Poker: Raise Sizes when Stealing

When you are making a raise with the intention of winning the blinds without showdown, then it is known in the game as stealing the blinds. If this is your plan, then it is likely that the hands that you are using are at the bottom end of your range. 

If you had stronger hands, then any self-respecting poker tips website would be telling you to get your opponent to call, not fold.

So, if you are raising with the bottom end of your range, you are going to be folding your hand a large percentage of the time if you get called and find yourself staring at a flop. 

With this in mind, it pays to be raising for the lowest amount possible. A smaller raise means you are risking far less for exactly the same reward. 

Although this seems simple in theory, it is a lot more complicated in practice. To make your raise sizes small with only your weak hands makes you exploitable. So theoretically, if you are going to raise small then your entire range needs to be the same. 

But if you are raising small, then you are likely to receive more callers; worse than that, you are probably going to receive multiple callers in poker live events.

So, you have a conundrum on your hands. That’s poker. One way of balancing your play could be to make min-raises from the button and 2.5x-3x from all other positions. 

This means you only have the small and big blind to get through and even if you get a call you contiue to the flop with position

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