Pokkercards.com

The When, How, and Why of Blind Stealing

Since making money playing poker isn’t all about hitting huge hands, it’s important to know about some techniques that will help you pick up small pots. One of the most critical of these is blind stealing.

Blind stealing is pretty simple. What exactly is it? It’s exactly what it sounds like. Raising into an opponent’s blinds in hopes of them folding. Some beginners have trouble believing that this is profitable- after all, when you win, it’s usually only 1 or 1.5 BB’s. If you get raised though, you could lose your 3 BB’s. Why go through the effort for such a small return?

Because it’s profitable, that’s why. Winning poker players push every edge they can get, and blind stealing is an edge. So roll up your sleeves, and get ready to add on to your winrate.

When can I steal the blinds?

Steal the blinds in pots where the action has been folded to you, and you’re on the button or in the small blind. Some players like to try stealing from the cutoff, but that’s a risky proposition. Unless you’re at an extremely tight table, stick to the button and the small blind.

How do I steal the blinds?

It’s very simple- just raise.

“What if I have a crappy hand?” I hear you asking.

It doesn’t matter what you’ve got. Don’t even look at your cards. Unless your table is unusually loose, or you’ve got skilled players who are catching on to your trickery on your left, you should pretty much always raise.

I don’t believe it. Why should I do this?

I don’t blame you for being skeptical- it sounds crazy. But think about it for a second. You’ve surely read our article on fold equity. In that article you learned that when you’re in the small blind, your opponent only needs to fold 75% of the time for raising any two cards to be profitable. Any reasonable player folds much more often than that. It’s a profitable play, all the time.

That math explains why stealing from the small blind is a good move, but what about stealing from the button? When on the button, you’ve got to get two players to fold. Should I raise any two cards then? Good question. Let’s do some math.

Assume that both your opponent in the small blind and your opponent in the big blind will call a raise preflop only 7% of the time in early position. Also assume that if one of them calls or raises, you will trash your hand. Therefore 86% of the time, you will raise to 3xBB on the button, and your opponents will fold- winning you 1.5BB. 14% of the time, you will raise to 3xBB and get a call or a raise, and you’ll lose your 3BB.

EV = .86(1.5) – .14(3)
EV = 1.29 – 0.42
EV = 0.87 BB

As you can see, the expected value of raising any two cards from the button, 100% of the time against these two opponents is 0.87BB. Every time you make the play, you can expect to win 0.87BB. That’s definitely nothing to sneeze at!

That’s cool, but won’t my opponents catch on?

If they aren’t terrible, they probably will. I wouldn’t worry about anybody catching on in lower stakes games, since lower stakes players usually don’t think about anything except for their own cards. However, as you move up in stakes and encounter more difficult players, you will definitely meet some resistance.

It’s for that exact reason that strategy experts recommend varying your play. To what degree you change it up depends on how much trouble you think an opponent will give you. If you steal your opponents’ blinds three orbits in a row from the button, and on the fourth time are met with a 3-bet from the small blind, you might consider toning it down.

Although you technically don’t have to vary your play until your opponents actually realize what you’re doing, it’s best to disguise your strategy from the moment you sit down at the table. Think of it this way- every time you steal a thinking opponent’s blinds, he becomes more suspicious of you. He will gradually loosen his raising requirements in order to defend his blinds. Instead of only calling/raising with 7% of his hands, perhaps his defending range would increase to 11% the second time you steal. The third time, it might increase to 16%. The fourth time… Well, you see what’s going on here. Eventually, you’ll lose all your credibility, and the expected value of stealing the blinds will become significantly lower.

Keep in mind that you only really need to worry about diminishing value against thinking players. In lower stakes games, you can steal a lot more than you can in higher-stakes games.

Tweet This Post