Playing Short Stack in Tournaments

PLAYING SHORT STACK IN A TOURNAMENT

 

 

There you are! In a monster tournament, and you just cracked Aces with your Jacks. Your chip stack is massive. Your confidence is up, and you are determined to win this tournament! Next hand is dealt and you get Cowboys. In your head you are thinking, "These Kings are about to get me paid!" You play your normal style of play and bet pre-flop. All fold but one. Flop comes out Kh - Qh - 7s. Check comes to you and you bet on your set. Player pushes! You look at his chip stack and see that you have him covered. You call. Player flips Ah 3h. Your body goes cold and you being to pray.

 

Turn: 3c!!!...........

 

"Just one time!!! C'mon Poker Gods!!!"

 

River: 9h.

 

You just lost 3/4 of your stack. Sitting high and pretty, then kicked by a donkey. What to do now? You've lost your chips, and confidence. You're angry and your thoughts are focused on that one hand!

 

 

In tournaments, we have all probably experienced this horrible scenario and never want to relive it ever again! Advice or Tips? Got 'Em!!! Today we are going to share with you some tips we have found to build your confidence, as well as your chips, when in the small stack situation.

 

First rule of small stack play is, you never mention Fight Club.... Wait wrong rules. The first rule and really the most important, DON'T GIVE UP! Once we hit the small stack, whether we had a decent chip stack or blinds + antes are eating you up, our minds start saying "That Q-3 offsuit looks pretty! Push it all in!" Irrational thinking, along with frustration and the feeling of hopelessness are all characteristics of that whore, tilt! We've all had her and yet we can stand her. Just remember if you have chips, you're still alive!

 

Next up is how you utilze your chips. Normally if you have ten BBs or less you really only have two moves, all-in or fold. By putting in a bet other than an all-in, you are allowing your opponents to put you in an uncomfortable position if you miss your flop. Even if you have a small stack, moving all-in before the flop can make your opponents nervous and really question a mediocre hand. Let's say you move all-in preflop with 9h 6h, you will get called by Ac Kc, but there is a pretty good chance you will get a lot of hands that are nearly as good to throw away. In addition to making this move, you take out the chance of being out played once the flop hits. When placed in a small stack position, you need to focus and make it your goal to gain enough chips to get the target off your back!

 

Lets give the perfect situation and good positions for pushing all-in with the short stack. Blinds are 200/400, antes at 50.  A player raises 3 times the big blind and folds to you. The best positions for you in this scenario is the cutoff position, the button, or one of the blinds. If you so happen to have a player call inbetween you and the better that helps you even more. The reason why that helps is because if you move all-in, the guy inbetween you and the better will probably fold because if his hand was worth 10 BBs, don't you think he would of raised instead of just calling the original bet? On top of that, now the original better has to decide if two players have a better hand then he does.

 

Position wise, it is best to go all-in in late or even medium position. Going all-in at the early position makes it to where you have to pray that all dominate hands are still in the deck and everyone is playing 7-2. With 10 BBs, you still have a little playing time so be patient. Also, start classifying or profiling players in the blinds. Identify average stack and the reason is those are the ones you want to make fold. The way they play and their chip count are highly as important as the cards in your hands.

 

"But what if I've only got enough for the big blind and I'm under the gun?" Here are hands you must play if in this position.

• Pairs (Duh)
• Ace + anything (You know this!)
• King + anything (Ok....I'll go with it)
• Queen + anything as low as a 5 (Making me nervous)
• Jack + 10,9,8 (suited helps)
• 9-8s

These hands give you the best odds of winning the pot. Its either playing one of the hands listed above or folding and then being forced to play 10-4 off suit in the Big Blind.

Being the short stack isn't going to kill you. Once placed in the short stack position, stay focused, be aggressive and utilize your position the best possible way you can to get you more chips! Calling on lady luck is helpful too. Best of luck to you!