Stealing. Many questions of how, when ...

[mshalen]

I am making an effort to move from playing tight-weak to tight-aggressive and stealing is the weakest part of my MTT game. I have been doing very well lately in MTTs but this is mostly due to when my short stack goes all in and I win a few races - which typically means I am always one of the lowest stack sizes once the MTT gets into the money and then through to the final table or I bust out just short of the money. As Dean Whormer said "that is no way to go through life", so I need to change some tactics of my game.

I was playing late into the Stars $20/180 (which has become my favorite MTT) and as usual the size of the blinds were moving in the opposite direction of my stack. There were, in retrospect, numerous oportunities to steal the increasing blinds but I didn't/couldn't pull the trigger. I have seen numerous comments mentioning stealing but have never seen an extensive discussion of the who, when, how ... of doing this. I hope the following questions will lead to such a discussion. Please note that these questions are not of the low M push all in types of steals but are limited to your garden variety bet 3 BB types of steals.

1. At what point in an MTT do you start to steal? Is that point stictly determined by the blind/ante size or does stack size (both M and Q) come into play?

2. Position. How important is position? Is position a fixed concept (TJ has said he steals from EP because people will put him on a big hand) or is your decision to steal also influenced by stack size and cards? ie. you will steal with a large stack in EP with any two but if a smaller stack you will only steal in LP with a somewhat marginal hand or better.

3. Hand selection. What are the minimum hand requirements that you use to steal? Harrington states that he likes to have at least some kind of hand just in case he is called. Is your minimum hand requirement influenced by position or is it fixed?

4. Opponents stack sizes and aggression? Does the stack size of the SB and BB influence your stealing? Is your decision different if the BB is short stack, medium stack or big stack? How does the aggresiveness of the SB and BB factor into your decision?

5.What do you do if re-raised? Instant fold or call based on pot odds? Aggressiveness, position or stack size of reraiser a factor in decison?

I hope that the above questions lead to a lively discusssion and thank you in advance to everyone who participates.