Poker Short Stack Strategie
Short Stack Strategy Poker Short Stack Strategy While short stack poker (aka shove poker) is not necessarily the most popular form of poker it can be quite profitable for those who perfect their short stack strategy. The term 'short stacking' typically refers to players in a cash game who buy-in for the minimum amount possible. The game theory optimal strategy when short-stacked on the button is to min-raise all your best hands while shoving with the upper-middle part of your range. For instance, you’ll min-raise your pairs and broadway hands because they flop well, and you can usually get calls from the blinds. If you plan on following my basic strategy, which I call a generalized short-stack strategy, you should choose a poker room that has very loose players (ones that like to gamble at the poker table). In my experience, the loosest players are generally found at rooms that also offer casino games or sports betting. Short Stack Poker is NOTHING like Bingo! This is 1 of the 150+ Classes from PokerCoaching Premium. Check out to learn more!
This is about a near game theory optimal (GTO) strategy for short stack no limit holdem.
If you play in the $1/$2 no limit holdem game at the California Commerce Casino, the buyin is $40 or 20 big blinds (20BB). If you play online for real money at Blck Chip Poker, Americas Cardroom, or Bovada, the minimum buyins range between 20-40 big blinds. These may be considered to be short stacked games. The fast foldem holdem games at Bovada seem to be 50BB for a buyin.
Except for the first few rounds, most people in a tournament are short stacked most of the time.
There are some misconceptions about big stacks. Big stacks hold no intrinsic advantage over small stacks in cash no limit hold 'em games - see Ed Miller's Getting Started in Hold 'em.
There may be psychological aspects to having a particlular stack size.
This is just a continuum really. The smaller the stack, the fewer hands we can play. The deeper the stack, the more hands we can play in general. In particlular, in when we have a short stack, we do not play any come hands like 76 suited. All of our hands will have value (i.e. pair value or high card value).
We consider a short stack to be 25 big blinds (25BB) or less.
We will use Ed Miller's Short Stack Opening Strategy from our textbook.
Opening
When no one has entered the pot except the blinds
- Early position: TT+, AK
- Middle position: 99+, AQ+
- Late position: 77+, AT+, KQ
Entering the pot when someone has raised
If there is one raise in front of you, regardless of position, play only TT+ and AK. If there is more than one raise in front of you, play only KK+ (i.e. 3-bet or 4-bet with KK+).
Sizing your first raise
Usually we want to bring it in for 3-5BB. If there are only limpers in front of you, raise to 3-5BB plus 1BB per limper (if you have a hand that you would normally open with in that position). In general, we like to raise more in early positions and less from later postions (if this confuses you, simply always raise to 4BB+1BB/limper).
If someone has raised in front of you and you have a playable hand (TT+, AK), usually go all in. If your stack is larger than 30BB-35BB (i.e. becoming a medium stack) or when there is only one raiser and the raise was the minimum, make the largest raise you think your opponent will call.
When you get reraised by someone behind you, usually you should go all in or fold. If you have QQ+ or AK, go all in. Go all in with any hand if your (or your opponent's) remaining stack is less than twice the size of your original bet.
A few more hands we can sometimes play
There are a few more hands we can play when there are just limpers. If you are on the button or cutoff, after only limpers, call with 22-66, A2-A9 and any two suted cards that are both ten or higher ( i.e. KJs, KTs, QJs, QTs, JTs). If you have a stronger hand, be sure to raise as described above.
More on Ed Miller's SSS
Crushing Short Stacks - The Playbook - this is what a deep stacker needs to do when playing against us. This is how we should play when playing against short stackers.
Seems like there is some controversy about this strategy. I suspect that this is a case of sour grapes from the deep stackers. They need to adjust their play when they are in the pot with us and they seem resistant to doing so.
This thread (from 2007!) is about how to adjust to playing with a deep stack against a small stack. This is a very informative article, please read this. TLDR: Crushing Short Stacks - The Playbook - this is what a deep stacker needs to do when playing against us. This is how we should play when playing against short stackers.
My take on this is that sss is the correct way to play at this stack size (provided that these sss's are near to gto).
Another interesting thing I found online about sss's was: '... the truth is that you should play as high VPIP as you can until you start losing. 15% is the baseline for any 9player game with the same rake. Back in the day you could win with 12/10 because players were so bad. As the skill level increased overall in the game, you had to bring your VPIP up to 15% or better, (unless you were an FPP whoring multitabler who could play at 14%) '. This makes some sense: play as loose as possible, but tighter than most of your opponents.
interesting: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/15/poker-theory/short-stack-strategy-holes-ed-miller-562943/ - http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showpost.php?p=24079874&postcount=26 http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showpost.php?p=10855133&postcount=49
Very goog read: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/32/beginners-questions/i-grew-up-learning-30-bis-where-enough-1426985/ add http://archives1.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=3029808&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1 and other links like this https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topicsearchin/rec.gambling.poker/%22short$20stack$20strategy%22/rec.gambling.poker/mdo7ddmdKcU
more stuff The 3 Factors That Should Determine Your Cash Game Buy-In http://www.pokernews.com/strategy/3-factors-that-should-determine-your-cash-game-buy-in-19629.htm Positives to Playing a Short Stack in Tournaments http://www.pokernews.com/strategy/positives-to-playing-a-short-stack-in-tournaments-20569.htm WSOP 2014: Short Stack Strategies with Bart Hanson http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/2014-wsop/event-54/post.232972.htm http://www.pokertube.com/videos/pca-2015-jonathan-duhamel-on-short-stack-bubble-strategy http://www.tournamentpokeredge.com/innovative-short-stack-strategy/ Learning Poker By Short Stacking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5WCWJin8FU http://my.888poker.com/go/thread/view/111146/30044265/maths-in-poker-and-game-theory?pg=1
http://www.cardschat.com/f11/short-stacking-sucks-240807/ A Day In The Life Of A Short Stacker: Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ7wBBIzdD8The Upswing Poker Lab is a poker training course taught by Doug Polk, Ryan Fee, and other top poker pros. The Lab is updated regularly with in-depth learning modules, theory videos, and a wealth of information to make you a better poker player.
Being short stacked is a situation that happens in all game types. In hyper-turbos and spin-and-go’s, for example, you start with a short stack. And in tournaments, you can expect to be short often.
Here are seven tips that will prepare you for short-stacked situations.
Tip 1: Learn your preflop ranges.
When short stacked preflop, it’s important to use solid opening and three-bet-shoving ranges. You can determine those ranges with trial and error, and by studying good players.
(Better yet, you can borrow world-class pro Nick Petrangelo’s ranges by getting his new Upswing tournament course, Winning Poker Tournaments! Nick’s course comes with 250+ charts for six different stack depths.)
You can also use the SnapShove app, which tells you what hands to open-shove and three-bet shove (it does not provide opening ranges, though).
It’s important to adjust your ranges to how your opponents are playing. You should also stick to your preflop ranges until you have reasons to do otherwise, at which time you can adjust to target the particular mistakes your opponents are making.
Tip 2: Pay close attention to effective stack size.
‘Effective stack size’ is the least amount of chips in front of any player involved in a hand. It’s important to pay attention to effective stack size so that you can adjust your strategy accordingly.
Take a look at this example:
Player A stack size: $50
Player B stack size: $20
Player C stack size: $50
Player A Posts Small Blind of $1
Player B Posts Big Blind of $2
Player C Raises on the Button to $4
Here, the effective stack is determined by player B’s stack, which is $20.
Now suppose that player A is holding A A. What should he three-bet to? Obviously, he can three-bet anywhere from $6 to $50. But to determine the correct size, Player B’s stack size of $20 needs to be taken into consideration.
A standard three-bet size as the small blind would be $12. This achieves something: if Player B goes all-in for $20 and Player C calls, Player A can reopen the round of betting because the all-in is $8 more than his raise (also $8 more than Player C’s raise), thus allowing for more value preflop.
Tip 3: Consider post-flop playability.
‘Post-flop playability’ is how well your hand hits various flops, and how it plays after the flop.
This is important in short stack formats because after a preflop raise the stack depths are often too short to maneuver post-flop. This means you’ll usually be all-in either on the flop or the turn.
When short stacked with a hand that plays poorly post-flop, but is likely to the best hand preflop, jamming all-in is often the best play. It allows you realize all of your hand’s equity and avoid tough post-flop decisions. Examples of hands to jam with include small offsuit A-x hands and low pocket pairs (22–55).
Just make sure to make this play only when under 20 big blinds deep.
Tip 4: Don’t shove all-in for too many big blinds.
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It may seem like a good option to jam all-in for 25 big blinds from middle position with a hand like A 5. However, the risk-to-reward of such a play is poor. You’ll usually either win a small pot or lose a big one.
Instead, the optimal play is to use more standard sized raises, or fold when holding a weaker hand and/or expecting other players to three-bet. Save your stack for better spots and stronger hands.
Tip 5: Don’t be timid.
Inexperienced players are often too passive at shorter stack depths. They fold almost everything, waiting for a premium hand to double their stack.
Playing tight can be the correct strategy in some cases — most notably on money bubbles of tournaments. But playing tight too often will lose you more chips in the long run.
The same applies to limping on the button. As a general rule, don’t limp the button. Your opponents will notice, can assume you are doing it with weak hands, and can easily steal your limps by isolating.
Instead, raise either with the intention to win the blinds or to gain value from calls.
One final way of playing too tight while short stacked is to under-defend from the big blind.
Your opponents can profitably raise smaller with a wide range of hands if you fold too often from the big blind. Allowing them to pick up a free blind every orbit amounts to gifting them a 5 percent (or more) increase to their stack.
To stop opponents from abusing your blinds, defend by calling or raising a decent range of hands.
Tip 6: Never choose to be short stacked.
This applies to cash games and tournaments with add-ons, where you have the option to buy in for less than the maximum.
Choosing to sit with less than the maximum hurts your chances of beating every opponent in your game. It can prevent you from making the correct play, or from putting pressure on those opponents with equal or larger stack sizes. In short, it means you’re leaving money on the table.
Sometimes, however, sitting short is a good idea. Namely:
Texas Holdem Short Stack Strategy
- To lower your variance when taking a shot at a higher stakes game.
- When the strongest players in the game are deep and the weakest players are short.
Tip 7: Expect variance, and prepare for it.
Short-stacked poker can leave you with a lesser edge than you might have in deep stacked formats. This is usually offset by the fact you can play many more hands in the same amount of time.
But with a lesser edge comes heightened bankroll requirements. Hyper-turbos, for example, require more buy-ins than other formats. Failing to account for this can be your demise of even very competent players. So, it’s important to find out how many buy-ins you’ll need for your chosen short stack format.
Conclusion
Time spent studying effective short-stack play will lead to gains of knowledge and an increase in your win rate. Though, as always, studying is no substitute for playing. So get out there and try some short-stacked formats for yourself. And good luck!
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