Blind stealing is an art form, which most of the poker playing community seem to crave. Whether it’s variation in games like Omaha or the current big craze in no limit Texas holdem, blind stealing is a move that’s sure to make you a notorious poker bully amongst your poker buddies.
Although there are several different forms of the common practice, the most common form of blind stealing is generally referred to as ‘pickin’ or ‘ribbling’. When you bet or raise and your opponents aren’t sure whether to call or fold, you can make a large bet, often all-in, and hope that your opponents fold. Subsequently, you get the pot.
This move is also known as bullying, and from time to time you can come across certain players, who seem to enjoy this style of play. Common opponents include loose players, who like to call, and tight players, who like to fold. For what ever reason these particular players will either choose always to call in a hand, or always fold.
However, there are some poker players who tend to refer to calling as ‘the art of blind stealing’. Well, I can’t really agree with this as I consider calling a skill, not a luckian stroke of good luck. You’ve just got to get in behind your hand and hope for the best, and generally, that’s what they say.
Texas holdem poker can be really hard to learn. Hours and hours of practice, and sometimes just as much speculation can be very hard to deal with. The style of play can be very unpredictable and it’s all too easy to get caught up witnessed the sometimes immaculate way that other players can call you for a raise, or for leaving you with no choice but to check in your own case.
As your own experience grows, so too can you against the experience of other players. You can’t learn, if you don’t experience it first hand, so to satiate your curiosity and go along with the flow, at least take with you those simple techniques, which are more likely to be successful than anything else.
The basic method goes something like this. You raise pre-flop with hands that have some value; you should also limp in strong, with hands that have no value unless wheels or better horses. You want your opponents to think that you might actually have a hand, when in fact you only have two suited cards or perhaps two pairs. You then call any bet or raise.
Your plot here is that you will make a big bet and let your opponents make the calculations. They will either call, or raise, or go all-in. Your two cards are then revealed through your play, with your hand being the one that is the most likely to succeed with the cards you possess.
This is a very effective method of representing a hand. You will be able to get the attention of the players through your actions, rather than your cards, making it a lot harder for your opponents to call your bluff. In the event that you actually have a hand, you can then bet aggressively to get all of the chips in front of you.
Bluffing will not always work. Phil Helmuth, the mentor of DewaGG Pros all took years and years to perfect their craft, and it isn’t easy to do it for the duration. But when you do, look for the guys who are just too good to be called bluff. You might want to review the way your opponents play, and see if you can identify their tells when it comes to possibly holding a strong hand. It takes practice, but then again, if you are working on a strategy, one would wonder why you didn’t practice sooner. practiced over and over, learning to play poker, more often than not, is a process that one has to do extremely seriously to achieve the success that you desire.
The first thing to quite obviously consider, when looking for a strategy, is your position at the table. As a rule of thumb, look for a game where the players are subsequently / immediately to the left of you. This is generally an advantage, as you will have the advantage of being on the immediate left of the big blind.
The next thing to examine is the chips in play. How far into the pot are you? If you have ample chips in play and a decent hand, you can bully your opponent into committing to the pot, or at the very least, you can drive him out of the pot, if he has nothing, by betting big.
The last thing to look at is the cards on the table. Sun-Tzu and Heron’s instructions were not particularlyeering when it came to playing pocket fours or flushes.