The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

Playing a short-stack is not a lot of fun. You're clinging on for dear life, hoping and praying you'll get some playable cards before the blinds eat you alive. Time and time again I see players who don't understand that their primary goal is to double-up, NOT to try to see flops for cheap. While if you're a big stack and have suited connectors, you can afford to speculate and call a raise or even make a raise yourself. But if you're a short-stack, you CAN NEVER LIMP INTO A POT. The only time where this is acceptable is if you're trying to set a trap, for example, if you land pocket aces and you're hoping someone will raise you to try to get you off the pot, but then you can execute your trap and throw THEM off. That's playing clever poker, and only savvy players will really know what you're doing. But it is rare that's what a small-stack limped bet represents.

To further my point, at a four handed game I played the other night, the short stack called the big blind which cost about 25% of her chips. The next hand folded, the small blind called my big blind and I looked down at Ace-Six. I was also a short stack and had to decide whether or not to make a move. I interpreted the previous bettors as weak since they didn't raise pre-flop, so I went all-in. The short stack who had called the big blind thought about it for what seemed like an eternity but decided to fold. The small blind also folded and I took the pot.

Later in the evening, I asked the short stack what she had. "Ace-5" was the response. With her stack so slow, this was a hand that she had to go all the way with. You can't wait for cowboys or rockets to land because the odds are the blinds are going to eat you alive before that happens. If she had gone all-in, there's a good chance I would have folded since Ace-6 offsuit isn't much of a hand to call an all-in with. See the difference? MOVING all-in and CALLING an all-in are two completely different things. As the short-stack, you cannot hope to catch cheap flops and risk being re-raised or getting outflopped by limping. If you move all-in and no one calls, it is still a good result for you as the blinds you pick up will allow you to continue for a few more hands and hopefully give you hand where you can double up.

All-in, or fold, are pretty much your only two moves left when you're a short stack.