WTF is going on here?
When it is 100% clear that there is 4 big blinds of free money lying on the ground and our villains are very face up with their preflop limping ranges and we have a good handle on what type of raise will fold them out, then I'm raising with ATC to steal. in 2/5nl I'd raise $40 since I know that will 100% clear the field. Now, if I have a normal strong hand then I raise for value, $20 - $25 to get a caller or two. Otherwise, I just steal the money with a $40 or even $45 raise.
Now, if I have a strong image and am fairly confident my villains are folding however there is the possibility I may pick up a sheriff, then I will tighten my stealing range to 60% and raise with basically ANY playable combination of cards: SCs, S1Gs, S2Gs, S3Gs, and two gaper and one gaper connectors 64+, 65+, any Ace, Q9+, any two broadways.
Lastly, I'm cognizant of my image, steal plays like this are all about image and having your villains dialed in and keeping a mental record of how often you have raised.
Villains have a "calling" threshold. If you have been showing big hands down lately they will fold to you more often. If you haven't raised in a while, they will fold to you more often.
In fact, sometimes if I've been card dead for a while I will raise to cash in on that percieved nittiness equity. So I raise with J8o, they fold. I raise a little later with T8o, they fold but now they are folding a bit more hesitantly like they almost want to call but think better of it. Now I know that the next time I raise I'm going to get looked up lighter. So then I can tighten up a bit, get AJ raise, and NOW i get some callers since I appear to be splashing around too much.
This is helpful because there is nothing worse than being card dead for 30 or 40 minutes, and then you pick up QQ raise, and everyone snap folds to you
So i'm cognizant of how often i've been raising always making sure to cash in on the nit equity i've built up during periods of card deadness or strong image if i've recently been showing down monsters. Otherwise, there is nothing worse than getting a big hand, raising, then everyone folds to you
luckily, that almost never happens to me
Lastly, thought it might be better to try to quantify the above. I'd say on average, I do the above maybe once every 3 or 4 orbits from the blinds ONLY in situations in which I'm highly confident of success. If there is an unknown player or a short stack that limped then I don't do it with ATC. But if you are paying attention, the situations where there is free money lying on the ground waiting to be picked up are all around you if you know what to look for. Especially in those "lets build a pot" dink raised limp fest multiway pots. Granted, those require that you lift up your skirt, grab your balls, and push a stack in...
Last edited by dgiharris; 12-26-2014 at 12:03 AM.