Heist

During those short-lived months in 2005 when I was unemployed and playing 15/30 limit, I obsessed over how to make decisions from the blinds.

If the button is stealing most of the time, how often should I be defending? When should I call? What hands should I 3-bet?

It took a long time, but those questions eventually drove me to better learn how to play from the button and blinds.

Fast forward one year, to the time when I first tried to make the jump from 2/4 NL to 5/10 NL. One of the first resolutions I made was that I would play extremely tightly when out of position. I decided I wouldn't care if I got run over by aggressive blind stealers; I didn't want to see many flops unless I had position.

This simple, tight strategy was far more successful than I thought it would be, but it got me thinking. If it's somewhat correct to play this rocky from the blinds, maybe I should start stealing more from the button as well.

Suddenly, suited hands and one gappers seemed almost as good as Aces against opponents who would fold their blinds anyway. And increasing my steal attempts came with a fruitful unintended consequence: my VP$IP rose, giving my opponents the impression that I was a LAG.

That was a while ago, and I still frequently run heists when I see that circular D in front of my name.

All this thievery made me wonder: with all the big pots moving back and forth across the felt, those predetermined preflop all-ins with AK vs. QQ and flop combo draws vs. sets, it's entirely possible that a large part of my winrate doesn't come from this crazy variance.

Maybe I'm simply stacking piles of blinds, one steal at a time, and adding to my bankroll in those multitude of pots in between the thrilling all-ins and devastating suckouts.