Short Stack Poker Tournament Strategy

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Short Stack Poker Tournament Strategy Rating: 7,0/10 7670 votes

With AK or AQ and a short stack, it’s time to put your tournament life on the line by raising all-in. It’s not such a bad deal even if you’re called. If you win, you’ll have $40,000 in front of you, and one more double-up after will put you right back in the hunt, along with the maneuvering room you wish you had right now. If you’ve got a short stack of chips then unfortunately it’s our job to inform you that you’re the hunted, not the hunter. The hunters in question are those with large stacks who will see you as an easy elimination target because there’s less between you and a knockout from the tournament than there is for them. Luckily, we’re here to teach you how to turn that around completely.

Short Stack Strategy in NL Cash Games

Short Stack Strategy A short stack strategy in Texas Hold’em isn’t usually going to be advisable. The exception to this rule will arise when you don’t really have a choice. For example, if your stack in a tournament has taken a beating, or even if it’s simply late in the event, you’ll be forced to maneuver a short stack. Having a deep stack, and therefore expanding an opening range to include a lot of speculative suited hands and small pairs is a tournament strategy that is going to be punished if a number of short stacks are yet to act behind. This most notably occurs in turbo tournaments where the average stack size is quite short.

It is a common misconception that short stack poker induces a simpler, more profitable experience for the beginner. Where as buying in for less than the maximum has its merits – it can be less damaging in the short-term for your bankroll and be a real money-spinner if your opponents fail to adjust – this article will address the fundamental flaws of short-stack poker. There’s a feeling that short-stack poker betrays some of the ‘essence’ of the game – from the 3-barrel bluffs to the changing of gears. It is somewhat reductionist, in the sense it limits the game to push/fold.

Main myth: Short stack strategy gives you the upper hand

Fundamental one: always assume, as students of the game, we have an edge over our opponents. Whilst that edge can be realised to an extent pre-flop, it can be much more potent on later streets. Why? Pre-flop encounters are subject to a lot more variance – a lot of heads-up play boils down to coin flips (pair v overcards – 99 v AK, unless your opponent is some LAG maniac who 4-bets with A9/o) . Even AQ v A5, you are only about 70% favourite. And yes, even AA v 22 you’re only a 4-1 favourite. So, from a financial perspective, playing all-in poker isn’t going to reap rewards against a half-decent opponent.

If you actually ‘play some poker’ and let the game unfold over several streets, you can maximise your edge. You can punish your opponent for chasing non-nut draws, and easily become as much as a 90%+ favourite if you flop a set to your opponent’s top pair, top kicker. You can also have him drawing dead with a higher flush / straight. Regarding the financial intricacies, our $ values increase on later-street bets, with river bets typically ten times larger than pre-flop wagers. For example;

You wake up to pocket queens on the button in a NL25 game, and boost it up to $1 pre-flop. The big blind flats with AJ/o, making you a 72% favourite and earning you approximately $0.33. The flop comes J T 3 rainbow, and you fire a pot sized bet – $2 into a $2 pot. Now an 80% favourite, this bet rakes you in $1.20.

A 3 bricks on the turn, and you bet $5 into a $6 pot, with your opponent electing to flat. Currently, you are 89% favourite and the bet earns you $3.90. The river is another 3, you move all in for $17, and your opponent calls. You win his remaining stack, $17.

So what are we saying? By playing out all the streets, you maximise your winnings – your pre-flop bets wins you only $0.33 but your river bet snaffles his stack. If you pushed pre-flop, your only expected to win $11, because of the chance of a suckout (by the river, there is no chance of this). So to conclude, deep stack poker, and playing all streets, enables you to extract maximum value from your premium hands and punish your opponent.

Other Points to Note:

Short-stack poker hinders your development as a player. The aspiration of any player should be to play deep-stack poker, where he can utilise more sophisticated plays, like 3-barrel bluffs, floats etc. It’s startling how many opponents crumble to even the most basic plays associated with deep-stack poker, i.e. the firm continuation bet. You can’t do this effectively as a short-stack. Deep-stack poker enables you to tell a story and outplay your opponents.

Furthermore, short-stack poker is higher variance, and acts as a greater tilt instigator. Psychologically, losing 5 buy-ins of NL50 can be much more damaging than losing a single $50 buy-in. It can also make you more frustrated, particularly in heads-up cash play. If you are card dead and your opponent is 3-betting you constantly pre-flop – when do you make a stand? In the end you have to make a stand with something raggy A6/o, and sod’s law dictates you are dominated.

There are, of course, still merits to playing short stack poker. It is ideal for ‘taking shots’ at a limit you aren’t properly rolled for. It can also be very aggravating for deep-stack players on a full ring table who can’t adapt. But if you want to become a proper scholar of the game, stick to deep-stack poker.

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Carlos Welch

Play Short Stack Poker Like a Pro

As tournament players, we constantly find ourselves in situations where we have to play short stack poker. For the purpose of this article, I will define a short stack as 25 big blinds or less when the average player we are up against has considerably more than this. The small stakes poker tournaments I play are often profitable because of mistakes others make when short-stacked — even those who are otherwise decent deep-stacked players.

Here are five of the most common blunders we see players make in poker tournaments on the Play WSOP site when short-stacked.

1. Limping in to see flops

Short Stack Poker Tournament Strategy

“I mean, do you just not like poker? You know it’s more fun if you see a flop every now and then!”

That statement was made to me after I’d shoved my 25-big blind stack over multiple limpers for the third time in a tournament I played at Planet Hollywood during the World Series of Poker this past summer. “You only have one move” was another one I frequently heard from players who did not understand how to adjust to shrinking stack sizes as the blinds increased. These guys wanted to get in cheaply with a speculative hand hoping to hit a flop, and I was the late-position party pooper who constantly ruined it for everybody.

From my point of view, these players would likely have raised rather than limped if they held good hands. This is a concept sometimes referred to as having a “capped range,” meaning that the very best hand they would choose to limp with rather than raise could only be so strong. Now, we’ve all seen guys limp and granted this is a concern from the first limper, but how many times have you seen a third guy limp behind with in a shallow-stacked game? If the first guy is a habitual limper and not particularly trappy, then it is usually safe to assume that everyone limping afterwards does so with capped ranges.

So what can I do with that knowledge when I have a 25-big blind stack? Say we’ve already reached the stage of the tournament when antes have been introduced and I’m in the big blind. A hand comes up with a couple of limpers plus a small blind who completes, meaning when the action gets to me there’s already about 5 big blinds in the pot. A shove here will take down the pot most of the time and add 20% to my stack.

This is a play I make often on the WSOP Social Poker game, including with relatively weak hands like medium-suited gappers or medium off-suit aces. While others are trying to hit flops with these hands, I am the young punk who is denying them that opportunity and winning pots without ever seeing the flop.

2. Not defending the big blind effectively

Playing a short stack well from the big blind can be a delicate balancing act. You cannot be too tight and you cannot be too loose. I see tons of players making mistakes in this position by leaning too far in either of these two directions. If I have a big stack and I notice a player is too tight from the big blind, I will raise him with a wide range and usually win preflop. If I notice that he is too loose, I also will raise him with a wide range, and usually win postflop when he calls and then folds to my continuation bet.

To prevent me from getting out of line here, the tight player should start to resteal by shoving all-in on me with a wide range. If I open to 2.5x the big blind, then his resteal will net him 5 BBs from the blinds and antes. There’s that 20% increase without ever seeing the flop again. Do that a few more times and you will have gained the same amount of chips as a double-up without having to win a flip.

If I am dealing with the loose player, I will have a slightly stronger range so she can’t resteal on me as widely as the tight player could. What she can do is check-shove me on some flops where I am automatically c-betting. Against a player like this, my c-betting percentage on the flop may be as high as 80-85%, so if she gets a decent piece of it, she should go with her hand against my over-aggressive range.

Strategy

3. Open shoving for too many chips

Short Stack Poker Tournament Strategy

Take care, though, not to be shoving your short stack too liberally. This is a mistake that I have made in the past and sometimes I still revert to it.

Let’s say it folds to me in middle-to-late position and I have 20-25 BBs with a hand like -offsuit or -suited. There might be a temptation to open-shove to keep from having to raise-fold such hands or try to play them postflop against a tricky player in the big blind. This is a mistake because it risks way too much for very little gain. In such a spot an all-in raise that gets everyone to fold would only earn me around 2.5 BBs.

Instead, I should take my chances with more standard raises if I expect the players behind to respond in a way that is profitable, or just fold if I expect those players to give me trouble with effective responses to my raises. Instead of taking marginal open-steal spots vs. good players, it is better to save my chips for restealing.

4. Restealing with no fold equity

Mtt Poker Tournament Strategy

If you have not played your 20-25 BB stack well, you will soon find yourself with a 10-15 BB stack once the blinds increase. At this point, even the tightest of players will realize that they are slipping closer to the desperation zone.

I’ve seen guys who were tight the whole tournament get tired of me raising their big blind and finally decide to take a stand and resteal for their last 10 big blinds with a hand like -offsuit. The problem for them, though, is if I have something like -offsuit or even -suited, I can call because with their short stacks I would only need around 35% equity against their range.

Short Stack Poker Tournament Strategy

“How can you call with that?” is a question I will hear in such situations. But had they made the same move when they had just a few more chips, I could not have called.

5. Blinding off

This is probably the worst mistake of all to make when short-stacked. If you have not played your 10-15 BB stack well, you will subsequently find yourself with less than 10 big blinds more than your fair share of times when the blinds go up. At this point, your options become very limited. You basically have to pick any decent hand and shove it. If you do not get a decent hand by the time you are down to around 5 big blinds, you may have to shove any two cards whenever there is a very tight player in in the big blind.

I remember a friend once telling me how he had folded -offsuit from middle position when he had 8 big blinds. Later when the blinds increased, he finally picked up and shoved his last 3 big blinds into a guy who called without even looking at his cards. He lost to and could not believe how badly he had run.

The truth of the matter is even if he’d won the hand, he still would have been in bad shape unless he’d found another premium hand very soon. Don’t be that guy.

Conclusion

Short Stack Poker Tournament Strategy Tactics

At some point, almost every poker tournament becomes shallow, even those great free tournaments on the WSOP Social Poker app. If you want to improve your play, you must learn how to play a short stack well. If you are primarily a cash game player who wants to play a tournament but you don’t have much experience with short stacks, you might occasionally play some sit-n-gos to work on these skills. In my opinion, short-stacked play is the most important aspect of tournament poker.

Online Poker Tournament Strategy

This article was originally published on September 14, 2014. Last update: July 22, 2019.

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