Loose Blind Steals - the LAG Approach
1. Introduction
In this article
- The button vs the blinds
- Small blind vs big blind
In many Medium Stakes SnGs, players no longer play loose but
weak-tight, at least as soon as the number of participants
drops below 6. The optimal way to take advantage of this is to use
the loose-aggressive approach.
The basic idea in this approach is: You
attack many small pots with a good risk-reward ratio and stay away
from resistance and big pots. As weak-tight bubbles usually take
quite some time, it's not enough to always steal the blinds with the
same move. Instead you should have a sizable repertoire of blind
steals to make it as difficult as possible for the opponents to adapt
their strategies.
This article lists up the different kinds of
these steals and explains when and how to use them.
2. Preliminary remarks
One of the reasons that tight poker is successful, is that one avoids difficult decisions. If you play loose, you'll
often face complicated situations which require a high degree of
concentration and discipline, and thus it is not suitable for extreme
multi-tabling. On the other hand, this method is capable of
generating ROI values on six tables which exceed those of a tight
player on 12 tables by far.
The moves in this article only
make sense with a certain stack size and as long as neither you nor the opponents are in Push-or-Fold mode yet. You should always
plan your hands ahead, i.e. in a way that you are always able to give
up a bluff and still continue playing comfortably. It is necessary to
have well-trained post-flop skills and to realize that while you will
create a loose image, you will have to deal with the fact that the
opponents will bluff and check-raise more often.
Due to the
increased tilt danger associated with this method, players who are
prone to go on tilt should rather stick with their familiar tight
game. On the other hand you now get more value for your own strong
hands.
If you master the mentioned moves, you should only
open fold for deception on the button and in the small blind. In
high, tight limits you can even use these moves from the first blind level
onwards. Many tight players will tilt when confronted with such a
playing style.
3. SB vs. BB
3.1. Open raise in the SB
Against weak-tight opponents, an open raise from the SB is deemed
to be very effective. Only rarely you will be confronted with a call
and even rarer with a re-raise, which saves you the costly conti-bet.
This move loses its profitability though when the stacks are less
than 20 BB as the opponent can easily defend by going all-in.
In
this situation it is also profitable to raise with the weakest hands,
as you hardly ever reach the post-flop game. Without antes 2 ½
BB are already enough, with antes you should generally bet 3 BB
though as thinking opponents receive good pot odds, especially as
they are in position. Weak-tight players will often fold in this
case, disregarding the pot odds. Morgoth will often raise to 3 BB in general in these kinds of situations on higher
limits.
If you get called, you should
closely check the board texture and eventually make a conti-bet of ½
pot size. Any ace, any rag board and any paired flop should be
bet.
On a flop like 9JK you should probably play check/fold if
you didn't hit anything. Should it get to the post-flop game, it is
important to not overplay your own marginal hands against tight
players.
Let's assume you open raise from the small blind once
again, against a very tight opponent who has never called until now:
Blinds 100/200 (5 players)
Stacks
Hero ($2700)
BB ($2500)
Preflop: Hero is SB with 6
, 6
3 folds, Hero raises to $500, BB calls $300.
Flop: ($1000) 3 9
K (2 players)
Hero bets $600, BB calls $600.
Turn: ($2200) J (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $700, Hero?
You get very good odds (about 4:1), but the reversed implied odds
(about 2:1) are not so good and you can be certain that your opponent
has you beat and is ready to go to the showdown.
3.2. Open complete in the SB
This move, as long as it isn't overplayed, is probably the
simplest steal with the best risk-reward ratio. If you open complete
from the SB with pot odds of 4:1 on a 5-handed table with blinds of
100/200 and 25 ante, the pot on the flop is already 525 chips. If you
bet 300 now, you ultimately bet 400 on a pot of 525, which gives you
pot odds of more than 1:1. If the opponent folds in two out of three
cases, you will be extremely successful without risking too many
chips.
Some opponents almost inherently raise against any open
completed small blind. Against these kinds of players this approach makes little sense, but also gives you a good approach for slowplaying high pocket
pairs.
4. Button vs. Blinds
4.1 Open raise on the button
As the button is usually the best position, you should only rarely
open fold. As a raise size we suggest 2 ½ BB in most cases,
as a possible all-in re-raise from the blinds negates the position.
Furthermore, the blinds play OOP post-flop and as such fold equity is
given irrespectively, which makes a bigger raise unnecessary.
With an all-in
raise from the blinds the calling range only changes minimally, as
tight opponents usually don't overplay their defense actions. If for
example you raise first on the button with A9o to 2 ½ BB and a
tight player in the blinds goes all-in, you should also fold with pot
odds of 2:1 as you are probably dominated.
As mentioned
earlier, this raise is most effective when the stacks are bigger than
20 BB, as the opponent can't defend profitably now by going
all-in.
If the pre-flop raise is called, you should conti-bet ½ pot size on Ace high boards, rag boards and paired
boards in case the opponent checks. On dangerous boards, delayed
continuation bets can be made by first checking the flop as well and
betting on the turn after the opponent's check, to avoid traps. This
might induce the feeling that you yourself are slowplaying and you
will receive even more information about your opponent's hand.
If
the opponent donks the flop, you should, as long as you didn't hit
anything, fold in most cases, or against very aggressive opponents
bluff call the correct boards; so call on the flop to then bet a
minimal amount after the opponent's check on the turn. Often a bet of
about 1/3rd of the pot is already enough as you can assume
that the opponent doesn't have a very good hand.
It is
different if he fires a second barrel on the turn, after which you
have to fold without a good hand of course.
Blinds 100/200 (5 players)
Stacks
Hero ($4000)
BB ($3500)
Preflop: Hero is BU with J , 8
2 folds, Hero raises to $500, 1 fold, BB calls $300.
Flop: ($1100) A K 7 (2 players)
BB bets $500, Hero calls $500
Turn: ($2100) T 
(2 players)
BB checks, Hero?
On the turn the opponent ponders and checks. If he had a
reasonable hand on the flop, it would have made little sense to
immediately donk and not let you conti-bet. On the other hand it also
makes little sense to check the turn if he has e.g. A9 and played the hand
straightforward, since the board has become
very draw heavy. Everything seems to indicate that he does not want
to go to the showdown after all. He could have a middle pocket pair,
a king, a flush draw, a good ace, or he could have bluffed as well.
Buying
the pot seems to be a real bargain now. The opponent only has 2,000
chips, so 900-1,200 should be enough to pick up the pot in a
profitable way. If we bet 1,000, we paid 1,500 since the flop to
steal a pot of 1,600. If we had raised on the flop, we would also
have raised to about 1,500, without having the further informations
on the turn though.
To decide if a bluff call is profitable,
you should keep these values in mind:
- Flop Aggression: Against an opponent with a low value (<1), a call is usually uncalled-for.
- Went to Showdown: With a high value (>50) you should also consider if a call makes sense.
- Turn Aggression:
A very low value (<1) could indicate that the opponent often switches to check/call here, which in turn makes the reasonableness of a bluff call highly doubtful.
4.2. The button call
(with a tight button you can also call on the CO)
This
style is often frowned upon at most tight tables, as the move itself
already implies weakness: You're in position, only playing against the
blinds, so why not raise if you have a legitimate hand? As calls
seldom happen on the button, most players don't know how to react to
this. This gives us an edge over such players, at least for the
first few times.
First and foremost, the move is good to vary
your own game after you often raised on the button. It is preferable
to play hands which don't have a high equity against the blinds in
pre-flop match-ups, but could become very strong with a good flop,
thus suited connectors or hands like KTo.
Especially against
opponents who like to defend their blinds it is a good move, as you
didn't attack their blinds in their opinion. If you get raised from
the blinds, you can easily fold without the correct odds. After all,
you hardly invested chips into the hand.
The button call is
highly effective with stacks of about 15 BB, as your opponents now
have the choice of either pushing all-in with 15BB or check, as they
would have to fold themselves following your push after their 3-4 BB
raise. Hence they often check, even with somewhat strong hands like
A9o with which they would have gone all-in after a raise.
To carry into effect:
If both (or only the BB) checked the flop, you should bet ½
pot size on any board. To not ruin this bet's credibility, you should
even bet the nuts, especially with regulars on the table.
If
one of both players donk the flop, you should fold all weak hands,
and continue playing good hands the normal way, or eventually, as
described previously, bluff call if the situation is ideal for it and
the board doesn't look too scary. Keep in mind that you won't get
much credit for an ace, as you didn't raise pre-flop.
If
a blind calls the bet, you should give up in most cases or bet again
against very weak opponents on a checked turn. For this you have to
check the value “fold to flop bet” and the opponent's stack. Low
stack and high fold to flop bet value indicate a strong hand and the
will to call down to the showdown or check-raise. Middle to big stack
and low fold to flop bet value indicate that the pot is still worth
buying.
If you got called on a draw heavy board, you can also
check behind on the turn and make a small river bet after a check
when an obvious draw didn't hit. After the check on the turn you
showed enough weakness for...
- the opponent's check on the river to already look very weak.
- a river bet to be a bit higher. River bluffs should generally turn out to be higher, as only this bet separates the opponent from the showdown and he no longer has to worry about reversed implied odds. 3/4th to pot size
is a good river bet amount.
5. Conclusion
It turns out that loose aggressive blind steals are profitable
when the opponents are tight and weak, and you are able to
quickly recognize the spots in which you have to give up a hand, or
in which a further move is possible, respectively. In particular you
should keep in mind that your own image changes with a more active
playing style and thus also changes the attitude of the opponents.
You should not lose sight of the fact that the goal of this style is
to get the small pots which are relatively easy to win.