Short Stack Poker Strategy

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Short Stack Poker Tournament Strategy
Short Stack Poker Strategy Tournament
Short Stack Poker Strategy

For many players who regularly sit down at cash tables in the modern game, once they have found some level of comfort with the quality of their 'full stacked 100bb' skills, one of the ways in which they frequently find themselves in awkward situations is when faced with an opponent wielding a stack typically sized between 20 – 50 big blinds. Here I hope to shed some light on short stack poker strategy to help improving players who are looking for some answers on the matter.

The good news is that once we find ourselves in a situation where the money is often going in preflop, we can use some simple mathematics to make quality decisions. We are also happy to hear that the vast majority of short stackers are players who started their session with a full or close to full stack, but haven't re-bought. This is an indication that the player isn't following any particular strategy related to stack size, which any competent player will do.
This information, along with our HUD stats should allow us to nail down exactly what strategy to use against them. No more guessing, or even better, no more nitting it up. Many players fall into the trap of folding too much against a short stacked opponent for reasons such as having a fear of getting shoved on and not knowing how wide they can profitably call. They just have a feeling that they don't want to get involved, assuming that it isn't so important anyway.

Well it is important, as these guys will eat into your win rate if you let them get away with it!

I'll start with some general principles and adjustments we need to make. As the effective stack size decreases our implied odds also decrease. This affects the range of starting hands we should be opening pre flop and also our cold calling range.
The shorter the stack the more extreme your adjustment should be. Rather than posting a number of hand charts for each stack size, I will attempt to give more general advice so you can think for yourself in-game, and do your own EV calculations to make yourself more comfortable.

Changing hand values

For our purposes we should distinguish the starting hands between high equity type, and low equity type/speculative.

Hands such as KK and AKs are high equity hands, they will often be the best hand on the flop, and will win an all-in confrontation with a high frequency. With high cards you will simply get to showdown with the best hand a lot more frequently than low cards.

Hands such as 54s

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. As you develop your skills, using this poker strategy guide, keep the first three tips in mind: Play cautiously, be aggressive when required, and study the table like it's your favourite movie. This tactic will keep your play in check and resist the urge to go “on tilt”. Don't try to make up losses with foolish bets.

and 86s are speculative hands which will not be ahead on so many flops when multiple players hit, but when they do hit you have a chance to flop or later make a strong '5 card hand'. This hand type needs to be playing against a deep stack to maximise its profitability. Even in today's tougher games I still see players cold calling this hand type when a short stacked player has open raised, thinking they can use their post flop skill advantage to make it a profitable move.

Once the effective stack size decreases below 50bb, the post flop skill edge we might have playing 100bb+ deep has been greatly reduced. We need to be aware when our implied odds have been reduced, and look to tighten up our cold calling range by removing some or all of this hand type.

One adjustment we can make with this hand type is to 3 bet them in position when a full stacked opponent opens and we have short stacker to our left. This way we side step the increased probability of getting 3 bet if we cold call and having to fold, but at the same time we have a hand which can flop well, even if traditionally small suited connectors aren't at their best playing a pot with a small stack to pot ratio. Here we are also utilising our fold equity pre flop which may even work out to be more profitable than cold calling without any short stackers present.

Pocket pairs and suited aces are a special case, somewhere in between high equity and speculative. For example, if a 25bb stack opens from the small blind and we have 22 in the big blind, we should no longer be looking to flat call hoping to hit a set. We just won't win enough chips even if we can get the small blind to put all of his chips in the middle to make it a profitable plan of action.
However, one thing that pocket pairs are okay at, is bluffing in an all in situation where we are sure we have at least some fold equity, and even if we get called we can reasonably expect to have around 35% equity. Suited aces will have slightly less equity if called, but can be used to extend your bluffing range if your opponent is expected to fold with a high enough frequency.

Just to clarify, we aren't looking at calling off with pocket pairs and suited aces, having some fold equity is key to making your bluff a profitable move as we will see later when I do some example EV calculations.

Multi-Way Pots

When we do find ourselves playing multi-way with a mix of short and deep stacks we just need to accept that our creative play options against the other deep stacks are almost non existent. Fortunately, in the micro stake games we have an added bonus that many players will adjust terribly against the short stack and sometimes we will have a strong hand, this more than makes up for when we have to miss out on potential value to avoid a short stack exploiting us.

In a way, the need to to play more straight forward, makes our life easier, we get to play a value orientated strategy which gives us less to think about, and less scope for errors which will reduce our win rate.

Open Raise Sizes

Over recent years the average open raise size has reduced from all positions on average, but one spot where we should be as small as possible is from late position with a short stacker still to act. I recommend 2.4bb from the CO and small blind, and a min raise from the button.
This means we lose less when we get re-raised pre flop, and we also make the pot smaller to begin with, making it a less attractive steal opportunity. Most short stackers at the micro stakes play a strategy which is too rigid, meaning that when we use a smaller size to steal with, they are unlikely to adjust enough to counter.

Trapping

It should now be obvious that one of the benefits of playing with a short stack, is that we can steal in many situations. Even bad players learn quickly that they can get many folds in a variety of situations. One of the most common spots is when there is an open raise preflop and one or more callers. The average short stacker will be shoving all-in with a wide range and expecting to get plenty of folds.
So it logically follows if we have a premium hand it is worth considering cold calling instead of the usual squeeze play, and hoping that the short stacker shoves. Not only has under representing our hand helped us to trap one player for all their chips, the original raiser might now feel they can get us to fold by shoving the remainder of their 100bb stack.

Example EV Calculation

There are many different types of useful EV calculations we can do to work towards perfecting our anti-shortstack play. Here is probably the most simple, a method to work out what range of hands we can 3 bet shove all-in against a short stacker.

In our example an unknown 30bb stack open raises to x3bb from the cut-off in a 9 handed micro stakes cash game. The button and small blind both fold

Our hand is ATs and we are in the big blind

Short Stack Poker Tournament Strategy

First we need to make an assumption about what range of hands villain will call with if we shove. It doesn't matter if you consider this range accurate, the mathematical method is what's important here.

So lets assume villain is opening 25% of hands and will call with 22+, A2s+, K9s+, Q9s+, J9s+, T8s+, 97s+, 86s+, 76s, 65s, 54s, ATo+, KTo+, QTo+, JTo, T9o. This works out to about 50% of his original opening range.

ATs vs this calling range has 36.24%, leaving villain with 63.76%

Part 1 – What happens when all the chips go to the middle.

Using the standard EV formula

EV = [Probability(Win) * what we win] – [Probability(Lose) * what we lose]

EV = [0.4222 * (1.5bb(the blinds) + 3bb(villains open raise) + 27bb(the rest of villains stack))] -

[0.5778 * (30bb]

= 13.229 – 17.334 = -(4.03bb)

So when we do get called we can expect to lose on average a little more than 4bb

Part 2 – What happens when we take into account fold equity

FE = 50%

Using the same formula as above

EV = [0.5 * 4.5bb] – [0.5 * 4.03bb]

= 2.25bb – 2.015bb

=0.235bb

Now with fold equity taken into account we now have a slightly profitable shove, although I haven't mentioned rake yet which won't change things too much but still shouldn't be ignored entirely when looking at close decisions.

I hope this article was useful for you and I look forward to reading your comments below!

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The 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.

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.

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:

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.