Playing When Super Short Stacked

By Hugo Martin

11 October 2007

When you end up with five big blinds or less you can still fight on...

** Help support Poker Verdict by using one of our links when choosing to download a new site **

Sometimes in tournaments we end up having a super-short stack of say just five Big Blinds or less. Now I’m assuming you’re not going like Broomcorn’s uncle and have allowed yourself to get anted off, but ended up losing a big pot or race situation with another player who you just had covered.

* * * * * * * ADVERTISEMENT * * * * * * *

Poker Verdict Private Tournaments and Freerolls:
Great value events, qualifiers and guarenteed prize pools

Poker Verdict Special Offers:
Win a chance to play in the WSOP $1,500 event

* * * * * * * ADVERTISEMENT * * * * * * *

Many players who find thmselves in this situation usually just lob their last few chips in the next hand and in the grand scheme of things it’s probably not that big a deal. However, if you’re not feeling too defeatist you can still try and make the best out of a terrible situation.

No Fold Equity Left

One of the problems of having a super short stack is that one’s fold equity goes right out of the window. This can often lead to the situation where more than one player decides to take you on and the next thing you know two or three players have entered into an unwritten agreement to check down the hand in the hopes of knocking you out. Of course, the upside of this is that occasionally you end up with the best hand and more than double up. Most of time though it’s on yer bike and back to skid row.

Annoying

There’s nothing more annoying than sticking it in with, say, a pair of 6s and watching your opponents check it down and on the end one of them has rivered some soppy two pair to knock you out with a hand they never normally would have played.

So how can you avoid this? Well, here’s something you can try. You’ve just been crippled and find yourself with only 3.5 Big Blinds left. It’s folded to you in the cut-off and you find 8-8. Ok, that’s probably the best hand, but it still plays best heads-up. Instead of just chucking it all-in (which isn’t a terrible play at all and I’m sure many players would advocate going all-in in this spot) you can just flat call. This now puts tremendous pressure on the button and the small blind to find a hand. If they just limp along with you they are inviting a squeeze play from the players behind them and could then end up having to make a tough decision.

Position doesn't Matter

In this example I’ve given you are in the cut-off, but it doesn’t matter what position you are in. In fact, the more players behind you the better because with your tiny stack you are inviting an isolation-making raise from another player. As I said, any other players must have a hand to play against you here.

You, of course, are calling any raises or, if there was no pre-flop raise, going all-in on the flop regardless (yes, even if it comes down As-Ks-Qs). If you can double up you now even have a bit of fold equity against some of the other short stacks. Rob a couple of blinds and now suddenly other players won’t want to double you up again. Next thing you know you’re on the final table...