By Tony Guerrera

Poker rewards players who make the fewest mistakes and pounce on the mistakes their opponents make. In tournament poker, a common mistake is mindlessly calling or bluffing away your remaining chips simply because you don’t have a lot of chips. When you’re short stacked, you need to accumulate chips; however, that’s no excuse for getting your chips in recklessly when you’re hopelessly behind in the hand.

Reacting to Aggression As a Short Stack

The key to making good decisions as a short stack is to stay focused. Whenever you’re in a hand, you need to read your opponents. Reading your opponents when you’re a short stack can be tough because different players react differently to short stacks. If you’re short stacked, but not necessarily to the point of being seemingly pot-committed, some players assume that you’ll only put your remaining chips in if you have a very good hand; in other words, some players will see you as a prime bluffing victim, especially if you’re on the money bubble. Other players will assume that you’ll call bets with a wider range than usual out of desperation. These players will only be betting into you with good hands.

Knowing which type of player you’re facing can be tough in the absence of sufficient data; however, you need to try to get this type of information about everyone at your table, and the key is looking for it before you’re in danger. If you wait until you’re already short-stacked, it’s too late…there’s not enough time. You need to study how your opposition responds to short-stacks before you are at that point. Even if you’re the overwhelming chip leader in a tournament, remember that things change quickly, and you need as much information as possible to be prepared.

If you’re in a pot against a player who is extremely aggressive against short stacks, be prepared to get involved with a wider range of hands than usual. Flopping any pair, even an underpair to the board, might be good enough. Meanwhile, against players you’re suspicious against, be willing to fold something like middle pair on the flop, knowing that you’ll get a better opportunity to get all your chips in (provided that you still have at least six big blinds).

Among the biggest mistakes you can make is something like the following. You open for a raise from late position, and you get called by a relatively tight player in the blinds. He checks to you on the flop, you continuation bet, and you’re called. You both check on the turn, and your opponent makes a pot-sized bet on the river….a bet that’s about ten big blinds, which is the size of your stack. You hit a marginal hand and figure that you should call; however, if your opponent was bluffing, he wouldn’t need to risk ten big blinds. With the size of your stack, your opponent knows that a bet of three or four big blinds is sufficient enough to move you off the pot. A pot-sized bet on the river in this situation is usually coming from a player who is value betting a good hand, knowing that you might widen your calling range out of desperation because the size of the pot is twice your stack. It’s one thing to call a bet like this on the flop for your tournament life when you have something like a flush draw, which you’re 35% to hit with two cards to come. It’s quite another thing to call a bet like this on the river when you’re most likely beaten. Why call ten big blinds when you’re dead when ten big blinds gives you more than enough time to wait for a premium hand to go all-in with? Don’t panic and call away your remaining chips when you’re pretty much dead simply because there’s a large quantity of chips in the pot.

Bluffing As A Short Stack

With blinds at T50-T100, you raise to T300 with KsJd from the cutoff, and the button, a tight player, calls. The blinds fold. There’s T750 in the pot, and you have T550 left. The flop is Ac8s2d. You check, knowing that many hands in your opponent’s calling distribution contain aces. Your opponent checks behind, and the turn is the 5h. At this point, you’re contemplating pushing all-in; however, your opponent may have slowplayed an ace knowing that he’ll get more value by inducing a bluff than he would by betting right out on the flop. Additionally, since you checked on the flop, your opponent may not put you on an ace, meaning that he’ll call you with a pocket pair. Another key point to consider is that your opponent might assume that you’re desperate because you’re a short-stack. All-in moves by you will carry little or no fold equity if the size of your stack doesn’t exceed the number of chips already in the pot.

When you’re short-stacked, it’s really tempting to push and pray in circumstances like these, hoping that your opponents will fold. Aggression and bluffing will be an important part of your game plan if you wish you get back in the hunt, but they need to be calculated aggression and bluffing. Whenever you make a play at the poker table, you need a reason. If “I’m short-stackedâ€� is your only reason, then you need to think harder about a line of play before executing it.

Be Calm and Patient

When you’re a short-stack, it’s nice to get out of that position as quickly as possible. But if you’re not patient in looking for the right opportunity, you’ll send yourself home early, voiding whatever chance you have left of fighting for a huge payout. I’m not saying to wait for the absolute nuts to call, and I’m not saying that you shouldn’t bluff. I am saying that you should think things through carefully before you act. And while thinking things through, always be aware of adjustments that your opponents will be making as a function of the size of your stack.

Tony Guerrera is the author of Killer Poker By The Numbers

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