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Blind Stealing

With the 2nd annual U.B.O.C. approaching, there is alot of exciting and skillful play around the corner.  Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke, Shawn Rice, and I will be announcing each final table, of every event.  There is a wide variety of poker games being offered.  NL, PL, short handed, Omaha8/b, Omaha to name a few.  It is important to treat each of these games different, but one thing remains true in all of them.  Stealing blinds is important.

I mostly only play NL, but one of the biggest strengths any pokerplayer can improve on, is when and when not to steal blinds.  There are so many factors and information out there. You just have to use them and find it. The first thing I think about when stealing blinds is, "What is my image". If i have been very active, chances are im going to get less respect when I open raise. So with this in mind, position is also a big thing.  If I'm in bad position and i have a loose image, I am much more likely to get reraised for the simple fact there are more people to act behind.

You also need to be aware of stack sizes.  Lets say the blinds are 600-1200 and you are in the cutoff with 6-8.  The Big Blind has 6,000 left.  If you raise to the standard 3x and make it 3600, and he shoves, are you gonna fold?  My point is, be aware of the stacks you are raising into, because if they happen to reshove, you dont want to be committed to calling with 8 high.

Last but not least, and the most obvious to most poker players, is stealing once the antes kick in. Even with a simple 100 ante, there is gonna be 1k more in the pot to take down without seeing a flop.  This is the point in a poker tournament where I like to kick it up a notch. 

I hope these few pointers will help you make it deeper in the upcoming UBOC, and just remember.  You dont have to steal blinds everytime on the button:)

P0ker H0