Steal

A steal is a bluff attempt where a player raises with a weak hand in hopes of winning the pot uncontested. The most common application of this term is when describing a button or cutoff raise made to try and pick up blinds.

Stealing is a standard part of poker strategy, especially in No Limit Texas Hold’em. Players in late position will frequently raise to attack players in the blinds, as these players have to post chips without looking at their cards, so they often have weak hands that can’t stand up to a raise.

Another term that often appears together with this one is re-steal. This is when another player at the table, usually one of the blinds, re-raises the steal attempt. Since the button raise is often done with a weak hand in the first place, a re-steal can be quite efficient as a defensive resource.

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