June 8, 2009 in Featured by Michigan Card Player

Short Stack Play

How do you define short stack? It is a very subjective thing. According to some it is when a player has a chip amount which is lower than 10 times the big blind and as per some it is when the chip amount is lower than 8 times the big blind.

All in all, one can say that if you have a low chip amount you need to make your move sooner than later. It is as if you are on a life support system. It is something only a few can handle and enjoy, as almost everyone would like to stay ahead of others and collect as many chips for surviving.

However being in a position of short stack is a frequent occurrence in poker tournaments due to suck-outs, a bad beat, bad cards, poor flops and other mistakes. Making minor strategy adjustments though could help you improve your results in such situations.

1. Being speculative should be last thing on your mind. Holding only a low pocket pair or suited connectors is bad, as you are taking a huge risk trying to hit a set or flush / straight draw with very miniscule chances and you don’t have sufficient number of chips to make it worthwhile. Moreover there is the risk of being re-raised which you can hardly afford. This is a all in for fold situation.

2. Don’t be luxurious so as to raise when having a short stack. Due to a short stack you no longer have the luxury to raise and then later fold when the flop misses your desired target. You might find yourself losing quite a few chips on out-kicked hands.

3. Don’t find yourself at zilch while going for the pot. If you are looking at winning the pot, by doubling up or stealing the blinds before being left with no chips, you run the risk of being left with nothing. The reason for that is say you have 6000 chips in 2000 chip pot, and you raise all in with the 6000 chips. It is least likely to draw a call compared to with say 4000 chips. If you do not have many chips as in the case of short stack, you certainly cannot accomplish the goal of scaring people away. Moreover trying to double up taking all the risk and still end up earning 3-4 times the blind is very much pointless.

4. Got the premium cards, make sure you are the first one into the pot. If the two factors: having very good, winnable cards and you being the only one in the pot as of that time; are present you should seriously consider pushing all in despite being short stack.

There might be situations you would not want to enter into. For new players looking to quadruple up in a 3 or 4 way pot, when they see a raise, they tend to re raise thinking it is their chance and the game is for them to win. However the truth is that in these such situations your hand has a good chance of being way behind and the chances of winning are rather slimmer than the slimmest. It is much better if you try and wait for a pot with no players in it at that point of time and then try and steal the blind.

No one likes to play on short stack, exceptions excluded; you still need to learn to play it correctly for you might be stuck with it in some tournament some time. Making the above mentioned small adjustments and changes in your strategies could yield favorable results for you and would lead you to better utilize the chips at your disposal.