Short stack tournament play

Short stack tournament play is the easiest form of tournament play to be involved in. You only have one real decision to make throughout the course of when you have a short stack. That decision is whether to go all-in or fold your hand. If you limp in to a hand and then fold on the flop you will be hurting your chances at survival. When you have a short stack in a tournament what you want to do as the limits get bigger is progress through the tournament. You will have to be very lucky throughout to dodge mind fields left and right. If you can manage to dodge these hands, and avoid being unlucky, but, rather be lucky you can progress through the tournament.

The range of hands changes depending on how many big blinds you have and what position you are at the table. If you are in the small blind sitting with under 10 big blinds, and the table folds around, it should be an instant all-in with virtually every hand. The reason to move all-in with a wide range is because your opponent needs to get a hand in order to call you. Even if they do make a call on your all-in, luck could be on your side, and you could double through. Playing with less than 10 big blinds you should be moving in with any Ace or even hands as bad as QJ. You can move in a wide range because you will need luck eventually to make a progression through the tournament, and you could possibly not get a hand that is good enough in the future. If you get a hand that you feel is good enough to shove in then you should shove.

If you have between ten and fifteen big blinds this is the time when you can shove all-in to small open raises. In a situation where the blinds are 500-1,000 and you have 13,000 chips is a perfect situation for a re-steal move at a pot. When a player opens a pot from the button and you are in the small blind with A4 or a hand that is weak, but could be ahead you should move in to a raise between 2,000-3,000 chips before the flop. If the button opens the pot to 2,500 this is a standard steal raise. If you can shove over the top a lot of time you will win the pot without a showdown. When you are winning pots without showdowns and increasing your stack you are playing an effective short stack. If you can manage to slowly progress through and then eventually double through you will have a better chance at going deep in the tournament. When you are playing too tight with a short stack you will get blinded out of the tournament and have no shot to win it. If you can pick good spots to get your poker bonus money in before the flop you will have a better chance to progress through the tournament.