For a guide to beating short stack poker players, check out the 'Crushing Shortstackers' concept video.

1. How To Play Short Stack Tournament Poker Tournament
2. How To Play Short Stack Tournament Poker Games
3. How To Play Short Stack Tournament Poker Strategy
4. Free Online Poker Tournaments
5. How To Play Short Stack Tournament Poker Tournaments
6. How To Play Short Stack Poker Tournament
7. Free Poker Tournaments

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 and had a bad run of cards, or because you simply enjoy to buy in to cash games with a short stack.

But for whatever reason you are playing with a relatively small amount of chips, it is good to be able to understand and employ a good short stack strategy.

What is a short stack in no limit Texas Hold'em?

Any stack that has more than 20 big blinds is not considered a short stack in tournament poker, since you have the flexibility to do a lot of extra moves without committing your entire chip stack. We will not be talking about chip stacks that are bigger than 20 big blinds in this article at all once this intro is over. Playing a Short Stack-Late Stages. The late stages of a tournament are the best time to have a short stack. If you have made it this far, it means that you are already in the money, and maybe even contending for a big prize at the final table. Beyond this, a short stack at or near the final table may very well be near the chip average.

The typical short stack in any cash game or tournament will have 40 Big Blinds or less.

However, there are varying degrees of short stack poker as a 10BB stack will require a slightly different strategy than a 40BB stack, and it is important to be aware of these differences.

You may have noticed that the term ‘short stack’ is determined by the size of your stack relative to the blinds, and not relative to the stack sizes of your opponents. Therefore even if you have 30BB and your opponents have 20BB, you are still considered to have a short stack, and so you should continue to utilize a good short stack strategy.

How to play with a short stack.

Having a short stack means that you have less room to make plays at the poker table. Bluffs and advanced moves (like float plays) are formed from being able to make educated checks, bets, calls and raises on each round of the hand, so having a short stack will reduce and sometimes eliminate any room for special maneuvers by both you and your opponents.

Furthermore, the general structure of a no limit Texas Holdem game is that the bigger bets will be made on the turn and river, as the preflop and flop rounds are usually set-up rounds that build the pot and prepare the hand for action. The fact that we have a short stack means that we will rarely be making it past the flop in terms of betting as we will not having enough chips to continue.

With a short stack, most (or all) of the action will be taking place on the preflop and flop betting rounds.

Hands to play when short-stacked.

The fact that we have little room for movement and that our betting will cease at the flop means that we should be playing big heavy hitting hands that will make strong hands at the flop, rather than smaller hands that have ‘potential’.

We should avoid hands like suited connectors and small pocket pairs, as these hands are profitable when we have a deep stack, as our implied odds are there to compensate for the likely event that we miss the flop. In general we are best entering pots with are big suited cards that can make top pair or better at the flop, although we should exercise some flexibility in starting hand selection depending on the size of our short stack.

Below is a table of the hands we should be looking to play depending on our situation:

Starting hands chart.

Note: This starting hands chart is designed for tournament games where you are pressured to make more moves as the amount of chips left in your stack decreases. This table is not designed for short stack cash game strategy where you have the option of reloading again and again.

40BB or less.

• AA
• KK
• QQ
• AKs
• AQs
• JJ
• AK
• AQ
• AJs

30BB or less.

• AJ
• TT
• ATs
• KQs

20BB or less.

• AT
• KQ
• KJs
• KJ

10BB or less.

• AXs
• AX
• QJs
• QJ

As you can see, a lot of emphasis has been placed playing big cards that can make top pair or better, which will often be the best hand on the flop. As you should remember it is unlikely that we will make any more bets past the flop betting round, so we should be more than happy to be making a good pair and get our money in on the flop.

You may notice that hands that include aces have been given a lot of weight, especially if you are a very short stack. This is because of the fact that as a extremely short stack, it is more than likely that you will be pushing or calling an all in on the flop regardless if you have caught a piece of it or not. Therefore if we are holding an ace, we will have a better chance of winning with a high card against an opponent in the event that they did not make a pair either.

How to play these hands.

When we are dealt any of the above cards that are within our range depending on the effective stack sizes, we should always be raising when entering the pot. It may seem like a good idea to limp and try and catch a good flop for cheap, but it is more profitable to raise and build the pot for when we hit our hand, which we are more likely to do if we are holding a strong starting hand.

With a stack of 10BB or more we should be looking to raise around 3 or 4BB if we are first to enter the pot. However, if we have 10BB or less, it will not be too bad of a play to push all-in straight away, as any call from a 4BB raise will leave us completely pot-committed anyway. With 10BB or less, you can think about using the stop and go play also.

On the flop we are usually reduced to going all-in or folding as a short stack. The smaller the size of our stack, the more inclined we should be to calling or pushing all-in as we are more likely to be committed to the pot. The shorter the stack, the less the flop will matter to us. However, if we have around 30/40BB, we can be a little more selective because we will not be pot committed and have the opportunity to wait for a better spot.

The shorter your stack, the less post-flop action you are going to deal with. So it's important to have a strong hand that has a good chance of winning after all 5 community cards have been dealt.

Nevertheless, if we are pot committed and will be moving all-in regardless, it is always better to make the all-in bet rather than calling if possible. This is because by betting we are giving our opponent the opportunity to fold the best hand or a potentially winning hand, which is something that is not available to us if we are calling the all-in bet.

• Short stack tips overview.
• Play simple ABC poker. Avoid attempting to bluff and just bet when you have a strong hand.
• Only enter pots with premium hands.
• Fold small pocket pairs and suited connectors as you have do not have implied odds.
• Make strong 4BB raises before the flop.
• Be prepared to move all of your stack in to the middle before or on the flop.
• Leave the table if you win a big pot (and intend on playing short-stacked).

Short stack strategy evaluation.

Good short stack strategy is all about pushing every little edge that we have. Just because we have a smaller stack, it does not mean that we have less chance of winning any individual hand, it just means we have to adapt our play a little differently to each situation.

Nevertheless, we will be facing an up hill battle if we are in a tournament as each pot we enter is more likely to involve putting our tournament life on the line. At some poker sites, the structure of the faster tournaments will mean that you will spend the majority of the game as a short stack, which is a good way to learn how to play good short stack poker.

How To Play Short Stack Tournament Poker Tournament

We should always look for the most profitable situations and get our money in when we think we have the best of it, and we should always prepare for luck to play its part in each outcome. Playing a good, sound short stack strategy does not guarantee to save a tournament life or secure a double up, but it will improve your chances of coming out on top in the long run.

In cash games, you cannot expect to win every all-in, but you can still play a profitable game by picking the right situations and trying to get your money in with the best hand.

Go back to the awesome Texas Hold'em Strategy.

How To Play Short Stack Tournament Poker Games

Comments

Regardless of whether you’re playing in a poker tournament or a cash game, it’s seldom fun to play on a short stack, although it’s easier out in a cash game because you can always reach into your wallet and buy more chips. Most players prefer a big stack rather than a short one and play better when they have a boatload of ammunition, although some no-limit players deliberately buy into cash games for the table minimum. They do this to avoid having to decide whether to play for of their chips, because playing for a large amount of chips represents a sizeable risk every time they play a hand.

One of the reasons some casinos spread no-limit cash games with a capped buy-in is to mitigate the downside of a player being drawn out for his entire bankroll.

Playing with a short stack also makes some otherwise tough decisions no-brainers. When you’re short-stacked in a cash game it’s no longer a tough decision if you’ve flopped top pair with top kicker and are facing a raise. With a big stack and a pocket pair of aces, or even two pair, deciding whether to call a big raise is a much tougher decision simply because you can lose a lot more. But with a short stack, you can call and reload if you lose.

Playing in a cash game with a cap on the buy-in falls somewhere between playing real no-limit – where everyone is deep stacked and a confrontation for all or most of your chips is always a possibility – and a spread-limit game. Although a wide betting range can hurt you even when you are playing a short stack, it’s not likely to be a mortal wound.

How To Play Short Stack Tournament Poker Strategy

But it’s a different story entirely in a poker tournament. That short little stack represents your entire tournament equity, and it means you’re in jeopardy. Now you have two tasks at hand: You have to protect your chips while simultaneously rebuilding your arsenal.

Protecting chips usually means caution and conservative play, while stack-building suggests an aggressive posture that leans heavily on taking every possible edge to maximize your ability to acquire chips.

Even so, you shouldn’t take untoward risks on speculative hands when you’re short stacked. That means no more flush draws, no more straight draws and avoiding pots when you have a speculative hand. Most of your speculating should really be done early in the tournament, when blinds are small compared to your stack size. You can also play speculative hands when you have an overwhelming chip lead and have earned the right to bully your opponents every chance you get.

Nevertheless, you still need to aggress to grow your stacks. When you raise with a short stack, it’s tantamount to risking all your chips in a defensive raising posture, not an offensive thrust. When you’re near the back end of the betting order with A9 and no one else has entered the pot, that’s the time to raise – and hope you’re not called. Your defensive raise is aimed at winning the blinds and antes so you can fight another day.

Even if you’re called by a hand like KQ, you’re favored over suited connectors falling in range below your ace but higher than your side card. You’re a 56 percent favorite if your opponent’s connectors are unsuited, and if your opponent called with an unconnected high and low card, such as K6 offsuit, you’re a 64 percent favorite to win the pot.

Here’s an example. Suppose the blinds are $1,000-$2,000, the average stack is $80,000, 15 people remain in the tourney, and you have $20,000 on the button.

If your raise is called, it’s a race for all of your chips, and you’ll either have $40,000 or a seat on the rail at hand’s end. If no one calls your raise, you’ll win $3,000, which increases your stack by 15 percent – and more if antes are in play.

An accurate assessment of your opponents is your best friend here. Will they fold or call? If opponents on your immediate left are short stacked too, they figure to fold more often than not. But the chip leader might make a $20,000 call with any playable hand, especially if it’s small potatoes to him.

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Do your opponents include anyone about to make a last stand with any two cards? A desperate, down-to-the-felt opponent will probably call with any two cards. But if your opponents are not on tilt and playing well and view you as a patient poker player who is likely to have a good hand when he finally raises, they might be willing to let you escape with the blinds and antes.

Regardless of how opponents see you, you just can’t wait around for premium pocket pairs before making your move. 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.

The key to short-stacked play is to be the aggressor. You can’t call your way back into contention. When you call, you can only win by showing the best hand at the end. Not only that, you lack fold equity – the possibility that your raise will cause other opponent to fold, thereby winning you the pot.

How To Play Short Stack Tournament Poker Tournaments

With a really low stack you just have to pick a hand and make a stand. When it’s very short, you can count on being called by the big blind and perhaps one other player. In that situation, you’re better off going all-in with suited connectors like 98 than a hand like K8 or Q7 because the most likely hands to call will be two high-card hands, and you run the risk of being dominated to only three outs.

The numbers prove the point. A single overcard is a 52 percent favorite against two suited connectors, and two overcards are a 58 percent favorite. But if your hand is dominated, you have less than a 30 percent chance of winning.

Here’s the key point: Two suited connectors are usually both live cards, and that’s a lot better than being dominated to three outs.

When you’re short stacked you don’t have the opportunity to wait for big hands. You must make a stand sooner or later, and once you’re holding the right kind of hand and the situation is right, just push your remaining chips across the betting line and hope for the best.

How To Play Short Stack Poker Tournament

Desperate times demand desperate measures. But if you’re lucky enough to propel yourself back into the poker tournament, you’ll have another opportunity to let your skill do the talking instead of your luck.

By Lou Krieger

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The author of many best-selling poker books, including “Hold’em Excellence” and “Poker for Dummies”. A true ambassador of the game and one of poker’s greatest ever teachers.

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