Blind stealer @ FTOPS Main Event

[Hallett]

A friend of mine emailed me this hand, and asked for my comments. He was basically sure the villain was stealing the blinds, and with a hand as strong as QQ, he wanted to try to get a bit more value, as just re-raising would make the guy fold if he was indeed stealing. I can see that argument, but I prefer to re-raise, and build a pot. He might have something, and by not re-raising, you lose value when he actually has a hand, and you get to avoid him hitting the flop when he does not have a hand. What do you folks do when you have a strong hand against a steal?

About 2 hours into FTOPS, average stack is something like 8K, and the table thinks my buddy is tight, but the stealer is new to the table, and does not know that. Also, my buddy said he had no read whatsoever on the opponent.

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t120/t240
(Ante: t25)
9 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
UTG: t5963
UTG+1: t5135
MP1: t26330
MP2: t19860
MP3: t28401
CO: t8670
Button: t4480
Buddy: t13980
BB: t1880

Pre-flop: (9 players) Buddy is SB with Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] Q[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]
5 folds, <font color="#cc0000">CO raises to t720</font>, Button folds, Buddy calls t600 <font color="aaaaaa">(pot was t1305)</font>, BB folds.

[KneeCo]

Sure he's opening a wide range but without a read there is no reason to be "sure" he's stealing.

I'd rather repop than play OOP against someone I have no read on. However calling isn't criminal or anything, and one factor possibly in favor of calling in this hand is that the player with 1880 in the big blind may shove a fair number of hands.

[THEOSU]

i mix up calling and raising here.

the big reason you call is that you want to get all of the CO's chips in on a raggy flop.