short stack poker tips

Learn how to play a short stack correctly

New Online PokerPoker Strategy

It can be a tricky part of a game for even very experienced players, how to play short stacks in tournament poker. It’s more of a mechanical part of the game, which is pretty much solved at this point from an unexploitable view. In this post, we are going to look at 5 Tips for playing with a short stack more effectively…

Tip #1
Learn your shove ranges!

These are easy to look up in real time whilst playing with free tools like SnapShove. For instance, a big leak in many beginners games will be not shoving the button wide enough with 10 big blinds, we can profitably jam 44.2% of hands from this position including hands as wide as 54s and K5o

10bb shove button

However these ranges vary widely on your position on the table, so it’s important to know that you would only shove 15.7% of hands from UTG, as we have the full rest of the table to get through, so our hands need to be much tighter as we have a much higher chance of being called than shoving the button into only 2 opponents.

Tip #2
Pick spots against the most aggressive opponents opens for re-shoves.

So if we have fold equity against an awkward opening stack of around 30 Big Blinds from late position and we have pocket 3’s on the button, with 20 Big Blinds, we can put the pressure on with a re-shove as we are not going to realise our equity this short stacked on a long term basis, so it’s good to build yourself a solid 18-25 Big Blind re-shoving range that you will have a basis for your games against wide opens and then try and adjust to tighter players entering the pot.

Tip #3
Try to be mindful of playing hands that perform poorly post flop

Just because you are short stacked, hands like A5o from the button will burn up valuable chips that you need to preserve for all in moves, so whilst it can be a good technique to work in some steals into your ranges whilst sitting on short stack, consider post flop playability with these opens, better hands for late position steals will be connectors like 89o/J9s for instance.

Tip #4
Don’t shove too wide when you have over 20 Big Blinds!

Below we take a look at a shoving range of 25BBS from the button, note that even hands as strong as ATo will not be a shove, even with only 2 opponents left that can call us.

25 big blinds from button

This is the point when we will construct an opening range of hands that do well post flop as well as some steals from the bottom of our range, this way we are unpredictable and can remain our stack with steals to stay above 20 big blinds.

Tip #5
Prepare yourself for more swings!

If you are going to play more of the structures available online where short stack poker is more common, games like Turbos and Hyper Turbos where the blinds increase faster there will be more variance. If you are looking for less variance, play games that hand deeper stacks like regular speed tournaments or slow structure formats like deep stacks, if you have the patience for these games where there is more play you will avoid the closer spots and the better players will be rewarded in the long run.

My advice in general for game selection, is play a format you feel comfortable sitting for, if you want to just play for a few hours, play some turbos but if you want a chance at playing a good game and don’t mind playing for around 8 hours, the regular speed games will be better for you!