Playing Short Stacks in Shorthanded NL Holdem
Playing against someone with a short stack can be tricky. You must be selective of when you are aggressive, because if your short-stacked opponent calls you on the flop, he is likely to go all the way in before the hand is over. If you make a bluff or semi-bluff against the short stack on the flop and you get a call, you must slow down if the turn does not help you. If you continue to fire at the pot with no hand, a lot of times you will get called down because the short stack does not have much to lose.
If you feel that your opponent was on a draw and missed, while you have a decent hand, it is often best to check the river and let the short stack throw the rest of the chips in. Trust me, the majority of the time, the short stack will bluff at the pot with no hand when a lot of the his/her chips are in the pot (which is not a bad play if the pot odds warrant it). If instead you make a value bet, the short stack will give up. This is a good chance to break the short stack.
Some people that like to enter a game short-stacked will play very tight and simply wait for a monster to double up. You must constantly apply pressure to these people as they will fold quite often. If the tight short stack is playing back at you, you must evaluate your hand and decide whether is good enough to continue. Against this type of person I like to constantly raise him preflop when I have position. If he calls, then fire another shot at the pot on the flop whether you hit or not, as he will only be hitting the flop 1/3 of the time, and this type of player is not the type that will want to continue putting a big portion of their chips in without a premium holding.
If the player is loose/aggressive, you must be a bit more selective, but you also must be willing to play back at him. If he is constantly raising preflop, you must reraise a good majority of the time on mediocre holdings. When I am playing this type of player, usually after about 3 or 4 reraises, he will push all in with a speculative hand. Now it is decision time. Let’s say that you have Ax suited, or KJ, QJ, KQ, maybe a middle pocket pair. You must look at the pot odds. OK, for example this is the hand:
Heads up with a loose aggressive player, 5/10 NL, he has $200, you have $1000. He is constantly raising you when he has position with a lot of poor holdings. You pick up As7s in the SB, he throws in a raise to $30. You have a nice hand for heads up play, and he has been raising with a lot of cards, so you reraise to $90. He thinks for a moment and goes all-in. It is $110 more to call with $290 in the pot. At this point you may think that you are badly beaten or at least running way behind, but this is not the time to let this hand go. He is giving you over 2.5:1 on your call. You are a big underdog to Aces, over 7:1. You are a 2:1 underdog to KK-88. You are a 2.4:1 underdog to suited hands like AK-A10. You are a favorite against KQ, KJ, QJ and worse. And there is always the possibility of a bluff on a poor holding. We should allow about a 10% chance of a total bluff on a junk hand. He may be tired of you coming over the top of him and want to try to stay in control of the table. A lot of people do not like to be disrespected by being raised. They want to be the master of the table and win the majority of the pots, so they make a stand like this that to say “you cannot run over me”. In this particular hand, these pot odds are just enough for a call in my opinion. You may lose this hand more often than win it, but in the long run since you already have put $90 in the pot, calling is the right decision and will make more money than folding.
Playing against a short stack can be frustrating, as a lot of your usual strategies are ineffective at best, counterproductive at worst. With some slight adjustments, however, you’ll find that picking off short stacks is not only relatively easy, but a great way to build up ammunition for battles with your real targets at the table - the players who can double you through.
Related article - Chris’s thoughts on playing short stacks in NL.
