Stealing and Restealing

If you watch high-level players in a no limit Texas hold ‘em tournament, whether it's a virtual poker game or a live one, you'll see that the action often looks like this: everyone folds to someone in late position, who raises and everyone folds. This is a very common occurrence, especially once the blinds are big enough that they are worth stealing.

If players are stealing blinds that often, it means that sometimes they're doing it with marginal hands. If you're in a blind and you suspect that the raiser has a poor hand, the best play is often to reraise. If you just call, even if your hand is better before the flop, you risk letting the raiser improve her hand. Also, it will be harder to extract money if you do have a good hand since you'll have to act first in each betting round. So you often want to reraise before the flop, and raise enough that you have a good chance of winning the pot right there.