One of the best ways to build your stack in a sit and go online poker tournament is through stealing the blinds. It isn’t very ideal to try stealing the blinds early on in the tournament so you’ll want to try and appear to be a tight player in the early stages. If you’re able to gain a tight table image in the tournament then it will help you down the road when you start to try stealing blinds from the other players.
You’ll want to wait until the blinds become worth stealing which we would say is at the 25/50 level. In order to steal poker online blinds, you need to consider several factors such as your position, options if you’re re-raised and the opponent’s lefts in the pot.
Importance of position
The position is important when you try stealing the best online poker blinds because you can create better odds by acting later in the hand. For instance, if you try stealing the blinds from the first position then you’re going to need to have 8 players fold to your raise. If you’re the 6th player to act in the hand then you only need 3 other players to fold after you. As you can see you have a lot of better odds of your opponent’s folding when you’re in a late position.
You need to consider what your options will be if you get re-raised for one simple reason. If you have a marginal hand then you’ll still be able to flat call a small re-raise in hopes of hitting a big hand in a big pot. If you have absolutely nothing when you try stealing the blinds then you have no other option but to fold if you get re-raised.
Stack size
Looking at the opponent’s lefts in the hand is the factor you need to look at when you’re stealing the blinds in a sit and go tournament. If you have observed the players left in the pot to be fairly tight then you’ll have a better chance getting away with the bluff. But if one of the players is loose, they might want to make a move on you. The stack size is also important in tournaments because you need to consider the likelihood of the other players making a move. If there is a short stack left in the hand and you re-raise to steal the blinds. They might just want to push all-in so they can try and double up.
There is a lot to consider when you’re thinking about stealing the blinds in an online poker real money game and it isn’t just something that you can do. You often don’t want to do it too often or else you’re going to begin getting re-raised a lot more often. Once the other players pick up on it.
Happy playing!
Read more:
6 Lessons to Learn from Online Poker Rules
Online Poker – Get to Read Opponents with Tells