Short Stack Play

When talking about short stack play, I am refering to the part of the game when you have less than ten or fifteen big blinds left and other people at the table have a comfortable chip stack. At this point of the game, its all about doubling up and getting back into the tournament. This means that you will be taking risks you might ordianrily not take, as if you don’t, you likely will be blinded out and will have no chance of winning the tournament.

Being blinded out is a cardinal sin in poker, which is why I am surprised when I see players calling bets that leave them with only a little more than a few big blinds and folding to a continuation bet on the flop or worse, calling to the river with a draw. For these players, there should only be two choices, all in or fold.

The closer your stack comes to matching the blinds, the less you want to worry about what kind of cards you have and the more you want to think about the pot size. This is because the fewer chips you have, the less of an impact you will have on the game, so you need to double up when your chip stack can make a difference.

If two larger stacks push all in and you have low suited connectors, this is an ideal chance for you to triple up. Your ideal situation is that both players have ace high with the same non-suited kicker, giving you only four cards to dodge if you hit a pair.

I have seen players with larger stacks target the small stacks by pushing all in on their big blinds, often not even looking at their cards. This is a mistake on their part as they are under the misconception that the small stack should be playing extremely tight. These people are giving you the ideal opportunity to double up with the possibility of being ahead, even with a marginal hand. Author: BSPokerGuy