

As far as only stealing with decent hands, this is what I was doing before, but then I found that is was so successful that it is immaterial what my cards are. The only thing that stops me now is if I sense people are getting fed up with it so I stop for an orbit, or the particular players in the blinds are tricky/defend well. Why only do it with decent cards if you almost never go to showdown?
Oh, and the A9s hand I was in "steal mode" as I mentioned so hence the aggressiveness.

Originally Posted by bboy

you can become more aggressive postflop... generally if you re 3bet from a blind while stealing it means a hand better than A9s.

your methods may work at the passive limits, where people just fold to anything, but i think that over time you will see that this is not how it will work out all the time.

Oh, I fully agree with this, but I am talking 2-4 and 1-2 on stars. I have no illusions that when I work my way up to say 10/20 that this will be the same. I probably should have qualified that in the post. But hardly anybody on these forums plays that high.
And I agree on the A9s hand, I said I know I overplayed it. I don't want to post a bunch of raise preflop - sb folds - bb calls - bb checks flop - I bet - he folds - I take pot. Something like 40% of times I stole that was the exact sequence, 40% they fold preflop, maybe 10% I win at showdown, maybe 10% I fold or lose at showdown.

Anyways, theres a side point to have limits to what hands you steal with. You don't want to stick out when stealing, you need to let a couple go after you have tried to steal a few, make them think you are actually selective in your hands. This will keep them from playing back as much. But if you are stealing Every time you can, they will start to notice, and they will play back....