How to steal blinds?

Steal this blind

The richer is your poker armory, the better are your chances for the victory. The best players don’t wait for the good cards to come, they use anything they dealt. How do they do it? For example, they use the power of steal technologies.

What is it?

A steal is a form of bluff. The aim of the steal is to take blinds preflop without a fight. It is a simple and easy-to-use technique, so it is widely spread in all formats of poker.

How to steal?

The perfect spot for stealing is late position (button or cutoff) and absence of bets before you. If you are not the first player to act, the range of the raise should become stronger and the size of the bet bigger.

Steals work, because most of the times blinds have weak hands. Blinds made compulsory bets before the start of the hand. In addition, they play out of position. It weakens their situation even more.

So, even if you get a call from the player on blinds, you can take a pot with c-bet. To increase your chances, bet at least ½ or 2/3 of the pot on the flop.

The situation is different when you steal from the cutoff and get 3-bet from the button. It looks strong. Button didn’t put any obligatory bets, so the chance he has good hand is higher. In addition, he doesn’t afraid of raises from the blinds and has a position on you.

Don’t call such 3-bets with air hands. Choose between 4-bet or fold. Call as a trap is possible only with the strongest hands.

Small blind

Small blind is a good position to steal. If you are the first player, who enters the pot, you are to worm out only one player from the pot. Bet more versus tight opponents and less versus looser.

There is another technique of stealing: limp and go. The idea is simple. You limp preflop and then bet 2/3 of the flop on any flop. If you get a call, go on betting on the turn with a strong hand and give up if the board doesn’t improve your hand.

To make a steal from SB profitable, the opponent has to fold at least 62.5% of his hands. On micros, it happens even more often.

«Limp and go» becomes profitable when the opponent folds 55% of his range. The good news is when you deal with passive players it happens even more often.

Big blind

How is it possible? Have you ever heard about auto-steal?

Preflop: small blind completes, you (big blind) check. Here comes the flop. Small blind checks. So, now you can bet with any two. Most of the times you will take the pot without a fight. Auto-steal works because small blind has shown weakness twice (preflop and on the flop).

Good cards

Small Pairs. Raise with any pair is more than bluff. Even deuces are a small favorite versus the strongest non-pair hand (AK).

Broadways (KQ, KJ, etc). Even if you get call preflop, face cards still have good chances to win. You can catch top pair with a good kicker on the flop or later streets.

Suited connectors (JTs, T9s, 76s, etc). These hands cam improve to flushes or straights.

Any ace. Any hand with an ace is stronger than the best broadway without an ace. For example, the equity of A8o vs KQs is 53%.

So, now you are professional stealer. The next step is to learn to catch stealers. Stay tuned.