Stealing and calling ranges

In ‘The importance of blind stealing’ we discussed some of the general principles behind blind stealing and when you might try to employ it. Now we can look at some of these situations in more detail and think about hand ranges, position and player types, as well as how to respond to aggressive players. In recent years blind stealing has become much more prevalent in tournament play and because of this many players will attempt to resteal by going all-in with a stack of 15-20 big blinds. For this reason, unless you think it is likely you are going to get flat-called, often you should be inclined to polarise your opening ranges in late position, since if you are only going to call with strong hands and fold the rest, hands like Q-Jo or 7-8s converge in value with absolute trash like 2-7o or T-6o. In other words, if you’re folding to any raise then what does it matter what cards you’re holding

Situational stealing

Blind stealing is as much about situation as it is about the cards you hold. For example, against three or four tight-passive players with stacks of 25-30 big blinds you can steal with almost any two cards profitably as they will rarely play back at you. However, against three or four aggressive players with 15-20 big blinds, open- raising a hand like T-Js might be unprofitable, as you will be shoved on so often.

But, in the latter situation, you can now open your value raising range, meaning that you would now be happy to raise and call with hands like K-Q, A-8 or 6-6 since your opponents will be shoving with worse often enough to make it profitable and you will have good pot odds. Remember that in a multi-table Sit & Go you still need to accumulate some chips for the final table where the money is lodged at the top.

The most important factor in successful blind stealing is your pre-planning, both in considering whether you are in a good situation to steal with a weak hand and, if not, whether you have a hand that you can raise and call profitably with. Remember, to show an initial profit on a blind steal you might need to win 50-60% of the time, and this is radically altered by the players and stack sizes left to act behind you. So don’t just fall into the trap of automatically raising an average hand in late position and then folding it when an aggressive short-stacked player goes all-in!