Nor is it hard to find tips about short-stacked strategy, including 'push-fold' charts and other guidance to help you try to chip back up and into contention. Poker Strategy with Matt Berkey. Push-fold Charts are based strictly on mathematics. Using complex poker programs such as ICMIZER 3 and PokerStove, the game is able to be solved for short-stack-play. In other words, there are pre-designed ranges for each and every spot, from seating to stack depth.
Not really, or at least not the same. If you try to use push/fold charts for these you’ll lose. Opponent stacks are very important, but charts only take into account your own stack. I’d buy ICMizer or similar software. HeadsUp Push/Fold Charts. Classic Nash Equilibrium charts for the 2-player push-or-fold game. If you find yourself heads-up with high blinds then this is the strategy you should be playing.
When it comes to multi-table tournaments, there's no shortage of advice out there for accumulating chips and bullying with a big stack. Nor is it hard to find tips about short-stacked strategy, including 'push-fold' charts and other guidance to help you try to chip back up and into contention.
Meanwhile, there isn't quite as much specific advice out there for playing a medium-sized stack in a MTT. By 'medium' we mean stacks that are not deep enough to allow a player to explore the entire range of preflop and postflop options, but not so short that the player is unable to open-raise or three-bet preflop, or engage in other postflop moves like continuation betting and the like.
While the structure and current status of the tournament dictate what exactly a 'medium' stack is at any given point, in many MTTs anything from 15-30 big blinds often will fall in that range.
For some players, a stack of 20 big blinds (for example) also often will fall within the range of 'squeeze stacks,' meaning if a player raises before the flop and one or more call, a player might reraise-shove those 20 big blinds as a squeeze play designed to collect all of that dead money without a showdown, or at worst be up against a single opponent with a playable hand. (See '10 More Hold'em Tips: Making the Squeeze Play' for more on this move.)
While squeezing with such a stack can be an effective move, being down to 20 big blinds doesn't mean you have to be overly eager to get it all in — not yet.
A primary lesson when playing medium stacks, especially as a tournament moves into the middle stage and nears the bubble or even after it has reached the money, is to continue to have patience and not feel as though you have to get those 20 big blinds in the middle at the first opportunity. That's an idea explored more thoroughly in an article appearing here a short while back titled 'Risky Business: Medium-Stacked in a Tournament's Middle Stage.'
At a past World Series of Poker, our Sarah Herring caught up with the Russian pro Anatoly Filatov as he was playing a no-limit hold'em event, and as it happened it was the middle stage and he found himself on the (relative) short side with a 20-big blind stack.
Filatov offered some useful tips for those who find themselves in this situation, advising players to...
- remain patient
- wait for playable, good hands
- still open-raise, but don't be overly ready to shove
- three-bet occasionally (depending on hand strength)
- tone down the aggression (especially if there are other aggressive players at the table)
- when getting involved, try to pot control
Take a look:
Tags
tournament strategyno-limit hold’emstarting hand selectionsqueeze playpreflop strategypostflop strategyAnatoly FilatovRelated Players
Anatoly Filatov
The answer to this is a resounding Yes! We poker players absolutely have a range of hands we should be open-shoving with when short-stacked. In fact, this is one of the few areas of poker that is actually 'solved' by the math geeks of poker. The solution method derives from something called the Nash Equilibrium method.
In game theory, Nash equilibrium is a method of solving so-called 'non-cooperative games' (like poker) that involve two or more players. Nash assumes that each player is playing perfectly; i.e,. everyone knows the strategies and best decisions of the other players, and no player has anything to gain by changing only their own strategy unilaterally. Said another way: Hero and Villain are in Nash equilibrium if Hero is making the best decision he can, taking into account Villain's strategy, and Villain is making the best decision he can, taking into account Hero's strategy.Uh, okay. What's this got to do short stack poker? Answer: the math boys have used this method to work out the chip-EV calculations for different hand ranges, given an assumed payout structure of an MTT, for different stack sizes and table sizes. The result of this is something called Push-Fold charts. Google/Bing/Yahoo the term and you'll find lots of information on this approach to short stack play. Or, even better, let Uncle Bug do it for you: Just go to a site like Exceptional Poker to get the charts. For instance, here's a chart for open-shoving when you're at 10 big blinds at a full ring table:
If you were in MP with, say four players left to act, and the action folds to you and there are not yet Antes involved, you should be open shoving with: 22+ A7s+ A5s-A3s ATo+ K8s+ KJo+ Q8s+ QJo J8s+ T8s+ 98s. If you have a shorter stack than 10bb, just select the appropriate tab on the web page and go from there. Same with 6-max and heads-up play. (Note that if you have more than 10bb, you should be open-raising to less than all-in.)
Now, are the charts on a site like this perfect for all situations? No, of course not. The charts don't take into account things like individual villain traits and tendencies, and by default they have to assume a specific payout structure that may or may not match the tourney you're playing in (e.g., this particular web site assumes a very top-heavy payout structure). They also assume your opponents are playing perfectly and adjusting accordingly. This is clearly not true...
... but it turns out that this doesn't actually matter much. Most experts agree that if you use correct short-stack push-fold charts like the ones found on Exceptional Poker you will have a significant advantage over ~60% of the players you find at low and mid-stakes online tourneys, and probably a high as 70%+ in your local casino live low-stakes tourneys. Pay attention- this is a really significant edge, folks.
Note that if you're new to push-fold Nash charts, you might think the hand ranges seem pretty wide. Well, yes, they are. But the math don't lie, and countless computer simulations by lots of smart poker/math guys have proven that these charts represent the game theory optimal solution and are correct.
Note also that the Nash ranges assume you're up against opponents who play perfectly. When they make mistakes or don't play optimally, you profit even more by using the charts. Note however that if your opponent's mistakes are significantly large you can make even more profit by deviating your push/fold ranges from the chart. Usually this means tightening up a wee bit. But don't go too far, or you will be the one straying too far from Nash's recommendations-- and therefore be the one playing sub-optimally.
All-in for now...