being short stacked

[mat the maori]

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 manoeuvres 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:

[nomercy2334]

The main idea of the short stack strategy is to play with the stack of 20 big blinds.....

[nomercy2334]

To play according to the short stack strategy you need to play at full tables (7-10 players). If the number of players at the table is less than 7, you should leave it and join another one. There should be as many players with full stacks (more than 50BB) as possible. :0

[nomercy2334]

Oh and you need to define what your position is relative to the dealer. Player’s position in poker is an important element of the game that radically influences the way certain hands will be played.

[fiveohtwo502]

I'm not an expert on short stack play by any means but I would say for sure its good to sit back and wait for the nuts and go all in even if you have to pay blinds a little too much. The shorter your stack compared to others the more likely they are to call you when you do hit. Then you have some room to think again.

[baat]

wait for the hands when you got something,shove.raise or fold,calling is rarely profitable in shortstack game.thats about it for me.

[pokerbandit22]

i play in position a lot.i dont get in a hurry.
i dont see a lot of flops.and i pick my cards carefully.
but i think i am going to start playing trash . seames like they win a lot.

[cornel7288]

I wait for the hands when you got something

[dadsrus]

i have to say that that is a very good read and i agree with it i play a mean short stack when i have to i ahev the patience to fold and the knowlegde to know when to jump in a big pot as to triple myself up if i can i would rather be up against 3 players knowing that 1 player will out bet the other and if i played the right cards i can beat the bluffer and wait till the next chance i get to pick on that same player figure he doubled me once why not take all his chips

[mikey4141]

I hate playing short stacked! It relly limits youre options!