Poker Blind Stealing Strategy

Hello Fans.

This is a very important topic. In cash games blind stealing is one of the most profitable strategies you can have in your poker playbook. If you read "Pokey's Blind Steal" blog, you will remember that a full 30% of his poker profits comes from relentless and aggressive blind stealing. The keywords here are Relentless and Aggressive. If you remove relentless from your blind stealing you can still succeed - albeit at a much lower percentage than 30%. But you cannot remove aggressiveness from your blind stealing and succeed. Aggressiveness is absolutely critical!

So what is considered aggressive blind stealing? If you are about to perform a blind steal, you open raise 4 big blinds. When the flop comes, irregardless of what flops - you open bet 3/4 of the pot.

That is it. Anything less is not being aggressive enough.

Remember, this is a numbers game. 2/3 of the time your opponent will miss the flop. Most of the time your opponent will fold to a second bet on the flop. Of course this is assuming you have fold equity due to your TAGish table image. If you have been playing LAG and getting caught on the river with loose cards - don't try the blind stealing so much. First work on restyling your table image back to TAG.

Now there are some rules in blind stealing. Rules is probably not the best way to put it - perhaps observations is a better choice.

You want to observe some things when blind stealing.

First, there are starting hand ranges even in blind stealing. For a very relentless blind stealer (I recommend being relentless if you have a very TAG play style) here is your hand ranges:

ANY: A, K, Pair, Two Broadway Cards (Face Cards including Ten), Suited Connectors down to 87s.

That is about 40% of the hands out there.

Notice I said Suited Connectors. I did not say Connectors, I did not say Suited, and I did not say to include gapped cards. They need to be both Suited AND Connected AND at least 87s. Trash anything else.

The idea for this hand range is you have a very decent chance of catching good cards on the flop. So when you bet the flop, irregardless of the flop, you will be ahead some of the time. If you just get called, chances are good you will catch a good turn or river card.

That being said - when blind stealing your goal is NOT to go to Show Down. For that matter your goal is not to go to the turn or river either. You are looking for everyone to FOLD on the flop after your bet.

Another important "observation" - Position.

Position always is important. The later the better. However, my personal style is to blind steal from any position some of the time. The reason for this is because you don't want people to catch on that you are blind stealing. When you are blind stealing you are always first to bet and are always representing a TAG hand for that position. You should rarely be blind stealing from early positions. Your bread and butter is middle to late position. The best position to blind steal is when you are on the button and it has been folded to you.

How much to bet? Easy - you bet consistently 4 big blinds. The best part about relentless aggressive blind stealing is people who do realize what you are doing will call you sometimes to keep you honest. But because you bet consistently the same whether you are blind stealing or holding a monster - your opponent will never know for sure which one it is. This gives your good cards better value. You will see less folding to your pocket AA when you blind steal because you're opponents won't figure you for a NIT (Very Tight, Very Aggressive). Nit's rarely play, they fold to any aggression - UNLESS they have the nuts. NIT's are also easy to figure out and you can steal their blinds all day long.

Another important observation. When playing $25NL and someone starts re-raising your raises - believe them and fold! Blind stealing is about winning small pots. Remember why you got involved in the hand in the first place and lay down your hand if your opponent bets into you. Are they just keeping you honest? Maybe. But at these limits it is very rare for someone to re-raise your raise and be bluffing. Respect the re-raise. Generally speaking if you open bet the flop and get called, then open bet the turn and get re-raise - you need to fold unless you have the best hand.

Another important observation. Never limp and never call. Do not limp pre-flop in position with the idea of open betting the flop. If you are going to blind steal you must open bet preflop. If you are in late position and someone before you limps in - then you must do a standard 4 big blind bet plus 1 big blind for every limper.

Remember - play consistently so your big hands get more value.

Also - Lets say you open bet the preflop and get one caller. If that caller goes before you do and bets the flop (standard 1/2 - 3/4 pot bet) - re-raise that flop 3X pot. Your cards do not matter here. If he calls that bet, then check fold the turn most of the time. Every once in a while if you have a good read on your opponent it is okay to fire the second barrel on the turn - but keep this a rare event. Remember - if they call your re-raise, they probably have a good hand. When you re-raise them on the flop your goal is for them to FOLD. If they call - that is bad. If they re-raise you back - that is bad.

I did add this blind stealing strategy to my game on Sunday. It worked like a magical charm. I was a little amazed how often people fold pre flop to a blind steal. I was also shocked how successful betting aggressively on the flop was. The few times someone did either call me or raise me on the flop - it took discipline to fold those hands.

There was a few times when I flopped very good hand while blind stealing and I continued playing aggressively on the flop, turn, and river. Those times gave credit to my blind steals.

When I did play my normal premium hand ranges for a TAG, I played them the same strong way and when they went to show down - those too gave additional credit to my blind stealing.

The most interesting thing I noticed about blind stealing is my poker stars stats. You would think I would end up playing more hands. My normal range of hands played as a TAG is 22%. So with blind stealing you would think that would jump up to 30-35%. But in fact my range went way down! I was playing 13%. I'll have to continue monitoring that number to see if it continues. That 13% was for about 800 hands.

The other thing I noticed is my overall aggressiveness went way up. Once I stopped calling too often and implemented a bet, fold, or raise strategy - my aggressiveness went up up up. This is good.

Opponents with Poker Tracker and ACE HUD will decide the kind of player you are by your two statistics: VP$IP & PFR.

VP$IP = Voluntarily Put $ In the Pot
PFR = Pre Flop Raise

The ideal is these two number need to be as close as possible.

Before I implemented the bet, fold, or raise strategy my numbers were 24/10.5.

After I implemented the bet, fold, or raise strategy my numbers were 25/24.

See the difference? Those numbers equal respect in your opponents eyes.

Okay - this post is long enough.

For those of you who did not read Pokey's blog about his blind stealing strategy - the link is below. He explains the same stuff I go over - but in a better and more efficient way. Definitely worth the read.

http://archives1.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=ssplnlpoker&Number=5348855