The Re-steal
If there’s one significant difference between live and online poker, it’s the speed of the game. Everything is faster with the online game; rate of hand play, bankroll swings and even game evolution. Trends in play change faster in online poker, and if you want to be successful you’ll need to stay ahead of how most players are playing. The top players understand the styles of today’s online poker player, and they use that knowledge to control most games in which they’re playing.
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It’s no secret that online poker is more aggressive than the average live game. Players need to bet more often to find out where they stand, since physical tells are nonexistent, so betting is how they glean their information.
One common area where we see this aggression is pre-flop. Most players in a late position will put in a steal raise in a live game, but online that steal could come from just about anywhere on the table. Because these raises are so common online, top players will look to re-steal any time they suspect that the original raiser is trying to make a move at the pot.
To combat this play you have to recognize that a particular player is indeed using it against you. By watching hands at showdown when that player hits for a winner, you can recognize that he will re-raise with weak cards when someone else has tried to steal the blinds. This play is so common now that it does the opposite of what it’s intended to do. Instead of telling players that the re-raiser’s hand is strong, it now often implies that it’s weak.
Once you have a player pegged as a re-stealer, you can push the aggression back at him or her when the setting is right. Coming back over these players pre-flop, or playing flops aggressively that have big cards in it, will often regain control of the hand for you and scare off the opponent that is trying to re-steal.
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