A few years ago short stacking strategy became popular and now it is even more popular due to it being mentioned in numerous poker books and on numerous poker sites. Many people are claiming that short stacking players are ruining NLHE and PLO and online poker in general. I don’t believe that this is the case for the reasons that I am just about to go into. Firstly the implied odds that are present in today’s games are lower as are the average stack sizes. On top of that and the average skill level is also higher.
In the full ring no limit hold’em games that I play in then variance is much lower but when players look to stack off for considerable amounts of big blinds then they nearly always have strong hands. This means that your edge in big pots isn’t the same as it was a few years ago and implied odds have dropped through the floor. Because of this then not only has the edge in certain situations been reduced but it also means that fold equity is now much more important than before.
So your profits come not from playing big pots but from playing small to medium-small pots. This means that the effect of a short stack player isn’t as pronounced. Secondly for a short stack player to be a problem then they have to be a good short stack player and not just somebody that has bought in short. This is another factor that many people fail to consider. Many short stack players simply play bad poker even though they have bought in short. In these instances then I would much rather have their action on the site and adding liquidity than them not being in the game at all.
Thirdly many sites have increased the number of big blinds that you can buy in for as a table minimum. Many sites have a 30-35 big blind minimum buy-in now rather than the 20 big blinds of a few years ago. This makes a short stack strategy harder to execute and this helps to keep down the number of short stackers. Finally there are clear strategies in place for playing short stack players that are good. Reducing your raise size If they are to your left or tightening your ranges if they have already limped in are two such strategies.
You also need to keep in mind that a good short stack player falls into two categories just like any other good poker player. They are either tight-aggressive or loose-aggressive. Against LAG short stacks then you need to counter their style by basically using their style against them. A good LAG short stacker will look to maximise fold equity and so will not be actively looking to stack off as much. So if you open raise from the button and such a player 3/bets you then a 4/bet enough to put them all in soon puts a stop to their strategy.
Carl “The Dean” Sampson is an 888 poker professional and poker writer and you can also see me on my G+ page at https://plus.google.com/u/0/115053726433255054649/author
