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Strategy Guide for PokerStars Step 3 Tournaments

SB
The small blind introduces an entirely new dynamic into your decision making. You have to contend with way more decisions that involve calling shoves as opposed to making them, and when you do shove, you’re likely to get the widest possible range of reactions from the BB, as many players give SB raises basically no respect (and rightfully so).

With effective stacks over 10BBs, it’s difficult to shove profitably BVB. You should typically restrict your shoves to top 10% hands, opening a slight bit if the BB is extremely tight. As far as calling / iso-ing goes, the guidelines for 7-10BB stacks (discussed below) apply here as well.

With 7-10BB stacks, you should be calling / iso-raising similarly sized stacks pretty tight from the SB, even if a raise looks fishy. Resist the urge to call off all ins with small pairs and weak aces or even strong broadway. The major caveat to this rule is that if the raise comes from a crippled stack – 3 BBs or less – you can afford to isolate very wide from the SB, even if the BB is fairly deep as well. The logic here is that if the BB has a hand strong enough to call your iso, it’s unlikely that the short stack will come out on top in the hand. As you get deeper effective stacks, you should tighten up your iso range to top 10% or so, but when you have the BB safely covered, you can (and should) be isolating the crippled raise very wide (think top 50%), as there’s just so much money added to the pot at that point and you face only a minimal risk of suffering a serious loss.

As far as raising goes, you should be challenging the BB pretty liberally, but the rule we established above still applies – the deeper the effective stacks are and the looser your opponent is, the tighter you should play. As you move down to the 7BB end of the effective stack size scale (especially where your opponent has 7BBs), you get closer to being able to justify ATC shoves, but you can still pretty safely fold garbage hands. There are numerous exceptions and special cases for SB vs BB play at this stack size that you’re going to want to investigate on your own, but when in doubt, defer to playing tightly when you’re deep and the BB is loose and loosely when they’re not.

With 4-7BB stacks, your ability to call raises and iso-raise is somewhat limited compared to the range you can play with a larger stack. Get out of the way when similar-sized stacks put a raise in, but look to again iso-raise crippled stacks who push all in with a fairly wide range (closer to 25% of hands). Don’t pass up these iso-spots – while it might be tempting to get out of the way and let the BB take care of it, you’re actually giving up lots of value

If you get to open,you’re generally going to want to be pushing very wide. If you’re in last place, look to push about top 50% even if the BB has chips and is calling loose. If you suspect the BB has reason to be tight – say only calling with pairs, aces and top broadway – open up your range to include everything but the absolute trash hands. If there’s a stack smaller than yours (that isn’t in the BB), you should tighten up just a smidge (closer to top 40% than 50%) unless that stack is hovering at around 3BBs or less, in which case you should tighten up dramatically (~ top 20%).

With sub-4BB stacks, you’re going to want to call pretty snugly, as any raise in front offers some (if only a slim) hope that another player might be crippled or eliminated. Look for top 7% or so (77+ and AJ+) to be calling most raises from stacks that have you covered. When a shorter stack raises, you should actually look to be iso raising with a fairly wide range (top 15% or so), unless you have some reason to believe that the short stack is only getting their last few chips in with premium hands (which is rarely the case, especially if the raise comes from early position) .

If it folds to you, you should be pushing the BB with a wide range that starts at 50% (if they’re very loose) and moves to ATC (if they’re even reasonably tight). For example, you can profitably shove ATC with 3.5 BBs versus a BB who is willing to call with 35% of hands, a range that includes almost all trash kings, lots of queens, and so on. Don’t fall into the trap of shoving ATC against every opponent and every stack, as even a 3BB stack can easily squeeze into the money at this point with a little luck, but be aware that your chances against a random hand are pretty good, especially with the money added to the pot.

Summary: Get out of the way when larger stacks raise, get in the way when crippled stacks raise, and attack the BB with most cards most of the time.

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