What Are Everyone's Thoughts On Stealing In Position?

[HubDub04 0]

When I first started playing MTT's for fun a few years ago, I would see people stealing late in the rotation a lot. When I became a little more MTT savvy, I realized why this is. Now that I am improving vastly and understand a lot more of the MTT strategy than I ever did before, I try and steal occasionally in position with less than marginal hands. I have talked to a few internet pros about this and they all have different thoughts on this.Some people think that it is ONLY to be used late in tourneys because of the amount of extra dead money in the pot etc. Some people think that it should be used THROUGHOUT MTT's because it establishes a mixed image amongst your opponents.Some people think that the ONLY time you should attempt to steal is when you have a hand that is ahead of your remaining players' range.I think that during the middle to late stages of MTT's stealing is imperative simply because you are not going to be able to wait for premium hands when you get deep simply because that you are only playing down to 1 player, and are not able to just wait for a better than average hand to make moves with because of increasing blinds and antes etc.I also think that if you have a solid read on the table, and have the right table image, you can steal once every few orbits in late position with mediocre hands if: Your stack is solid enough to withstand a re-steal/re-raise by the blinds, you have the necessary reads on the remaining players, and you have enough money in the pot with the blinds and antes to be able to mathematically justify essentially bluffing to increase your stack by 20% 30% 40% etc. Predominant online pros like Bel0wab0ve and Annette_15 have based their games and have won millions of dollars by playing position and stealing during the right times.I know this is just scratching the surface of this topic, but i'd like to hear what some of the other solid online players have to say about this, as I do believe it is one of the most essential parts of being successful in online and live MTTS.

[zimmer4141 0]

IMO it's tough to make many steals anymore. Players are simply playing back at button raises and CO raises so much now that it's tough to make straight steal plays. I think you should open up your range a bit, but the days where you can raise ATC from the button or CO are long gone in most cases. There are times where you can make steals with extremely wide ranges from LP, but it's tougher to do so now.Summary: Loosen up range accordingly, but it's tough to go wild in raising from LP.

[Royal_Tour 0]

IMO it's tough to make many steals anymore. Players are simply playing back at button raises and CO raises so much now that it's tough to make straight steal plays. I think you should open up your range a bit, but the days where you can raise ATC from the button or CO are long gone in most cases. There are times where you can make steals with extremely wide ranges from LP, but it's tougher to do so now.Summary: Loosen up range accordingly, but it's tough to go wild in raising from LP.

Hmm... perhaps we've learned something from our learnings of this lesson.... while the fish slowly start to get to where most of us were years ago, we as "good" players, should be steps ahead. which is why the new steal, is the BB steal. while Buttons and C/O's make standard raises late in MTT's. u play back to steal your blinds plus the raise.HOH2 is still news to a lot of people

[finztotheleft 0]

Stealing is wrong

[Balloon guy 158]

Stealing is wrong

Beat me to it.

[Young Turk 0]

Folded round to you on the Cut-Off or Button, with weak blinds behind you = +EV

[try__an__hit 0]

Re Stealing > StealingI like to start stealing from early on, most of the time people will call the 90 chip raise, and it builds up small pots early on to chip up your stack early. But def have to steal in the mid to late stages.

[the_stein 0]

stealing in position is so last yearand personally I don't love the re-steal (unless its OOP)

[fitzinabox 0]

Very nice cash tonight stein. u played that tourney beautifully =)

[bigbrennan 0]

Stealing from UTG is the way to win.

[SuperJon 175]

You people are all fools. Everyone knows the best strategy is to limp with any hand in EP, and then re raise someone when they raise in LP.It's flawless.

[chgocubs99 0]

Stealing from UTG is the way to win.

SW?

[onlyme386 0]

It's too bad no one here takes anything seriously, this thread had potential.I still think stealing in position has value, even with more people understanding what you're doing. It will lead to higher level thinking (Is he raising me b/c he knows i'm stealing, so i should rereraise because he doesn't have anything?) and also affects your table image. I certainly dont steal every CO/button, but even just doing 1/2 of the time people will remember and start to note that. Then when you pick up a good hand in those seats, people will give you less credit. More serious replies people, this is a worthy question

[chgocubs99 0]

My SW was serious because I've found that stealing UTG late in tournaments is more and more common, since everyone knows that if you raise UTG you must have a monster. Now, restealing requirements from an UTG raiser have become much more liberal than even a year ago, and definitely two.

[qyayqi 11]

My SW was serious because I've found that stealing UTG late in tournaments is more and more common, since everyone knows that if you raise UTG you must have a monster. Now, restealing requirements from an UTG raiser have become much more liberal than even a year ago, and definitely two.

i asked about utg steals in another thread, nice to see someone has noticed the same.

[bigbrennan 0]

Stealing from UTG is the way to win.

It was meant to be a joke post, but the more I think about it the more it makes sense.Raising close to the bubble's (cash and FT) UTG must indicated you have a strong hand, your raising range UTG is a lot smaller than in late position. Perhaps once every so often is actually a bad play depending on how your table image stands, and the style of play from the others.

[Cappy37 0]

It's too bad I posted this is general intstead of tourney strat. No one here takes anything seriously, and this thread had potential.More serious replies people, this is a worthy question

FYP.

[onlyme386 0]

FYP.

dumbass. look again, i'm not the OP. it's be a shame if we talked poker in "general poker forum" rather than BS'ing about who drives better drunk and whether Harman adopted. Yeah, that'd be a lame poker forum where no one improved.

[Loismustdie 0]

I generally steal from the doggy position, but then again I am dirty like that.

[XX44466XX 0]

Yes.

[SilentButDeadly3 0]

I prefer stealing post-flop bc no one knows how to play post-flop but I think most people know how to play pre-flop. Just my style tho.

[antistuff 0]

I prefer stealing post-flop bc no one knows how to play post-flop but I think most people know how to play pre-flop. Just my style tho.

care to elaborate with an example or two? against certain players i've started calling very lightly in position on certain flops knowing that there is a good chance they won't bet the turn and i can take it down with a half pot bet. that sort of thing what you mean?

[GrinderMJ 0]

I steal UTG all the time, it's fun. I also have extremely loose ep raising requirements. I tighten up significantly in LP when I'm playing against good players.

[NoSup4U 0]

just read OP. 2 things: why is this in general instead of strat? I bet half the repies aren't serious. Second, I can't imagine annette and below have made millions. Millions is like...a lot.Mark

[SilentButDeadly3 0]

care to elaborate with an example or two? against certain players i've started calling very lightly in position on certain flops knowing that there is a good chance they won't bet the turn and i can take it down with a half pot bet. that sort of thing what you mean?

Well my game is completely different than most. Where as people might raise OTB with JTs to steal the blinds and antes, I sometimes prefer limping if I don't have competent reads. I feel like most people know where steal positions are and know when/where to re-steal. However, people don't know how to play post-flop and I find that some people check/fold middle pair. Also I find that most flops are very favorable for my range compared to their range. Like if the flop comes AKx and they check to me, I'll lead and take this pot down 90% of the time. Now obv, I raise preflop when I know people are nits and will never play back at me and whatnot and in other positions, obv. Everything plays towards how your table plays, but I feel like limping in stealing positions is more +EV for me than raising pf in steal positions.Basically, my game is based on the fact that people hit the flop 1/3 of the time and let's say everytime that they hit the flop they hit a pair. That means they only hit top pair 1/3 of 1/3 of the time and that's ~11% and when do the blinds (b/c of my limping in normal steal positions I'm usually up against the blinds) have a goot kicker with their top pair? vvvvv rarely so you can steal most pots around 89% of the time when they don't have top pair and other times when they do have top pair. Obv, some of that 1/3 of the time they hit, they have draws of some sort but it's pretty easy to pick off draws and realize when they're chasing. But anyways, when I float I win a pretty sick % of the time that is much (almost double) higher than when I was raising pf in steal positions.I probly shouldn't be posting this cuz I'm kind of giving away all mah secretz. But this style doesn't work for a lot of people and in fact some of my friends tried it and they say it doesn't work for them and they actually lost a loooooooot of $$. Kinda reinforcing my idea that some people don't know how to play post flop, but anywho.