Short Stack Strategy

I have been developing a new strategy for beating NL cash games. I've started experimenting with buying in short stacked and I believe I have created a nearly unbeatable strategy for most NL cash full ring games. So here we go...

I buyin as short as possible. At a .50/1 no-limit table I buyin for $20 - 20 BBs. Basically the strategy involves manipulating a few weaknesses most opponents have.

1) If a deep stacked player raises and a short stack reraises they call too often with weaker hands than they should. (This tends to be because they do not give as much credit to short stacked players - considering them desperate. It also is due to the fact that even if they lose they reason its not a huge deal - they will only lose a few BBs in comparison to their deep stack.
2) If a player raises most opponents put them on AK - and generally underestimate their strength on flops without an Ace or King.
3) Most players bluff often, both preflop and after the flop.
4) Most players do not consider implied odds before deciding to play their hands preflop.

Basically short stack play removes a major barrier for the short stack and the deep stack. If a player flops something, they do not need to worry very much about being trapped or making a big laydown. From the short stack's perspective - playing hands that are very strong on most flops makes the most sense. From the deep stack's perspective - short stack players do not have enough chips that its a big deal if they lose. What this leads to, is a tendency for deep stacks to keep short stacks "honest" and look them up with top pair weak kicker or middle pair. This means that if a short stack player only plays very premium hands - and plays them overly aggressively, then they will beat most deep stack players on most flops. For example, if you only play AA, KK, QQ, AK then the vast majority of the time you will have the best hand after the flop, regardless of if you improve your hand or not.

Preflop I have noticed that players who are deep stacked will call large overbets made by short stacks with pretty terrible cards a lot of the time. The majority of these players will call with nearly all pairs, AK-AJ, and sometimes much, much worse, like 78s or A5s. I was actually called by a 43os yesterday. So to exploit this tendency I like to raise and reraise with any hand I think is a 50/50 or better. If I reraise it is always all-in if I have below my initial buyin amount. My favorite hands to do this with are JJ, QQ, and AK. So for example. A player raises in middle position to 3x BB. The button calls and I look down and find AcKs in the SB. I raise all-in for 20x BB. Now notice, any pair is a favorite to my hand, but then, any ace is an underdog, and many other hands are in terrible shape, like KQ or 67. In addition I have locked up both player's raises in the pot. This means that if they fold I win 7.5 BBs. This folding equity makes my play at least break even, against 50/50 hands - but then a certain percentage of the time (I have found this to depend on the opponents in the game) I am called by terrible hands and am as much as a 4:1 favorite (overpair vs underpair situations). So, I estimate that my expected value is nearly always positive when I make this play. I don't mind getting called, and I certainly don't mind picking up free money.

The second part of the strategy, is recognizing that if I have top pair or better I nearly always have the best hand. I can raise and reraise or call all-in with these hands. I also know that players won't give me credit for a hand when the flops do not contain an Ace or King. So I tend to bet my overpairs strongly regardless of the board texture, if I suspect my opponent may try to bluff me off my hand. I will bet just enough to communicate that I have enough left to fold. Players will raise me allin with 2nd pair, flush draws, straight draws, even ace-high. You would be surprised. On paired boards I nearly always bet my made hands. Players with pairs nearly always reraise me. Today I got it all in three seperate times in situations like this. Every time I had an overpair to the board and had my opponent drawing at 5 outs or less.

The important thing is that they are not considering the situation very clearly. They have very small implied odds against me because of my chip stack size. AND I always set myself up by betting more preflop so that I can make easier decisions on the flop. If I make a 4x BB raise or larger preflop. Than my 20x BB stack is pretty much committed if I get more than 2 callers.

For example, two players limp in early position and I have KhKd on the cutoff. I raise it to 4x BB. The BB calls and the two limpers call. There are 16.5 x BB in the pot. If I started with 20x BB preflop, I now have 16x BB left. Any flop without an ace is a simple all-in, unless I am sure that I could not possibly have the best hand (ie two players go all-in in front of me or something nutty). Basically, I only have enough chips to make a single play, so I don't have to worry about my opponents hitting a set. In addition, if a pot is heads up, my opponents are almost never getting the right odds to call me preflop in an attempt to hit a set or a straight or flush. (the chance to hit a set is 8.5 to 1, so if I raise to 3x BB my opponents will be unable to win the necessary 26X BB from me required to justify calling to hit it).

The the limp-reraise is my favorite play with this strategy preflop because hands like TT or JJ or AK which can be very difficult to play out of position on most flops can simply be put to an all-in preflop. I had one table where I limp reraised 4 times within an hour with big hands and was called by inferior hands every single time. AK vs AT, AK vs KQ, TT vs 55, JJ vs 88. The key here is that, as I said before, a lot of the time I am committed on flops, so if I'm gonna play these hands I'd rather just get it all in preflop, than have to make very difficult decisions after the flop - most of the time being all-in. But here, my decisions are not as cut and dry as with hands like AA or KK. Its not very likely that JJ is ahead on a AK2 board. or even a Q42 board. By limp reraising, I do sometimes see flops when it gets limped/checked around. But when this happens I just try to play "flop it or fold it" strategy. If I miss I just check fold and move on. It really sucks to raise with AK in early position, get three callers and see a 279 flop. I just avoid this completely by moving all-in preflop and forcing my opponents to make the mistakes.

I will add further updates as I think of some of the subtleties of the strategy...