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 Stealing the Blinds is an Important part of playing Poker.
Stealing the Blinds is an important part of playing Texas Holdem. Its even more important in Texas Holdem Tournament play where the blinds go up and you are fighting a battle against time. Stealing the blinds is a tricky part of poker because you need to have a good read on your opponents to do it successfully and turn this poker strategy in to profits.
If you are like most poker players and you plan on playing you are going to be at the tables for around 8 hours. Lets just say you are sitting at a $1/$2 table. If you steal the blinds 2 or 3 times an hour for an 8-hour shift you would have made around 48 to 72 dollars that is a good chunk of profit. Now you can?t just steal the blinds whenever you want to you have to have a read on your opponents and sense weakness. Also you want to steal the blinds with mediocre hands not total crap hands this will allow you to survive even if you get a caller. Also stealing the blinds is a positional play. You want to do it in good position when you sense weakness in your opponents. Most of the time you won?t just steal the big and small blind but maybe a couple of extra blinds as well.
An example of this would be:
Lets say you are sitting in your local poker room at a $1/$2 table. You have got a decent read on the players. Everyone limps in and you are second to the button. You make it 20 dollars to play with J9 suited. You make this aggressive bet because if someone before you had a 20-dollar hand they would have raised based on your read on those opponents. Everyone folds like you expected and you rake a small pot. Even if you had a caller it wouldn?t be the end of the world because this kind of hand is a great hand if it hits your opponents will not put you on it. So you do this 3 or 4 times an hour when you sense weakness, which will end up being a considerable chunk of change at the end of the night.
Now youre probably thinking that the odds of doing this are terrible considering that you are risking 20 dollars to win 3 or so, however if you have a good read on the table and you know that if there was someone sitting here with a 20 dollar hand they would have made the raise it makes a lot of sense. The one position to really keep an eye on is Under the Gun. I say this because a smart player may limp in from there with a monster hand especially if the table has been aggressive. He will do this hoping that some one after him will raise. So when stealing the blinds you have to keep an eye on this position. This is why it is important to keep an eye on your opponent when they are in this position and see what kind of cards they are playing from there. A smart player that understands position will not try and limp in under the gun with a mediocre hand, however if you dealing with poker players that don?t understand position this may not matter. You have to get a read and decide. So this is how you steal the blinds. It?s a vital part of any profitable poker strategy. It is especially important when you play tournaments. You may not get great cards and stealing the blinds will keep you alive until you can catch a hand. If you have any examples of stealing the blinds that you want to share with us join our poker forum and post in our poker strategy section.
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