Abstaining From the Norm (Part 1 of ???)

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

~ Albert Einstein

There are a number of classic situations that you will witness anytime you have a seat at a poker table. You know who is going to do what, know when they're going to do it, and know how they're going to do it... but do you do anything to stop this pattern? No. Instead you let it slip, and your opponent is the one raking in the chips instead of you. You may not realize it, but within those classic situations are opportunities that can be exploited for profit. Today I will go into the preflop button/cutoff steal that is inevitable at even the most novice of tables.

In this situation UTG will kick things off with a fold, and everybody will follow suit and muck around to the cutoff. With almost any semi-decent hand, the CO/button will raise to 3x or 4x the BB (and rightfully so might I add). Once he does, there is a very good chance that he will take down the pot uncontested, as he only needs the two or three players behind him to fold.

Before we get into how this basic move can be countered, let's look at why it is so easy for the button and cutoff to steal and get away with it as often as they do:

1. Five or six players have already acted in front of him, and all have made their decision to throw away their hand. The CO/button have no fear of anybody slowplaying him with a monster hand.
2. The only player who can possibly have position on the CO is the button. Nobody can possibly have position on the button. Once the CO raises, the button is less likely to get involved (as is any other player). Once the button raises, the blinds aren't likely to get involved.
   
3. Two of the CO's three potential opponents (the small blind and the big blind) would be playing this hand out of position if they were to call the PF raise. All of the button's opponents would be playing OOP if they called. So to an even further extent, people are less likely to be calling when they have no chance of gaining position.
   

Those are the reasons why the CO/button should, and probably do steal often when the table folds around to them. And guess what? They know why they're doing it, and they knows that you know why they're doing it. However, once we're through today we'll be able to keep these CO players in check.

You can approach the CO/button steal machine a number of ways:

1. Make a PF raise from the seat to the right of the CO: In a way, you're extending the "stealing position" from just the button and CO to the button, the CO, and the seat right before the CO (aka CO +1). The CO+1 seat is not normally seen as a "stealing" position, and that makes this play deceptive. The downfall to this is that you're vulnerable to a reraise from two seats that have better position than you; but you won't often see this at most tables.
2. If you are on the button, reraise: You will narrow your opponents' (that includes the blinds') calling range down to the most narrow of ranges, and you will have the best seat at the table throughout the hand post-flop. The reason I don't advise you to just call is because doing so increases the chances that the blinds will also call. Instead of then having the chance to go head-to-head with one opponent, you now are potentially facing three. There is no downfall to reraising preflop on the button as long as you are ready to follow through with that aggression OTF.
   
3. If you are sitting in the blinds, reraise: This is the most deceptive of all the moves because people NEVER expect the blinds to reraise unless they were strong. You can raise with almost any hand here, and you will get away with it more often than you think. The con of this play is that you will start to play some medium-sized pots OOP if your opponents called, which can be a problem if not handled correctly.

So there you have it... that is how you should deal with players who frequently steal from the CO or from the button. If you have any further questions/comments, please leave them in the "Comments" section at the bottom of this post.