Restealing can be a valuable strategy for keeping players on edge in tournaments
While playing Sit & Gos and multi-table tournaments (MTT) in poker, a good tactic you could use to apply some pressure to your opponent is the resteal. This is the act of re-raising when a player raises preflop in order to attempt to take down the pot. Resteal – or adjust to resteals – can bring you many benefits during tournaments, as it is a very profitable tactic and a good way to build up your stack.
It is worth mentioning that a resteal can be profitable but only depending on whom are you restealing from.
This, of course, involves that you don’t get overly excited about this tactic and abuse it. Also, make sure that you have enough fold equity, so even if you are called after the re-raise you still have equity in the hand. For instance, if your opponent folds 50% of the time and when he or she calls you, you have 40% equity, it will mean that you have chances of winning the pot seven times out of every ten, which is not bad at all. One thing to consider, though, is that this tactic is mostly used when the stack sizes are right – around 15-20 big blinds.
Making the decision of when to use this strategy is influenced by many factors, but one rule of thumb is to make sure that the pot is worth it – at least 10-20% of your stack. That means that if you have 1,000 chips and the opponent is making a raise for 200 chips, it could be a good and effective way to increase your stack.
Among the other factors to keep in mind when attempting to resteal is your position and your opponent’s position at the table: if he is opening from under the gun, restealing might not be the brightest idea as the opponent’s range might be too narrow.
