Medium hands vs a stealer in the BB

[winky51]

I always have a lot of trouble determining how to play a certain raise of hands vs a PF stealer.

I usually play 6 max .25/.5. I can play higher limits but I really want to work my skills up before moving up. I know I have leaks.

Usually I encounter a situation where the stealing player is a 23/16/2 player stealing from CO. I know his raising range and it can be anything from a suited connector to Axs to a pair to a premium hand.

I am sitting in the BB now with a hand like AT.

To me, and correct me if I am wrong here, this is a medium strength hand vs his holdings and he has position.

How should one approach this situation? The opponent isnt too tight, nor too loose, nor a LAG. He has position and you holding a medium strength hand.

Raise, call? I would think Calling is about the worst you can do.

[the_muppeteer]

Doesnt sound like the player I would reraise with AT, as your are saying he could have anything. If you limitraise he'll probably call and see a flop, and if it's a Axx flop, you have no idea if your best, and your out of position.

And if you raise eg. 3x his raise, you will probably take it down unless he has PPs or AK. But if he do, and he call/reraises you, you will lose 10-15BB just to defend the blinds.

Sometimes I fold AJo in the BB only to a small raise, not worth playing out of positon (IMO).

Don't know if calling is such a bad play compared to raising, if he bets almost every time he is in postion he might fold easier to a flop bet.

[winky51]

thats the think when I see I am 50/50 compared to his hand range and I DONT have position WTF am I doing in the pot. Now change his PFR to 20% and now I can reraise because most likely his hand is worse than mine.

[munkey]

reraise TT+, AQs+ ,cbet 2/3 vs 14+ PFR positionally aware BTN stealers like you've identified, as a start.

Throw in the occasional SC/ small pair -anything which can potentially flop hard and is easy to dump if it misses and your cbet is called/raised.

Don't worry about defending the money IN the blinds
defend them by occasionally ATTACKING the stealers so they know when they raise light they may have to handle gettting 3bet.

I fold to steal ~ 80% time. Just now and then remind BTN/CO not to keep doing it and 'resteal' and they'll do it less which is all we really want to do.

AT is ultra dominated OOP anyway so in a raised pot I like it even less and generally won't do it with ATs -but that's just me I'm sure the SSNlers like dbitel do though.

Even if you always folded you blind to a steal I don't think it will impact your winrate that much at NL25 though I'm not sure what effect always folding ones blinds to a steal has on winrate.

[winky51]

Ok then I am one the right track. What you said is about how I am currently playing. I hate being out of position. I do reraise occasionally to keep the stealers straight.

I dont get into marginal situations OOP.

I take a policy that I would rather bet 72o in position that call a raise out of position