stealing the blinds by going allin

[dscoot 0]

first the question. if u wanna know what hand made me think of this read after the question. ok. assume you are in an online NL tourny and you are short stacked. what % of your stack should all the blinds be =/> (your limp included) to make the all-in blind steal worthwhile? this is assuming you have a playable hand anyway. so even if someone does call u , u likely wont be in horrible shape. heres the hand. i got 3800. blinds of 150. so i got roughly 25 bb . i am dealt AQ off in sb. even tho i am short stack at table (rebuy tourny), 25 bb is not too short. any way, everyone folds to button, who limps in. so im at least calling which means its at least a 450 pot. i decide ill most likely raise to pick up the 450 right now. however, when i look at the two players in the hand, i notice they are the top 2 chip stacks at my table, with 25k and 20k. i get worried that a standard raise to 4-6xbb may not be enough for these people to fold, as they have 125-150bb themselves. im out of position and dont want to throw away 600 if the flop comes rags and they bet. so now im thinking maybe ill just limp and play it out conservative and keep it a small pot. anyway my final decision is to steal the blinds, but bc i think they may call a raise, i decide to go allin for 3800. if they call and im in a coinflip, its not great, but a good chance to move up in chips. anyway the guy on the button calls with AA. (great limp by the way). so im not too upset with my rationale of play for the hand, but i start to wonder if stealing 450 was really worth risking my entire stack. 450 represents approximately 12% of my stack. if it was 30% of my stack i would say there is nothing wrong with this play, i am just wondering if 12% is really too small an amount for the big risk. so my question is what % of your stack is this play worth doing?

[AlphaOmega 0]

Harrington on Hold 'Em. By Dan Harrington.

[Hand_Cracker 0]

in the position you described i would most likely raise too 8xBB instead of pushing. this way you are representing a lot of strength without putting your tournament life on the line when you might run into the bad luck like you did. if you get reraised, then you have a decision to make which should depend mostly on your reads. but if someone reraises a bet like that, its USUALLY an auto-fold.as for the percentage thing. if I have an M* of 9 or less i like to push to steal blinds. but if its bigger i usually just make a standard to large raise.M- is the number of total blinds+total antes in your stack. for example, blinds are 100/200 antes 25, when all blinds and antes are posted on a 9 player table the pot is 525. and you divide that number into your stack to get your M. so if your stack is less than 4700 than you would have an M of less than 9 and would push in your given situation.

[skoal_dip 0]

I think you're play is fine here considering it's a rebuy and the guys on your left and right have obviously done a lot of gambling to get to the stacks they have. I'd push all in obviously hoping to just pick up the pot pre-flop but not minding a call all that much. After all, I can see these guys calling you with a lot less here considering a loss would be only a small dent in their stack. At least 95% of the time, you don't have to worry about the limper here, and there is only one random hand, the BB, that you have to worry about, but unfortunately he pulled a good trap.

[dscoot 0]

I think you're play is fine here considering it's a rebuy and the guys on your left and right have obviously done a lot of gambling to get to the stacks they have. I'd push all in obviously hoping to just pick up the pot pre-flop but not minding a call all that much. After all, I can see these guys calling you with a lot less here considering a loss would be only a small dent in their stack. At least 95% of the time, you don't have to worry about the limper here, and there is only one random hand, the BB, that you have to worry about, but unfortunately he pulled a good trap.

well i do think i made an ok play given my read on the situation. however, i just wonder whether adding 450 to my stack of 3800 is really worth the risk?

[skoal_dip 0]

I think you're play is fine here considering it's a rebuy and the guys on your left and right have obviously done a lot of gambling to get to the stacks they have. I'd push all in obviously hoping to just pick up the pot pre-flop but not minding a call all that much. After all, I can see these guys calling you with a lot less here considering a loss would be only a small dent in their stack. At least 95% of the time, you don't have to worry about the limper here, and there is only one random hand, the BB, that you have to worry about, but unfortunately he pulled a good trap.

well i do think i made an ok play given my read on the situation. however, i just wonder whether adding 450 to my stack of 3800 is really worth the risk?

It is because it'll be a nice pot and because these guys will call you with much worse hands. You see it in rebuys all the time.