Short Stacked Situations

There will always be days where a player simply has bad luck: other players will get lucky, bluffs will go bad, and simple pots will seem nearly impossible to win. It takes a great amount of mental strength and perseverance to break out of a short stacked situation. A lot of players would push "all-in" in anguish, representing that they officially give up. In short stacked situations, I advise players from simply going all in and leaving their tournament to be decided by luck. Unless players are short stacked to the point where there's simply no hope of competitively returning, a better strategy to utilize is to raise a lot pre-flop without pushing "all-in".

Unless somebody else raises before you, and you have a really good hand, I would not advise blindly pushing all in. It would be embarrassing to be called by somebody who has a monster of a hand. Although it wouldn't be wrong to push all-in, it's better to do so with caution. According to an article on thepokerbank.com, "with a short stack, most or all of the action will be taking place on the pre-flop and flop betting rounds". In other words, the majority of betting that a player does with a short stack should take place prior to the flop or post flop. The article advises against letting opponents see a turn card or a river.


If a short stack constantly raises and bets pre-flop, this puts pressure on the rest of his opponents. Although nobody likes being in a short stacked situation, it allows players to test their resiliency. After all, most competitive poker players are placed in that situation at one point or another. Again, the best way to approach that situation is to play tight-aggressive: play winnable hands and avoid hands that could potentially cause trouble. Any hand with an Ace is a serviceable hand, yet should still be played with caution. A pocket pair should be an automatic raise or all-in push. Marginal hands should be thrown away. Suited connector hands should be called or raised.

The best poker players of our era have built their instincts in these situations. Being short stacked taught them how to bet, when to bet, where to bet, and how to bet. It also teaches patience and to go slow and steady. The mark of a good poker player is his instinctual ability to know what hands to play and what hands should be mucked. Although it can be tempting to try to win back everything on one hand, that's not a plausible approach in trying to get back into the poker game.

Sources:

http://www.thepokerbank.com/strategy/general/short-stack/

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