"Poker Tournament Blind Stealing Strategy: A Puzzle Piece To Winning"Poker tournament blind stealing strategy is essential to tournament poker. There are certain situations where stealing blinds is more effective. You should know BEFORE attempting to steal blinds it will work. Otherwise you’ll bleed off chips. Blind steals work best in late positions. Either steal from the button or the two seats counter-clockwise from it. Odds are favorable to steal because it’s improbable that remaining players will have a playable hand. Be the first person entering the pot. If even one player limps into the pot before you stealing the blinds will be difficult. You must raise to steal. Raising makes the blinds play their hand for more chips out of position. That situation favors you. Plus they’ll have to connect with the flop which happens 30% of the time. Another favorable situation. If the blind calls and misses the flop you can bet (whether you connected or not) and steal the pot. Steal later in the tournament. The reward outweighs the risk of stealing blinds in late levels of the tournament. The closer you get to the money the better it works. Establish a tight image. When you have a tight image opponents give you more credit for having a good hand when you raise making it easier to steal. Steal from tight opponents. Your steal is more likely to succeed against a tight player than a loose player. Steals work best against opponents with less chips than you. Smaller stacks don’t want to lose all their chips and get knocked out of the tournament. This makes them prime targets to steal from. Your cards don’t matter! When conditions are right you can steal with any two cards. The only time you really have to show a decent hand is at show down. Otherwise cards don’t make a difference. That being said, don’t get out of control. Opponents that pay attention will eventually catch on and play back at you making blind steals difficult. Remain selective about your blind steal attempts. When you get caught slow down. Raise before the flop if you get called and a player checks to you on the flop try to steal ONCE MORE. If you get called on the flop your steal attempt is over, don’t lose more chips. All poker tournament blind stealing strategy (if used with discipline) will get you far in any tournament. Good luck! |
