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Many players believe that stealing the ante is an essential part of the game. We do not believe that stealing the ante is appropriate in most cases, but first let's define stealing.

Those who believe in stealing, mostly attempt it when they have a big upcard, regardless of what they have in the hole. The reasoning goes that the remaining players probably don't have much either and if they do, hopefully they will "respect" the raise by the big upcard and fold.

However, there is a problem with this. Some players are simply loose and they just don't "respect" a raise by a big upcard, period. If they feel like playing their hand, they will play it. Obviously, people who play like this are losers. But if you are up against such players, attempting to steal is just as bad as the bad player who defends against the steal no matter what the cost. If he wants to splash his money around, don't emulate him by doing the same. Remember the definition of a steal is "in hopes of collecting the ante". Since there isn't a good chance to do so, don't attempt a steal.

Some players are good and they know that you're pretty much raising blindly. They will therefore play their hand if they have anything playable, thereby lowering their standards considerably. They will also play their hands well, reraising you with their stronger hands such as when they have a pair, thereby preventing you from seeing fourth street for free when your steal fails.

Thirdly, there is a chance that your opponent has a real hand -such as a premium pair o big flush draw- which he would have played even if he thought your raise was legit. This chance is minute but your steal attempt is guarenteed to fail if this is the case and you will most likely be unable to improve enough to continue playing beyond fourth street. You are simply throwing your money away if you have nothing but a big upcard.

The real problem with stealing in most games is that the ante and bring-in is just not big enough to make it profitable to try to steal. Let's take a typical middle limit stud game of 10-20. The ante is $1 and the bring-in is $3. There is only $11 in the pot when action gets to you. When you are completing the bet, you are risking $10 to try to win $11; that's just a bad bet. Your chances of succeeding have to be considerably higher when your return is so puny and you usually don't have enough of a chance to succeed to justify the steal-attempt. Mathematically, you should pick up the pot right away half the time you try to steal in a 10-20 game in order to show a profit (10/21=.48).

Now let's take a 20/40 game. The antes are $3 and the bring in is $5 putting a toal of $28 in the pot when action gets to you. Here, you must be successful 42% of the time (20/48) in order to make it correct. As you can see, it becomes more profitable to steal here.

Now let's contrast this to a no-ante game such as 1-3. If you are raising the $1 bring-in to $3 as a steal, you must be successful more than 3/4 times (since you are betting $3 to win $4) in order for it to be correct. In a 1-3 game it is literally NEVER correct to steal since there are no proper odds and the players there just play with anything.

Are you able of picking up the pot right away half the time in a 10-20 game when the remaining players know you're stealing? Remember to take all three considerations mentioned above into account! I think that in a typical game the answer is no. Therefore, I believe, it is incorrect to try to steal in a 10-20 game.

Again, the definition of stealing is raising with a hand that has absoutely no value such as 2h,4c,Qs. If your hand does have some value such as Js,9c,Qs then that's a different story. As a matter of fact, go ahead and raise with this hand in late position if you think there's a good chance of getting called by a bad player with hands that are quite worse than this one. In such a case it is mandatory to raise with this hand thereby inducing a bad player to lower his calling standards way more than he should since he knows that you're stealing.

However, there is an important "advertising value" inherent in a raise that comes from a player who steals often. Observant good players will give him good action with weak hands when he happens to stumble upon a strong hand in late position. Since they figure he's stealing, observant players will lower their standards considerably and perhaps play a small pair all the way to the river. This is an incredible advantage to the stealer who's holding a big pair this time and may have already made two-pair on fifth street but is still getting called and perhaps raised by a small pair.

You should therefore take you table image into account when considering whether to steal or not. If you are considered a tight player or if everyone knows that you never steal, your mid-late position raises will get no action. In such a case, you could sometimes raise with absolutely nothing and see what happens. If you get called and you catch nothing on fourth street while your opponent catches strong, you will check and fold and everyone will know that it was a steal. You have thus changed your table image for a modest fee.