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

It may seem counterintuitive, but when you are a medium or big stack and the other players have very few chips remaining, you have to be careful when you decide to enter a pot with a raise, or worse, a flat call. If you are playing against short stacks who know what they're doing, they will move in all their chips at any time, either because they are down with so few chips the pot odds dictate they must move all-in with any two cards, or they actually do have a legitimate hand and push to double up.

If you are first to enter the pot, ask yourself, is this a hand that you are willing to go all the way with if the short stack moves in on you? If the answer is no, you should fold. See if there are any short stacks left to act when the action is passed to you. You should take a quick look at their chipstacks and estimate how much they have left and how much you have to commit if they do move all-in. Are you willing to call an all-in with pocket 4s? Are you willing to call with your Ace-rag? Consider folding if you don't want to put those extra chips at risk.

You might have so many chips that you decide to bully the short stack and raise if the action is passed to you, and force him or her to fold no matter what two cards you have. This strategy is ok if you're one of the bigger stacks. But if you just have an average stack of chips in front of you, you can get into a lot of trouble if you decide to raise with any two cards. If they push back at you, you have little hope if you raised with 6-3 offsuit. And if you are raising frequently, a good player will deduce your hands aren't the strong and throw it right back in your face.

It's not uncommon for the action to slow down when there is a short stack remaining at the table with just one place away that pays out. Quite often, you will not see the bigger stacks enter pots against each other. Rather, the only time a big stack will enter a pot is if they have a very strong hand, and the short stack will either fold or move in with all their chips. Once the player "on the bubble" is eliminated, the game resumes normally until, again, there's another short stack to bust out.

There are a lot of players who DON'T know how to play when the have a short stack. They might play passively and not realize their chips are dwindling and they don't have too much time left in relation to the blinds. They may limp into pots, or make a small raise and fold when faced with any pressure. A smart short stack understands when it's the right time to move in with all their chips, or fold. You should be observant and know exactly what type of short stack player you're dealing with.