Short Stacking in No-Limit Hold’em
One strategy that online poker players utilize is called “short-stacked”. This is when you arrive at a no-limit hold’em table with the minimum buy-in, usually 20 big blinds. The idea is to keep your decisions simple; with such a short stack, your options are pretty much all-in or fold.
No-limit online poker grinders regularly complain about short-stacking. Their claim is that it changes the dynamics of the game too much. To their credit, they’re right. Short-stacking definitely changes the nature of the table since players have to be careful not to build the pot too much preflop. Understandably, they don’t want to trap themselves into having to make a pot odds call of a short-stack’s all-in with a marginal holding.
But all of this is neither here nor there. The fact is, there’s nothing wrong with short-stacking. As long as the online poker rooms allow you to do it, why not take advantage of it?
How to Short-Stack
Buy-in for the table minimum. Bear in mind that short-stacking really only works when the minimum buy-in is 20 big blinds. Tables with a minimum buy-in of 50 big blinds will mean you have to make a lot of complicated decisions for your stack. The whole point of short-stacking is to keep things simple, so sit at a 20 big blind table to keep it that way.
Your goal is to wait for a good hand and then raise or re-raise all-in preflop. Observe the players. Which ones are raising frequently and which ones are raising tight? This is important information since you can re-raise all-in with a wider range of hands against the loose players, whereas you’ll want to fold hands like Ace-Ten when a very tight player raises since they probably have you beat.
If no one has raised the pot, whether or not you raise all-in depends on what position you’re in. If you’re in the small blind or on the button, you can move all-in with a fairly wide range of hands. Some of the crappier hands that you can raise all-in with are hands like King-Eight suited, Jack-Ten offsuit, and Ten-Nine suited.
In earlier position, your all-in range will be considerably tighter. This is because you need to dodge 4-5 opponents’ hands instead of 1-2. Move all-in with most pocket pairs, any Ace-Jack or higher unsuited, any Ace-Ten or higher suited, any King-Queen, and any suited King-Jack or Queen-Jack. With this range of hands, you’ll probably steal the pot preflop most of the time and when you’re called, you should be in pretty good shape against your opponent.
Don’t forget the last crucial part of short-stacking: after you double-up, leave the table!