Introduction

• Steal with a 12-17 BB stack
  
• Average Stacks are the best opponents
  
• Tight-passive players are the best opponents
  

A steal is defined as a pre-flop raise with the sole goal of winning the blinds (and is done with a hand that is too weak for this to be considered a value raise). Steals become more and more important as the blinds increase in size. There are two reasons for this: 1) your stack will often be getting short and shorter, which means the blinds/stack ratio increases, and 2) a larger portion of the total number of chips at the table can be stolen.

Your steals should be the same size as your value raises, especially if you're a beginner. If you have one raise size with strong hands and another when you simply want to steal the blinds, your opponents will see right through you and always know how to react.

If, however, your opponent isn't able to differentiate between your steals and value raises, you will have two advantages: 1) Your steals will get more respect, since you will often have shown a strong hand after having made such a pre-flop raise in previous hands, and 2) you will get more when you do have a strong hand, since opponents know your raise doesn't necessarily mean you have a monster.

How big should your stack be?

It's always a matter of the risk/reward ratio. A blind steal should increase your chances of winning the tournament and not put your tournament life in danger. You need to have more than 10 BBs in your stack before you can steal. There is no max. stack size for stealing, but be aware that you may face a re-steal.

Your stack has to fulfil three criteria. Firstly, it has to be small enough for a steal to be worth the risk. 1.5 BBs aren't worth the risk when you have 30 BBs in your stack. If, on the other hand, you only have 3 BBs, you should go after those 1.5 BBs every chance you get.

The second criteria: Your stack has to be big enough for you to be able to put your opponent under pressure. This is perhaps best explained with an example:

You steal with a 12 BB stack; the player in the big blind has 20 BBs. The size of your steal is 3 BBs. The big blind has to call 2 BBs for a chance to win 4.5 BBs. His dilemma: He can pay 2 BBs to see the flop, but knows you can make him pay another 9 BBs to get to the showdown (key word: leverage).

If he calls, you are clearly in the better position: There are 6.5 BBs in the pot and you have 9 BBs left in your stack. You are playing in position with initiative and can take down a lot of pots without hitting the flop, since your opponent will only hit 30% of the time.

His other alternative (other than folding) is pushing, but that would require him to invest 12 BBs for the chance to win the 3 BBs you have invested. He also knows this raise isn't necessarily a steal, but could easily be a hand like TT (which you would then call with). Re-stealing can't be too appealing to him.

The third condition: Your stack shouldn't be too deep. You don't want to give opponents the chance to put you under pressure, and you don't want their implied odds to be too high, either.

Steal when your stack is between 12 and 17 BBs.