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!

In general, I would say that new players defend their blinds way too often. The blind positions are the least profitable seats on the table. Take a moment to consider that. You will almost inevitably, no matter how good you are, lose money over the course of your poker playing career from the blinds.

Of course, one major reason for this is that you put a modicum of money into each pot from the blinds only to typically fold preflop thereby surrendering that money. But another major reason people lose money hand over fist from the blind positions is that it’s the worst position to be in at the table post-flop.

After the flop, you will always be out of position playing a hand from the blinds. For that very reason, you should be very selective about what hands you play from the blinds since you will almost always face difficult decisions for the remainder of the hand. In other words, fold your blind hands very regularly. You should only be looking to play premium hands from the blinds. Yes, I know you already have made an investment into the pot, but cut your losses immediately and don’t further throw away chips trying to play some Jack-Eight hand out of position for the remainder of the hand.

Okay, so what do you do when you have a legitimate hand in the big blind? I recommend balancing your decisions as follows:

If you have a very strong hand (like TT+ or AQ+), you should consider re-raising the pot. Although you’re out of position, your hand strength more than makes up for that.

But what about when you have a good, but not great hand like KQ, AJ, or pocket 77? In these situations, I typically advocate just calling the raise and seeing a flop.

It’s a pretty safe bet that 70% of the time you’ll miss the flop, 20% of the time you’ll hit the flop fairly well, and 10% of the time you’ll hit the flop very well.

70% of the time you miss

In these spots, the only way you’re going to win is if you bet at the pot. You can be sure that if you check, your opponent will usually bet. For the most part, that is okay. My advice is to bluff at the pot about 25% of the time hoping your opponent folds, check/fold 65% of the time, and actually check/raise 10% of the time to balance your range for when you make that play and have a strong hand.

20% of the time you hit the flop

This is the trickiest hand to play since you don’t know if you are ahead or not. Anytime that is the case, you want to try to keep the pot as small as possible. Therefore, consider just checking the flop and calling your opponent’s bet. If the turn goes check-check, you can consider firing out a value-bet on the river.

10% of the time you hit the flop hard

In this situation I think you have two options: bet out at the flop or check/raise the flop. In general, I recommend doing a check/raise a little more often than leading out on the flop. Try to build a big pot here and now while you still like your hand a lot.

Tier 1: AA, KK, QQ, JJ, and AK

These are the best hands you can be dealt in Texas hold’em. You should virtually always play these cards regardless of what position you’re in.

Tier 2: 77-TT, AJ, AQ, KQ

These are solid hands that you will play almost always, but will sometimes be forced to fold preflop in the face of a lot of action.

Tier 3: 22-66, A8-AT, KJ, KT, QJ, QT, JT, T9ss

Sometimes these tier three hands can be great, other times you will fold them before the flop. It depends on what position you’re in (the later the better) and how much betting action has taken place.

Tier 4: A2-A7, suited connectors like 67, K9, Q9

Be cautious with these hands. They’re kind of like a fat chick when you’re drunk: it seems okay at the time but it’s not uncommon that you wind up regretting it. It’s okay to dabble around with a fat chick here and there, you just don’t want to marry her. Know what I mean?

Tier 5: Q8, J9, 98, semi-suited connectors like 68

Playing these hands is kind of like digging in the trash. Sure, maybe you’ll find a diamond ring someone accidentally threw out, but chances are you’ll just wind up getting dirty and coming out empty handed.

Tier 6: Garbage hands like Q3, T4, 72, 32, etc

These hands should be played in almost no circumstances. Fold and hope to be dealt something better on the next hand.

- All players are dealt two cards face down.

- There is a round of betting where players decide if they’re in or out.

- Three cards are placed face-up in the middle of the table. This is known as the “flop”. Players use their two “hole cards” in conjunction with the community cards to form the best poker hand.

- There is another round of betting.

- A fourth communal card known as the “turn” is placed face-up.

- Another betting round.

- The fifth and final communal card known as the “river” is placed face up.

- A final betting round.

- Players remaining in the hand reveal their cards to determine a winner.

It’s as simple as that. The tough part is understanding no-limit hold’em strategy well enough to turn this easy game into a profitable game!

Pineapple

Also called ‘Crazy Pineapple’, this game deals players three cards instead of two. After the flop, all players remaining in the hand must discard one of their three cards. The remainder of the hand is played out in traditional no-limit hold’em fashion.

Strategy Tip: Stick to your normal no-limit hold’em strategy, but place a little extra value on hands with three consecutive cards (example: Six-Seven-Eight).

Ante Added

Think no-limit hold’em is a crazy poker game? Try adding a mandatory ante to each hand. For example, if your game has $1/$2 blinds, adding a $.25 ante to each hand will really ramp up the action.

Strategy Tip: Raise preflop more since the value of taking down a pot before the flop has increased.

Bounty Hand

A cool no-limit hold’em variation is to have a rule where if a player wins a pot with Seven-Two offsuit (which is the worst starting hand in poker), and shows their hand, they receive one big blind from every player at the table’s stack. Although this is a small rule change, it has a big effect on creating action since people perceive the likelihood that you’re bluffing has increased substantially.

Strategy Tip: Play Seven-Deuce offsuit and rub it in everyone’s face when you win!

Straddle Rules

Another fun rule to implement is a no-limit straddle. A straddle means the player to the left of the big blind (the first player to act before the flop) can place an unlimited amount of money into the pot to serve as a third blind. In doing so, they effectively become the new big blind and the new big blind is whatever amount they originally put in the pot. For example, if the small blind posts $1 and the big blind posts $2, the player in the straddle position can bet anything. So if they put $10 in the pot, it’s essentially a $1/$2/$10 no-limit hold’em game for that hand.

Strategy Tip: Raise preflop with confidence; the straddle money is essentially a bunch of extra dead money in the pot!