Steals and Resteals

Introduction

In this article

• Why you should steal in the first place
  
• Steals and resteals with and without the use of stats
• How to react to resteals
  
• Sklansky-Chubukov pushes
  

This article introduces you to the topic of steals/resteals. Having background information on steals and resteals and learning the basics of steals and resteals without the use of statistics will help you improve your game.

These fundamentals form the basis for the topic of stealing and restealing with the use of statistics. How to steal and resteal against other shortstacks is addressed through this. Additionally you will learn about the concept of Sklansky-Chubukov pushes. You'll get a few tips on how to play the hands you steal with successfully postflop in a short paragraph close to the end of the article.   

Steals

The word already indicates what you wish to attain with this type of action. You want to take the blinds, without any resistance if possible. After all, this amounts to 1.5 BB excluding any deduction for the rake. To steal successfully, you have to take four factors into consideration every time you steal.

• 1. Your position
• 2. The action before you
• 3. Your hand
• 4. Your opponents

These four factors make for a successful steal. We will discuss them individually below. 

You can only steal when the probability that you will actually collect the blinds is high. The more opponents you have playing after you, the higher the probability that at least one of them has a strong hand. This means that it is less probable that your steal will be successful. That's why you can only steal from the late positions (CO und BU) and the small blind (SB). This is where you only have few opponents playing after you and so you will have fulfilled one of the first basic requirements for stealing.

Poker is not just a game where you can simply focus on playing your cards; you also have to pay attention to what your opponents are doing. The same goes for stealing. You can only steal when all of the opponents before you have folded. If you now raise, you are the first to enter the game, i.e. the "first in". The reason for this is pretty straightforward: your objective is to steal the blinds. 

This is not as straightforward, however, when someone before you fancies the chances of their hand and has entered the game. Even if both blinds fold you will not have won the hand, and the probability of somebody folding when they've already invested money is considerably smaller. That's why you can only steal when you are first in. You then make a so-called open raise (i.e. you open the round with a raise).

Exception: Sometimes a player who has only just joined the table will post the big blind, even though he is in MP3 for example. In this case the player will have invested money without knowing what hand he's holding. If he then only checks when it's his turn, you can be pretty sure he has a bad hand. Better hands will have become improbable. 

So if you're now in a situation where you can steal, you can ignore the blind poster, as he will often fold. The rare cases when he raises and you've got to fold are balanced out whenever he folds, because then you'll win an extra big blind.

This aspect will be discussed in more detail further on in this article, when we look at ranges and related topics. But just to briefly mention: You can't steal with every hand as a principle (the exception proves the rule). Although you can steal with more hands than you can normally raise, you still have to have some hand strength. After all, the opponents will not always just fold or raise, but will also push the call button at times and then you need to know how to play your hands postflop. A 95o won't get you far in this case. But more on this later.

You can't play in the same way against every opponent. When it comes to stealing there is one general rule of thumb:

The looser your opponent, the tighter you've got to steal. The tighter your opponent, the looser you can steal.

You can steal a lot from an opponent who hasn't got a clue about how to defend blinds, as he will fold very often and will only continue playing his strongest hands. If, however, your opponent is very loose, you shouldn't start stealing like mad, as you'll often end up in complex postflop situations or will have to fold to a reraise. When you're playing against an opponent like that it's best to wait for your really strong hands and make money with those.

Why you should steal

Stealing is a key element in poker and it is crucial that you integrate it into your game. This is for the following reasons:

• 1. You have the opportunity of winning 1.5BB preflop, just like that. The win rate with the shortstack strategy tends to be quite low (0.5 - 2BB/100). If you manage to pocket the blinds just once in every 100 hands, you'd be increasing your win rate by 1.5BB/100 hands. That is a very high value for a shortstack. 
• 2. As time goes on, you will start using statistics, and so will your opponents. Stealing will automatically make you play looser and this will be reflected in your statistics. This will mean that when you raise with the strongest hands you will get reraised more often, which will make for a profitable game.  

So it's very profitable to steal, and it will help you move up in limits and make money. 

How do you steal?

Once the above-mentioned conditions have been fulfilled, you can start stealing. The question remains, however, as to how you should actually go about this.

As a shortstack you only raise or fold preflop. The same applies to when you steal. In that case you'll also enter the game with a raise. It won't be with the usual 4BB, however, but just 3BB. There are several reasons for this:

• 1. You steal with considerably more hands than you would normally raise. Your opponents will therefore adapt their game and resteal with considerably more hands. You'll often have to fold to a resteal. In fact, you'll have to fold a lot more often than when you just raise normally, because you usually only raise your strongest hands. You also raise weaker hands in this case, which don't face much of a chance against a resteal. So if you've now only raised to 3BB instead of 4BB, you will have saved yourself a big blind after the fold. This will be reflected in your win rate in the long term.
• 2. Following up on this, your opponent will also not be able to resteal from you as profitably, as he is only able to win 3 instead of 4BB.  So you'll also be increasing the chance that your steal will be successful.
• 3. Your steal only needs to work occasionally for it to be profitable. This can be calculated with the following formula:

  EV = x•1.5 bb – (1-x)•y bb > 0

Explanation:

The EV (expected value) of an action in poker should always be positive, because this means you will make long-term profit. That's why you should aim for an EV that is higher than zero for any action. 

y is the raise size in this inequation. You can use different raise sizes to understand the following results, and then convert the inequation according to x. x stands for how often a steal must work (1 means 100%, so 0.345 equals 34.5%). If you have trouble converting, you can ask in the forum. In this article we will not go into this in any further detail.

So the following arises out of the above:

If you steal with 4BB, your steal must be successful in 72.7% of the cases, and if you steal with 3BB in just 66.6% of the cases, i.e. in two out of three cases. This calculation does not include the possibility that your opponent will sometimes call and you can make even more profit postflop with a continuation bet or the like.

Here it is assumed again that you will always fold to a resteal, which does not reflect reality, as you will sometimes also be holding a premium hand, which you will not fold to a resteal.  

So as you can see, it makes more sense to steal less than you would normally raise. The important thing here is that you also raise to 3BB with your strong hands like AA or AK in a steal situation, just as you would if you were holding KT for example. Only then can you "disguise" your steals, otherwise you'll be like an open book, and that is never a very profitable thing to be in poker.

Steals without stats

For a gentle introduction to stealing, it is probably best you learn it without the help of statistics at first. This is certainly not optimal and you will not play perfectly in many situations, meaning that you will not make the highest possible profit, but it will give you a feel for how you should steal. Just as the SHC introduced you to SSS, stealing without the use of stats is the right way to get into stealing. 

It's a good idea to draw up general stealing ranges to start off with. We recommend you orient yourself to the SHC and become a little looser. To be more precise: In CO you steal one level looser than according to the SHC, in BU and SB you steal two levels looser.

In exact ranges this means:

CO: 66+/A9+/KJ+/QJ
BU/SB: 55+/A8+/KT+/QT+/JT

Now you might wonder why it is recommended you use the same range for BU and SB. This is for the following reason: In BU you have two opponents playing after you. If you are called, however, you have position postflop and so it will be easier to make your opponent fold. In SB you will always be playing out of position, but will only have one opponent playing after you, and so a steal will work more often here. As it's easier to make mistakes OOP postflop, you should not have to play with the weakest hands if you do end up playing postflop. 

When stealing with general ranges, it is practically irrelevant whether or not you are able to read your opponent. This only really becomes relevant when you're using statistics. If you've made special notes about an opponent, however, you can now already adapt your ranges a little. If an absolute maniac is one of the blinds you should probably play a little tighter. Other types of opponents will call for other kinds of adaptation. But more on that later.

Steals with stats

You can steal a lot looser when you have statistics. For some opponents the general ranges are too loose, and for others they're too tight. That's why you should incorporate statistics into your game so that it is easier for you to read your opponents. Two values are particularly important: 

• Fold BB to steal, for the BB
• Fold SB to steal, for the SB

These values indicate in what percentage of the cases your opponents give up their blinds against a steal. If you steal from BU or CO, you have to pay attention to both values, if you steal from SB you just need to look at the big blind's Fold BB to steal, as you yourself are the SB. Now you have to multiply both values by one another according to the rules of stochastics. Take a look at these two examples (p stands for "probability")

• Example 1: Steal from BU – SB fold to steal: 83 // BB fold to steal: 76
  => p(steal will work) = 0.83 • 0.76 = 0.6308 = 63.08%
• Example 2: Steal from BU – SB fold to steal: 45 // BB fold to steal: 63
  => p(steal will work) = 0.45 • 0.63 = 0,2835 = 28.35%

In example 1 your steal will be successful in 63.08% of the cases, in example 2 just in 28.35% of the cases. The only thing that is taken into account here is that the opponents will always fold if the steal is successful and you will always fold to a reraise.

When you're really playing things are different of course. Sometimes you'll call a resteal or you'll get called and will have to play postflop. If you remember that your steal must work in 66.6% of the cases, you can say that example 1 is a situation in which you can steal quite loose, while in example 2 it is wiser to wait for stronger hands, as you will only rarely pocket the blinds directly. So the more often opponents fold preflop, the better your opportunity to steal.

With the help of fold statistics you can go a step further with some programmes. Some programmes show you even more details on how the opponent defends his blinds, so in what percentage of the cases the opponent folds, calls or 3bets to a steal. So here you can proceed with even more information to support you. 

If your opponent folds just 65% of the big blinds and you definitely can steal profitably with a A9o, but the opponent only defends 5% of his blinds with a 3bet and 30% passive with a call, it'll be easy to fold to a 3bet. If your opponent defends his blinds very aggressive and defends them with a 3bet in 30% of the cases, you should have an easy call with your A9o.

Especially when you're faced with opponents who call a lot, it makes sense to steal with hands that might flop a top pair, as you will often have to play postflop. Weak pockets are not so wise to play, as you'll hardly ever hit a flop that you want to continue playing when you're holding 44 for example, unless you get a set, but that rarely happens.

It is also wise to pay attention to Fold to Cbet when playing against opponents who often defend their blinds passive (i.e. with a call). So when the blind is often defended passive, the opponent will very often fold to your continuation bet though. This is a very good opportunity for you despite the active defending of blinds. Because the opponent is still paying for your steal and only folding afterwards, this kind of steal is even more profitable in fact. 

Statistics enable you to adapt your game to your opponent a lot more and so make it much more profitable. You will almost always be able to reach a decision that has positive EV.

Stealing against shortstacks

When playing against other shortstacks you can adapt your stealing behaviour in another way. Shortstacks will either 3bet/push or fold to your steal. A normal shortstack won't touch the call button. For this reason you can steal with a smaller betsize against a shortstack. A raise to 2.5BB is enough, as you will never continue playing postflop.

The point of a 3BB raise is also that it makes it a little easier for you to make decisions postflop, as you go all-in a little sooner. When playing against a shortstack this aspect can be ignored and you'll be making it even more unprofitable for your opponent to resteal, and so you can fold to a resteal for even less money. 

Because shortstacks usually play very tight and fold a lot, shortstacks are also the kind of opponent against which you should steal a great deal. Especially at the limits up to NL100 many shorties don't defend their blinds enough and are thus good opponents for loose steals. When playing against particularly tight players who use the short stack strategy you can even steal with any two cards.

So if you're the SB and another shortstack's the BB, you're looking at a profitable situation. But beware, some shortstacks know how loose you'll steal against them and will adapt their game. This is especially standard practice at the higher limits. 

Resteals

Resteals are the natural way of counteracting a steal. If your opponent raises (which by definition is a steal) and you 3bet, then you will have carried out a resteal. Basically you are stealing back his steal. When restealing you also need to take a number of factors into consideration:

• 1. Your hand
• 2. The opponent
• 3. The stealer's and your own position

Your opponent has shown some strength by stealing. He may not be holding a monster, but it's unlikely that he will have decided to steal with 84o. This means that if you want to resteal, you will need a reasonably strong hand too, so that if you do get called you could still be ahead. It's no good restealing with 76s, just because you assume your opponent is stealing.

In case the opponent calls, which can always happen, you'll simply be in a bad situation with 76s. A little further on in the article we will explain in more detail how to assess whether your hand is strong enough for a resteal. 

A resteal is a reaction to a steal and so automatically a reaction to the playing opponent. That's why notes and statistics are particularly important when restealing. Only these will guarantee good restealing behaviour. 

You steal tighter from CO than from BU and most players are a good deal looser when they're the SB. So you've got to resteal tighter against a CO steal than against a SB steal, as the SB is basically looser and you'll be ahead of his range with more hands. Your own position is also important. If you resteal from BU, you mustn't forget that there are still two people playing after you, who might wake up with a strong hand. 

That's why it is not wise to get into tight spots (e.g. 50.5% equity) in BU. Although it would have +EV against the CO mathematically speaking, you should still fold in BU with a 50.5% spot, as this probability will decrease due to the fact that a player sometimes wakes up with a monster hand. So you might end up in an unprofitable situation, even though your chances are good against the original stealer.

Why you should resteal

Stealing and restealing are fundamental concepts for advanced players using the short stack strategy. At the higher limits stealing and restealing are the actions with which you will probably make the most profit and good restealing behaviour will have a particularly strong impact on your win rate.  

Any shortstack who has reached NL50 can go broke with a top pair/top kicker. But the extent to which you can steal and especially resteal successfully really makes the difference between 0.5 and 2BB/100 shortstacks. Defending your blinds more actively than you do with the basic short stack strategy should be one of your main objectives.

How do you resteal?

You should just directly push against a normal steal. A direct push is not to be recommended against minraises, however. Minsteals are slightly more complicated. The best way to defend yourself against these is to just make a small 3bet of 5BB. Your 3bet indicates overall strength and your opponent will need to ask himself whether he really wants to continue full force ahead against this. 

He will often have to fold here and the small 3bet will already be profitable if your opponent folds in 60% of the cases. At the same time, a 4bet on your opponent's part will not make him earn much money off you, and he'll have to worry about the possibility that you're holding a monster.

The 60% of course doesn't include the possibility that you'll occasionally call a 4bet or that your opponent will sometimes call a 3bet and that you'll be able to earn quite a lot of money off him postflop. If he 4bets to you, you'll have to reassess the situation. Notes are very important here. Generally speaking, it is not very easy to play against minsteals, as it very much depends on the reads you've got. We can't give you any general formula here. 

You can profitably resteal against an opponent when you have over 50% equity against his steal range. This can be calculated with the PokerStrategy.com Equilator. Assign a range to your opponent and see with which hands you'd have enough equity against that range.

As already mentioned above, stats and notes are especially important when restealing. That's why restealing without the use of stats is very far removed from a potentially optimum game. As your opponents steal looser, we recommend you use a general resteal range. This is: 88+/AJ+.

This range will help you do all right against most opponents, as it's a very tight range. Very few players play so tight that this range would actually be too loose. So you won't end up in unprofitable spots with this range, in a similar way that you wouldn't with the SHC, but you will be losing a lot of potential. This range doesn't determine the position from which your opponent will steal, or where you should sit, or what impression your opponent has made, or whether he's a big or a shortstack. But it's a start.

The theory behind restealing with stats is simple, but its practical implementation is not quite so straightforward. When considering resteals you also have to look at the "attempt to steal" (ats) value. This indicates the percentage of cases in which your opponent tries to steal. This allows you to draw conclusions on his range. If your opponent has an ats value of 18, you can also expect him to steal with the top 18% of his range.

Some statistics software enables you to use even more detailed steal statistics, in that they separately list the respective ats from the three steal positions – CO, BU and SB –. This is an advantage, as the CO ats is usually lower than the average ats and you would resteal too loose against a CO ats because it looks higher than it actually is.

How do you calculate a profitable resteal? There are two methods here. Both of them involve opening your Equilator and entering the stealer's range. Then you have two possibilities:

If you want to know how to behave in a particular situation, you should enter your hand in another line and press the "Equilate" button. You might also want to see which hands would have 50% equity against this range. To do this you need to go to the hand range calculating area and enter 50.00.

Your opponent is stealing against you from CO and has an ats of 16. So he's stealing with a 16% range. This is what you enter in the Equilator (we recommend you always fill out the ranges manually).

16% amounts to about: 55+, A7s+, KTs+, QJs, A8o+, KTo+ (ranges vary a little depending on the player. Some steal with pocket pairs more often, some with aces and some prefer to steal with broadways). 

Now you'd like to know whether you can resteal profitably with AJo and 77:

AJo has 51.715% equity against this range. 77 has 48.526% equity against this range.

So if you're holding AJo you're looking at a profitable restealing situation, whereas 77 is not a profitable restealing situation. 

Now you'd like to know which hands enable you to resteal: 88+,ATs+,AJo+.

Now you can calculate how to resteal well in every situation without letting any money slip through your fingers.

Resteals against shortstacks

Restealing against shortstacks can occur in two ways. There are shortstacks who are still closer to the beginner's strategy and make use of the predetermined steal ranges. These are very tight and you can only resteal very tight against them.

More advanced shortstacks will steal a lot against you, because they know you will fold a lot. As their range is accordingly large, you can resteal looser. But these shortstacks can and will adapt their play and will call your resteals looser, meaning that you in turn will have to resteal tighter, which then allows them to steal looser. Pure statistics will not be of any further help here and it will come down to notes and personal stealing/restealing experience with this player in the past.

How to react to resteals

It won't be profitable if you now steal looser but fold tight to every resteal. You can go all-in a little looser against opponents who defend their blinds and also resteal a lot. But this can only work with the statistics. The stats show in what percentage of cases your opponent resteals active using a 3bet and how you will fare against this range. You no longer need 50% equity, as you've already invested money. This needs to be calculated every time, as your stack size will vary. 

You can calculate the necessary equity with the following formula:

EQ(needed) = (remaining stack)/(total pot after your call).

Imagine you have a $20 stack (opponent is a big stack) and you steal 3BB from BU. Your opponent resteals from you. Now you've got to pay $17, and then the pot will be $40.50 ($0.5 from the small blinds). So the equity can be calculated as follows:

EQ(needed) = $17/$40.50 = 0.41975 = 41.975%.

So you only need 41.975% equity against his resteal range in this situation. You can now determine with which hands you can call the resteal, in the same way you did for the resteals.

How to play hands you're stealing with postflop

You will keep coming across the situation where your opponents defend their blinds passive, i.e. with a call. It is not possible to give you a formula for how to continue postflop in this situation, as the topic is much too extensive and complex.

Because everything is looser in steal/resteal situations, you can generally go broke with a slightly weaker kicker like A9. This very much depends on the statistics, however, as an A9 is no longer a good top pair against opponents who defend very tight. It's fine against opponents who defend more active though.

In your postflop play you should also pay attention to the position from which you've made a steal. Your opponents are tighter against CO steals than they are against your SB steals. Although in SB vs. BB a mid pair is often a strong hand, you'll have to be a lot more sceptical in CO vs. SB.

You should also use a contibet against opponents with a high Fold to Cbet percentage here, as it will make the steal very profitable; you will make money preflop which you can then simply pocket postflop.

Even though everything is looser in these situations you should take care not to go all-in too soon. An overcard is just an overcard and a check raise is still a clear sign of strenght.

Sklansky-Chubukov pushes

Sklansky-Chubukov (SC) pushes are a tactical model that can only be used if you're a shortstack, as it only works if you have a stack size of around 20BB. Big stacks can't integrate this play into their game. The principle behind these pushes is very interesting and intricate, but very easy to apply.

Take the following situation: In a live game you're in the small blind with your hand and all players before you fold. Then, out of the blue, you turn over your hand, so that your opponent can see exactly what you're holding. As your opponent knows what cards you've got he can adapt his game to you.

When using a SC push you either go all-in straight away or you fold. Depending on your stack size there are more or less hands that would enable you to push all-in profitably, although your opponent knows what hand you have and can adapt his game perfectly according to it. 

The principle behind this display of finesse is the following: Your hand is not weak, it has a certain amount of strength. If your opponent only calls hands that have 50% equity (he doesn't need any more than that as he's already paid the blind), he will have to fold the majority of his range.

Your fold equity already brings in a lot of money for you. Although you won't look good against his calling range when he then calls, you'll still have equity, which means you will sometimes win. The sum of these both factors – the high fold equity and equity- means these SC pushes are always profitable, no matter what the opponent does.

If he calls even tighter, your fold equity will increase. If he calls looser, he'll be calling hands with which he's behind and your equity against the calling range will increase. As long as you keep to the stack size limit and don't push any other hands, you can't make any decisions that have negative EV. The EV of a SC hand that is played correctly is always positive. The EV of a fold, in comparison, is zero. This means it is always better to push a SC hand and you should never choose to fold.

So with which hands can you profitably use the Sklansky-Chubukov push? This is shown in the table below. You need to keep in mind that SC pushes only work when you're first in, i.e. in a steal situation (and only in SB). 

So it's always better to push these hands than to fold them. It is important to note, however, that the EV of a Sklansky-Chubukov push is never the maximum. You'll always be aiming for a higher expected value when making a normal raise to 3BB and continuing to play accordingly, as long as you're playing correctly. 

But shortstacks in particular find it hard to continue playing with hands like A2o postflop. That's why the direct push is definitely preferable, unless you're feeling really sure of yourself postflop. So in the beginning it is definitely wiser to directly push all hands that are not so strong. As you gain more experience, you should integrate less and less SC pushes into your game.

Now you might wonder why you can just continue raising your monster the usual way, but can directly push your weak hands. Isn't that much too easy a read for the opponents? No, it isn't! As your opponent knows your hand when you use a SC push and it is profitable nonetheless, you don't need to balance here. You can't do anything wrong when it comes to SC hands if you push them first in from the SB, as long as you stick to the stack limits.

So it is advisable to use SC pushes in your game, as you lose a lot of money when you fold. And as it comes down to every penny at the higher limits, it is crucial that you continue to develop your game and then slowly move away from the SC pushes. From NL200 onwards, up until NL400 at the latest, very few shortstacks still make use of SC pushes, as they have enough experience playing postflop and don't want to leave any money behind.

Summary

This article has introduced you to the fundamental concept of stealing and restealing and instructed you on how to behave in the respective situations. 

You will have noticed that the parameters were a lot less rigid here than they are in the Bronze articles. This is because Silver status represents the doorway to a more advanced game.

Articles should give you food for thought and roughly guide you in the right direction. You need to spend more time with the material yourself, however, by making equity calculations and using other forms of media offered by PokerStrategy.com. This will mean that your development as a player will only be impeded by a little variance. Your game will be profitable in the long term and you'll be able to win good money. Have fun stealing! 

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