Effective Ante-Stealing: Getting a Bang for Your Buck

Ante stealing is an essential part of any but the lowest-stakes seven-card stud game. It's not useful if your opponents are too bad or inexperienced to fold to a raise on third street. But at medium limits, if you're playing in a game in which your opponents are stealing antes and you aren't, you will eventually go broke. For example, if you're playing $10-$20 stud and the 3 to your right brings in the bet for $3 and you complete the bet to $10 with (Q 6) K and all the other players including the 3 fold, you have successfully carried out an ante steal. You raised as a bluff to win the $13 pot, and you succeeded. Congratulations!

How do you know when to attempt this move? Some players attempt it nearly every time they have a scare card. If they have the highest upcard on third street, they will raise in an effort to win the pot. In a very tight game, this may be the right approach. If all of the other players are very timid and unlikely to enter a pot without a hand they are sure is the best hand, a raise from a player with a higher upcard may be sufficient to cause them to fold on third street. Few games are this tight, however.

Other players attempt an ante steal only when they're the last one in the hand after everyone else has folded to the bring-in bet. So, if the 3 brings in the bet, the next six players fold, and you're the last player with only the bring-in to beat, you'd raise in an attempt to win the pot. Few games justify playing this cautiously, however.

I find that these methods are much too simplistic to be worthwhile for the typical game. You don't want to do anything all the time – especially when the success of what you are doing depends on deceiving your opponents. When you are ante stealing, you are, after all, trying to convince your opponents that your hand is much stronger than it really is. If you become automatic with your ante steals, it won't take too long for the better players to figure out exactly what you are doing and then punish you by taking countermeasures every time you make your steal attempt.

For example, if you get into the habit of raising every time you have the highest upcard on third street, your opponents will figure out, before too long, that your raises don't indicate strength. They will then start reraising you as a counterbluff, putting you in the uncomfortable position of being in for two bets or folding. Similarly, if you habitually raise from last position when everyone has folded, you will start finding yourself being reraised by the bring-in, causing the same dilemma you faced above.

Let's look at a specific hand and see why an ante steal made sense.

I was in a $20-$40 game at Foxwoods, facing a lineup of fairly tight-aggressive regulars, an excellent player, and a couple of loose bad players. It was about 3 a.m. No one was playing especially creatively. They were mostly on autopilot – as players get after sitting for many hours. No one was on tilt. The very strong player was to my immediate right. He was the bring-in with the 2. I had (A 6) K. I saw around me, starting with my left, the 3, 9, J, J, Q, and 4. The J and the 3 were the loose players. The rest were fairly tight and aggressive.

My image was very tight. I played very few hands and had folded about eight hands in a row leading to this hand. I had a larger than average stack size. I had been quietly and slowly burning through my stack with antes and bring-ins. The regulars knew me as a tight and aggressive player – given to taking few chances and rarely getting out of line. The one decent starting hand I had in the previous hour, a pair of aces on the deal, collected only the antes and bring-in when everyone folded to my completion to $20.

My current hand, with a king as my doorcard, presented an excellent opportunity for an ante steal. I reasoned that my king, as the highest upcard, would scare many of the players who would conclude that I had a pair of kings. They might well fold a lower pair. Even the two loose players seemed more likely than normal to fold – given the very low upcard of one and the duplicated upcard of the other. Although they were bad loose players, they weren't blind or drunk. So, I figured they too were likely to fold.

There was another important consideration. I had two premium cards that were not duplicated on the board, an ace and a king. Each of these cards was completely live. They presented me with the additional edge of possibly improving to the best hand on fourth street if one or more players called me here on third street. In other words, I had two ways to win with this hand. It was a bluff with a backup plan. I could win on third street with a bluff – if all of my opponents folded. And, I could win on fourth street (or later) if I paired my king or my ace, thus improving to the best hand. This is commonly known as a semibluff.

I'd also be taking advantage of my image as a tight player. Had I been known as a loose or wild player who frequently raised even without a premium hand, my raise might not have made much sense – since my more observant opponents would tend not to credit me with a hand. They might be inclined, if they had any pair, to call me or even reraise me, presuming their hand was superior.

Some players might resist attempting an ante steal from such early position. Remember, the bring-in was to my immediate right. All of the other players had yet to act. To succeed, I had to convince every other player at the table to fold. This is generally much harder to do than to attempt an ante steal from late position after several players have already folded. It's usually easier to bluff one or two players on third street than to bluff all seven players.

In fact, generally speaking, ante steals work better from late position. It's better, usually, to wait for an opportunity to bluff out only a couple of players yet to act – or better still, only the bring-in.

But better players know this, which is part of the wonderful ambiguity of poker. Since most good players understand that it's easier to steal the antes after several players have folded, they also tend to suspect an ante steal when it's made from late position. They are more likely to credit an early-position raise as being a value bet – since they know that you know that a bluff is less likely to succeed. So, by making the raise from early position, I am demonstrating to the better players that I am more likely to really have what I am representing and less likely to be bluffing.

Following similar reasoning, it is sometimes advantageous, against good opponents, to attempt an ante steal when you don't have the highest doorcard – when, for example, you have a king and there is an ace left to act. While it's true that it's usually less likely that the ace will fold to a raise from a king – and while it's also true that the player with the ace may have a pair of aces and reraise you – good players will tend to assume that your raise really means you have that pair of kings.

Here's one last thought: You need to consider the ratio of antes and bring-ins to the initial bet to fully appreciate the efficacy of your ante-steal attempt.

The conventional size of the initial pot in a full eighthanded $20-$40 game is $29: a $3 ante from each player plus the $5 bring-in bet. Your successful attempt wins you $29 for your $20 wager, a ratio of 1.45-to-1. This makes the ante steal in a conventional $20-$40 game much more attractive than it is in a conventional $10-$20 game, where your $10 wager wins you only $13, a ratio of 1.3-to-1. All things being equal, the larger this ratio, the more you want to attempt an ante steal. Simply put, when it comes to stealing antes, you want the most bucks for your bang!

Editor's note: Ashley Adams plays winning poker all over the world, but can be found most often in the middle-limit seven-card stud games at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut.