Short-Stack Strategy
Your chip stack is dwindling - you just can't catch any cards or you've been mauled. The blinds are rising and eating your stack even further. You're dropping behind. You can't keep folding or if you do the blinds will take you out. What do you do?
Point number one is that being "short stacked" is going to happen to you a lot. You play poker, you do get short stacked. Period. And old cliché but a very valid one "you can't win 'em all."
But - with poker (and here's another cliché) the saying goes that you always have a chance as long as you have "a chip and a chair." One famous story to reinforce that goes back to the World Series of Poker in 2025. Jack Straus went all-in and lost the pot. He thought he was on his way home. But a dealer spotted a $500 chip under Straus' napkin. Remarkably, Straus came back to win the title from just that $500 chip.
So - never give up. You've always got a chance of making the free poker money as long as you're in the game. But when you find yourself becoming short stacked and your chances getting slimmer, the best form of defense is attack! You must make a move - and do so while you still have enough chips to make a difference. It's no good waiting until you have a couple of hundred chips and everyone else has a couple of thousand. They can easily call you with anything and you will find yourself with multiple callers and little chance. The big stacks will take you out.
Again - make your move while you can still affect the chances of you opponents and have enough chips to do so. A general rule of thumb here is when you have a stack of between five to ten times the amount of the big blind. Then pick your hand and "go for it." But not just any hand - you can still play smart if the opportunity to do so comes along, such as raising from late position against few callers (and no big stacks).
Or if you're fortunate enough to get a premium starting hand, shove all your chips in and cross your fingers.
If you're not fortunate enough to get a premium starting hand and your chip position is perilous (between five to ten times the big blind) then pick a hand with which to make your stand. Could be any pair, any time you're dealt two face cards. But pick one you must. If you get a caller or two and win you've at least doubled up and back in the hunt. If you cause them all to fold, you've still won the blind's chips.
You may have to do this more than once in the same tournament.
That is how you can "come back from the dead." Never give up, be aware enough to know when to make your stand and then make it. Yes, it's a coin-toss scenario but the alliterative is a lingering death as the blinds take you out. |
