Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em

I'm a little confused. In "Small Stakes No-Limit Holdem" the authors tout the benefits of blind stealing. Several pages are devoted to blind stealing under various situations. In general, the reader is encouraged to develop a blind-stealing strategy.

However, in "No Limit Hold 'Em, Theory and Practice" (Miller & Sklansky) blind stealing seems to be downplayed. Page 290: "In no limit…. blind stealing becomes far less important in general [than limit holdem]….  When you can hope to win 50 or 100 times more, you might not want to steal the blinds at all…. If everyone folds to you on the button, and you raise, ususally you're doing it because you want to build a pot while you have position, not because you want to win the paltry blind money."

Okay, I recognize that the co-authors are different, but the concept of blind stealing (and whether or not to do it) appear to be quite different in these two books. Am I missing something? Has Ed changed his views on blind stealing?

Thanks…. Terry

This book focuses on cash 6 max games, where stealing is much more important than in full ring games or tournaments. The Sklansky/Miller book focuses more on general theory, and the passage you cite is about deep stack NL. Cash 6 max games are often played with smaller effective stacks.