MTT - how to deal with the aggressive blind stealer

[chrisbruce]

15 players left in a MTT (7 on your table)  and you have just made the money having played for several hours. You have average chips of 40k with blinds of 1k 2k and a 400 running ante. On your right you have an aggressive blind stealer who has been raising nearly every hand. When somebody looked him up he had the goods and now has a 120k stack. he is now raising every hand to 7k and your stack has dwindled  down from a heathy 60k to an average 40k. you have been unable to play back at him as you have only had junk hands. Your image is tight solid.

on the basis that you continue to pick up only junk what is the best course of action? Or was the error made earlier by not playing back at him without a hand when you had more chips and his tactics were clear to all?

[AlexMartin]

Id rather make a bigger resteal earlier when the stack sizes are more favourable for a move.

[LuckyLloyd]

Lets say it folds to him in the cutoff or hijack. If he opens for 7k the pot will now be 1k + 2k (blinds) + 2800 (Antes) + 7k (Raise) = 12800. Therefore if you take what is in there it increases your stack by more than 25%.

If this guy opens every time it folds to him in late position; I would push any two cards the next time he does it. Just shove, and see how he likes it. He won't have a hand that can call the vast majority of the time. And he'll probably fold some decent hands if your image is very tight.

Bear in mind that when you get to 20BBs or less in a tournament your focus should be on looking for a spot to shove all - in over a raise. It is much better to do this because it earns you more rounds of the table than a simple blind steal and it is quite a difficult tactic to counter. The reality is that even tightish players will have more hands that they will openraise / fold with than openraise / call a 20BB shove with. To be honest, having the type of player you describe to your right is a godsend at the late stages of a tournament.

[chrisbruce]

Ty Lloyd that is very sound advice. Probably like most of the players on the table I didnt want to shove and it  be the time he woke up with a hand. This is obviosly what he was playing on though. There was a lot of cash at stake on the final table.
It really did feel like a horrible spot to be in at the time.
for the record I managed 7th which felt good in relation to the cards I got near the end.

One option I did consider though was to mini raise representing a monster. i.e. perhaps to 14k

In this case I have to call any reraise pre flop as I am committed

if I am flat called I would shove on any flop checked to me and pass to a flop bet if I have missed,

In the end I decided that would be a bad play though.

[LuckyLloyd]

Shoving maximises your folding equity. Also remember that there will be players behind you yet to act. You want them to fold too. I know that there is a fear factor when it comes to sticking all your chips on the line and we all prefer to do it when we are 100% sure we have the best hand / or have a very strong hand.

Unfortunately we won't ever get enough cards for such tentative play to work. Identifying spots like this where your actual holding is irrelevant is a key to achieving consistent results.