[jimmytheg]

The problem with only trying to steal from the button is that strong players know the button is a steal position, and will defend their blinds by smooth calling or playing back at you with garbage.

Late in online multitable tournies, Im talking about down to the last 5 or ten percent of people left, the average stack is usually somewhere between 5 to 7 rounds...i.e. small and big blind (plus antes on some sites) together. Stealing blinds is absolutely CRITICAL at this point if you wish to survive and not get blinded away. And not just taking the blinds steals, realizing that someone is trying to steal the blinds and restealing from them is a monster play that usually results in at least 5 rounds of bets.

That's my perferred play, the resteal. Because it accomplishes the task of 2 to 3 blind steals, and has less of a chance of being called to begin with. Also, when i do get a big stack, I'm more willing to smoothcall a raise preflop when I have position. That's because I like playing after the flop though, Im not really advising it for the most part. With position, against a smaller stack who isnt desperate and has chips to play on with, seeing a flop gives you oppourtunities to take the pot away a lot. When faced with a raise after the flop, it's very easy for your opponent to find ways that he is beat and lay down his hand.

And to be clear, I'm not advising doing this a lot, because you wont have too. A couple of these plays with discretion will go along way to buliding your stack and rolling along to the final table, which is the only place you wanna be