Considerations For Playing With A Short Stack

In tournament poker, it is inevitable that if you play long enough you will find yourself short stacked. It's easy to just shove all your chips into the middle and hope you get lucky and double up, but there is a better way of approaching how to play a short stack and if done properly, you can make it deeper in tournaments and possibly even turn a short stack into a big stack.
What exactly is a short stack? Dan Harrington, in his excellent Holdem tournament book, says it is when your M (stack size/cost to play per orbit) is less than 6. This number is a bit high in my opinion. For example, if the blinds are 500/1,000 with a 200 ante at a 9 handed table and you have 17,000, you have an M of 5, which is short stacked according to Harrington. I don't think, however, that 17 big blinds is a short enough stack to where the only move you have is all in pre-flop. Obviously, you are approaching dangerous short stack territory and time is not on your side. A better number for me personally is an M of 4, which will be approximately 12 big blinds. Anything under that and you are a short stack.

One of the problems people have playing as a short stack is that they wait and wait for the right hand to play. If you're playing to win a poker tournament, you don't have this luxury. You need to get as much value for the chips you do have in your stack as you can. For example, if you have 11,000 in chips and fold for two orbits with the blinds at 500/1,000 and a 200 ante, you now have 3,400 in chips. You get aces and double up to approximately 7,000 but you're in worse shape than you were before, especially with the blinds/antes probably going up in minutes. If you had managed to pick up the blinds/antes once or twice or doubled up, your aces might have won a pot that would put you right back into contention.

As a short stack, you should be open shoving with a wider range of hands than if you were a bigger stack. You still want to be selective in early position and only play pairs and big cards (like K-Q). One of the mistakes many players make is to move all in with the first ace that they are dealt. In later position, this is a perfectly acceptable play as the chances of you getting called are reduced. However, in early position if you are called it is usually going to be by a hand that has a weaker ace in trouble. You are better off with a hand like 7-6 than A-5 when you're going to be called by a bigger ace. A-5 is a 2.3:1 dog to A-Q while 7-6 is only a 1.7:1 dog.

If you aren't first to act, you face a dilemma because as a short stack you generally have no folding equity. This is why it is usually better to be the first player to move all in because that gives you two ways to win the pot (every one folds or you win at showdown) as opposed to one (winning at showdown). This, however, doesn't mean that you fold every time someone has raised. If you have a hand like A-10 and a loose aggressive player has open raised from middle position, chances are your hand is best and it would be correct to move all-in. What you do in instances where it has been opened before it gets to you is rely on what the tendencies of the open raiser are. If they are tight, you should only play premium hands. If they are loose, the range of hands you can move all in with expands.

Don't make the mistake that survival minded players often make by flat calling a raise when they are short stacked so they can see a flop. As a short stack, you can't afford to play post-flop poker. For example, you have A-J and a loose player in early position raises. You think you're ahead but you want to see a flop and see what he does. The flop comes 8-5-3 and your opponent bets enough to set you all in. You fold, having lost over 25% of your stack and are now in even worse shape than you were before. Your loose opponent shows his hand... A-6. You not only lost chips by just calling, you lost an opportunity to double up.

One thing you will often see is a short stack who has been open shoving all of his hands, suddenly limp in or make a standard raise. They might as well turn their cards over and tell you that they have a big pair. These players think that they are doing the right thing and are maximizing value for their hand, but the truth is this is the wrong approach to take. They've been pushing all-in multiple times and not received a call (or if they were called their opponents probably saw it wasn't the strongest of hands). By not moving all in, you are giving your opponent valuable information. You are telling them what your hand is and they can see a cheap flop knowing that if they hit they will get the rest of your chips and if they miss it only cost them a little of their stack. Think of how many times you see people call 10 big blind all in bets with small pairs, K-10, and weak aces. The most effective way to get value for your big hands is to keep doing what you've been doing and move all-in.

One last consideration is how your table is playing. If you are at an extremely tight table and they are letting you win frequently with your short stack moves, increase the frequency with which you make them. If it's a loose table, then you need to pick the right spot (preferably when you can isolate against one of the loosest players). Knowing what is going at your table is crucial to short stack play. By paying attention to the players at your table, you can turn your short stack into a big one, and we all know having a big stack is a lot more fun.