Micro stakes blinds play

[wagon596]

Only play strong hands in the SB, every play, you're out of position.

[tturne01]

You really have to see how the villian has been playing and if you have a hud you can track how often he attemps to steal the blind. At such micro levels, i don't think it is worth trying stealing the blinds because more people often limp call at that level. You can try it if you are playing 6-max though, but I prefer to just widen my range, not making calls and steal attempts with ATC. Just stick to a tight game, until you get a good feel and read for the players at the table especially the 2 players to your left and right.

As far as calling a minbet from the SB, I reviewed my database and saw that I lost a lot of money from the blinds. Mainly just because I get blinded out, but also because I played too loose on the blinds, hoping to hit some crazy hand post flop. Just like J-slice said. I realized that even if I hit a set or flush postflop OOP from the SB, it is rarely profitable. You will lose more money calling loose from the blinds than you will win back later when you hit the nuts post flop. Say you have 24s, folds to you in the SB, BB minbets, you call. Flop comes 44J rainbow, what do you do?? slow play it?? If the BB hit the J, you might make some good money, but more often than not, he will have missed and you win a small pot after all those called bets you wasted for hours from the SB.

If the pot odds are insane because there are a ton of limpers, than it doesnt hurt to see the flop, but be careful when you hit a weak pair because you are oop. best of luck to you.

[J_Slice]

You really have to see how the villian has been playing and if you have a hud you can track how often he attemps to steal the blind. At such micro levels, i don't think it is worth trying stealing the blinds because more people often limp call at that level.

I tend to disagree that stealing isn't worth it at the micro stakes. You just have to know which villains are likely to fold preflop. If you are using a hud you can configure it to show fold to steal % and steal relentlessly from those players with a high value in that stat. Also double check the sample size for that particular stat, if he has only faced 3 steal attempts the stat isn't reliable. Table selection is also a huge factor, for US players there isn't much of it.

Im also not sure what you mean by more people are likely to limp call your steal attempts. Steal attempts are when you open the pot, so your not stealing if there are limpers before you. Your goal then should be to decide what range you can isolate the limpers depending on their style. My steal attempt range is very different than my range when isolating.

Just stick to a tight game, until you get a good feel and read for the players at the table especially the 2 players to your left and right.

Having good reads for those players, 2 to either side, is huge to your success at the table. Those are the opponents you will be playing with the most at the table. That is why table selection use to be a huge part of my game, back when there were more then a couple hundred in the player pool. Getting many tables with a seat on the right of the nits and on the left of the fish was easier when there were a couple thousand.

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[ofg]

No need to steal in micro stakes but I wouldnt fold a lot of hands to min raises when being in the BB. A lot of the money made is from post flop where you can get other players to pay you off pretty easily. If everyone at your table is tight, then I guess its not worth calling with very marginal hands. But this is a cash game and people will usually have 50-100 bbs.

[italoxj9]

This should be your moment more passive and quiet in the game. No need to go there several hands, only the winners. Not trying to steal Blind not need. Good Luck!

[janish]

To those saying stealing blinds isnt worth it at this stake, that doesnt really make sense. If you are playing with brm, stealing 4nl blinds and stealing 100nl blinds are no different. But anyways, play super tight on blinds unless you have multiple limpers in front of you and you have a chance for a big pot, but then fold as soon as u dont hit it. Its never really wrong to fold in the blinds, especially the sb, you are out of position ever time, and even if you ahve the best hand you are at a huge disadvantage.

[johnyutah]

Dont really like blind stealing unless you at least have a moderately strong hand. You've gotta steal 4/5 times to be profitable at 4nl and I feel I get called down or raised too often. Thoughts?

[J_Slice]

Dont really like blind stealing unless you at least have a moderately strong hand. You've gotta steal 4/5 times to be profitable at 4nl and I feel I get called down or raised too often. Thoughts?

If you have a moderately strong hand you aren't stealing you are raising for value and hoping to be called by worse. It really depends the size of your raise to determine how often a steal has to work to be profitable, and that isn't taking into account the other advantages of stealing. Position postflop, initiative in the hand, and postflop equity.

Assuming our hand has zero postflop value (which it doesn't, of course):
- If we open to 4BB, we risk 4 to win 1.5, so we need our steal to work 73% of the time.
- If we open to 3.5BB, we risk 3.5 to win 1.5, so we need our steal to work 70% of the time.
- If we open to 3BB, we risk 3 to win 1.5, so we need our steal to work 67% of the time.
- If we open to 2.5BB, we risk 2.5 to win 1.5, so we need our steal to work 63% of the time.
- If we open to 2BB, we risk 2 to win 1.5, so we need our steal to work 57% of the time.

The previous quote is from a concept of the week post on another forum showing how often a steal has to work to be profitable. The post is a great read and I can provide it if anyone is interested.

If you are getting flat called often when stealing you aren't stealing from the right villains. Loose passives are not who you want to steal from. You want to steal from the nits since they will be giving up so easily preflop the majority of the time and they will let you know when they have a hand, which you can then safely fold. That's why table selection is a huge factor in online poker. Sitting in the right spots at your tables (nits on your left and fish on your right) will allow you to steal relentlessly and be in position on the looser bad players.

Im surprised that so many people here say that there is no need to steal at microstakes. In my most recent database I am attempting to steal ~30% of the time when I have the opportunity. When I do attempt to steal I have a success rate of ~60%. That is from a sample size of ~30k hands.

My standard open in LP is 3x, so according to the quote above I am not showing immediate profit when stealing. However, in steal positions I am still a winning player (actually my most profitable positions, which I believe is how it should be.) That is because of a mixture of the reasons I said before. Position; I very often will have position throughout the hand and can see what actions my opponent takes before deciding on the best line for my hand. Initiative; I can often take down the pot unimproved with a standard cbet or the occasional double barrel when checked to. Postflop equity; I can sometimes flop a big hand or a big draw and have a much easier time extracting max value while in position and with initiative.

Of course, all of this is said assuming you know the hows and whys to profitable stealing. I am not telling anyone to open every BTN or CO no matter what, Im saying stealing can add a lot to your bottom line, provided you know how to do it correctly.

[bakreni12]

you most have confidents in your post play to completin sb