Short Stack Poker Strategy. For a guide to beating short stack poker players, check out the 'Crushing Shortstackers' concept video. There are always going to be times in your poker career where you will find yourself as the short stack at the table and probably having a smaller stack than the rest of your opponents. It may be because you are in the middle of a tournament.
Most cash game players tend to be drawn to 100BB full-stacked play, but this is not the only option if you want to be profitable cash game player. At the ZOOM tables the minimum buy in is 50BB. At regular cash tables we have the option of buying in for 40BB, and if you desire even shorter play, PokerStars offers CAP tables available with a maximum effective stack of 20BB.
I have already presented a set of reason as to why full stacked play is attractive to many players in this article. My purpose here, is not to convince you that short-stacking is a better objective choice, but to suggest a few reasons why you might be more suited to it as a player so that you can consider all of your options when choosing your main game.
Firstly, short-stacking simplifies the game tree enormously. This allows you to become a strong short-stacker much faster than you could master 100BB play.
Secondly, players are not used to facing short-stacking regulars. In other words, most of the players who use a shorter stack are weaker players who mishandle a 40 or 50BB stack, treating it as though it is much larger. As a result, regs will treat you like a weaker player at first and may misplay hands significantly. This advantage only exists in games where people normally play full-stacked. Hopping on to a CAP table will not surprise anyone since everybody there has chosen to play with a shorter stack. Consequently, solid short-stacked play can be a strong surprise weapon.
Finally, playing with a short stack reduces your variance because you avoid 120BB coin flips and 200BB deep set over set scenarios. No one can be too unhappy about this.
I have chosen to focus on 40BB stacks today as they are the standard choice for players who do not wish to play Zoom. In order to run a 40BB stack make sure that you do the following:
With that out of the way let’s talk a little strategy about how to wield the 40BB short-stack in cash games.
The idea here is to make life awkward for our 100BB engrained opponents. Let’s imagine that one of them opens the BU to 2.5BB (the most common modern BU raise size) and we decide we would like to 3-Bet some hand; it does not matter what. Our goal here is to achieve three things:
At 40BB, no size will make the first option viable for Villain so we can focus on the other two. If we were to raise to 10BB, it would be too easy for Villain to toss in the other 30BB and need very little fold equity from us for some weaker shoves to become quite profitable. If we raised to 5BB he would be able to call almost anything very profitably. The correct 3-Bet size for us here, then, is around 7BB. This will strike a nice balance between preventing Villain calling with poor hands – since there will not be enough left behind to compensate him when he gets lucky – and limiting the effectiveness of his shove – since he will be risking 37.5BB to win 10BB; a less than stellar risk to reward ratio.
At 40BB stack-depth, when opening the pot from, let’s say the HJ (MP in a 6-max game), we are going to favour bigger cards more and avoid implied odds type hands such as small pocket pairs that need a bigger pay out than the stacks allow to become profitable. A hand like AJo, for example, goes up in value because off-suit big cards flop the best hand quite often and do very well when a small to medium amount of money goes in post-flop. When 100BB deep, the disadvantage to a hand like AJo is how easily it can be dominated and lose a very big put due to what is known as its reverse implied odds – the idea that if a lot of money goes in our one pair is quite likely to lose vs. most opponents. As a result of implied odds hand becoming worse, and big cards becoming stronger at 40BB, I would cut hands such as [22-55, A2-A5s, 76s 87s 98s] from my opening range here, replacing them with hands I would fold at 100BB stack depth such as: [QJo, A9o, KTo, JTo]. Flush and set potential is simply less important at 40BB stack depth, while hitting the flop as often as possible in a reasonably strong way becomes the main goal.
With respect to sizing, our job is similar to when we were the 3-bettor. We are trying to prevent Villain from having a comfortable re-raise size against our open. We noted previously that when he opened to 2.5BB, we had a comfortable 3-Bet to 7BB that met our aims – so we shall avoid that sizing as the opener. If we use a 3.5BB raise instead, Villain will really struggle to find a good 3-Bet size. 7.5-8BB is very easy for us to call with almost anything we have opened, while anything that approaches 10BB will give us a very juicy risk to reward ratio on a shove. A size to really cause our opponents bother at 40BB stacks then is a larger one of 3.5BB. This will practically force players to shove or fold against us which makes our life very simple. Many 100BB players will shove too tight against our opens, increasing our EV in steal spots.
Our mission here is to stack off with plenty of good one pair hands and apply pressure with bluffs when we hold cards that make it less likely for Villain to hold a strong one pair. Sets, straights and flushes are overkill on most boards. We are not waiting around for these hands to value bet three times. Again, we should become very aware of the stack to pot ratio that our short stack creates and expect to gain an edge by sizing bets and raises much more proficiently than our opponents, who are not used to doing battle in this shallower arena.
Try it out and see what you think. Short-stacking is definitely not for everybody, but for those who like it, it provides a nice way of unsettling the competition. Short stackers are somewhat of a dying breed and so becoming one is good way to put a cat amongst the pigeons.
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Knowing how to play a short stack optimally is often the difference between a winning and a losing player. Cash game players spend the majority of their time sitting behind a big or deep stack. Tournament players have to contend with rising blinds, which continually alters their stack size. MTT grinders do not have the option to add to their stack when they lose a pot, cash players do.
A short stack is the same regardless of you playing cash games or tournaments. Most online poker tournaments start with 100 or 200 big blind stacks. The blinds constantly increase meaning your stack size dwindles if you do not win any pots.
Any stack that is 20 big blinds or less is getting into short stack territory. Ten big blinds or less is definitely short, while under 10 big blinds sees you on life support.
Playing poker tournaments with a short stack is far from an optimal situation for three main reasons. The first is any mistake is likely to end your participation in the tournament. No-limit hold’em players know they risk losing their entire stack each time they play a hand. This risk is far greater when you have fewer chips at your disposal.
Your expected value is far less when you have a short stack in front of you, too. Flopping a set massively increases your chances of winning a sizeable pot, but it will be far smaller than if you were a big stack.
Perhaps the most limiting factor of being a short stack is your play is restricted. By all means continue playing like you have heaps of chips, but you are not playing optimally. Most professionals poker players like to be offered odds of at least 10-to-1 before calling a raise with a small or medium pair hoping to flop a set. This is because the odds of flopping a set are around 7.5-to-1 and you do not always get paid off with full stacks.
You simply do not have the correct implied odds to try flop a set when you are short stacked. The same is true for chasing flush and straight draws.
The negatives of being short stacked outweigh the positives, but there are some of the latter. Playing with a short stack can be more straightforward with less taxing decisions to make. Mistakes are less costly, in terms of chips, when you are a short stack.
Bigger stacks are more likely to pay you off with your big hands because your short stack cannot damage them too much. Being dealt aces, kings or queens is the thing dreams are made off when you are not armed with many chips!
Between 15 and 20 big blinds is when you are considered to be in short stack territory. You have now lost the ability to set mine and profitably chase draws. It is also a good idea to not raise with a hand that you are not prepared to go all-in with. This is because raise-folding reduces your stack by a large percentage and you are short to begin with.
All is not lost, however, because you still have a powerful move in your arsenal: the three-bet all-in. This works best with 15-20 big blinds and is exactly what it sounds like. A player opens with a raise and you re-raise all-in instead of calling or making a typical three-bet. The reason you move all-in is because you are priced in to call if you make a standard re-raise.
For example, a player on the button raises 2.5 big blinds and you have 18 big blinds in your short stack. You decide this is the time to make a move and three-bet to eight big blinds, leaving 10 big blinds behind. Your opponent moves all-in, meaning you have to call off your 10 big blinds to win 22 big blinds. There are almost no hands you should not be calling here getting almost 2-to-1 on your bet. It is much better to raise all-in as the aggressor because you give yourself an additional chance to win the pot. You can either raise all-in and win the pot uncontested when your opponent folds, or have the best hand at showdown when you are called.
Likewise, you can raise all-in when first to act, especially when you are in late position or in the small blind. Try making these moves against stack that have the most to lose if they lose the hand. Fellow short stacks and big stacks are a no go area (unless you have a legitimate hand). Medium-sized stacks are perfect targets.
You now only have one move left to you: moving all-in. There is no more standard raising or calling, all you can do is shove and hope for the best. Still, be aware of your position at the table and be tighter in early position than in late position. But when you bet, make sure it is for all your chips.
The only slight exception to the rule is when you have a tiny stack of say 3-to-5 big blinds. Here, you need to be more selective about which hand you push all-in with because you are being called. Also, satellite tournaments are another exception as you can often fold hands as strong as aces in specific circumstances.
Accumulating chips is the only way to avoid being short stacked. Do not panic if you suddenly become a short stack. Bide your time, play your hands aggressively and know you are only one or two double-ups from being back in contention.