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Entry #29: NL Ring Games: Does Size Matter? (Part One)
Apart from being able to play in your underwear (admit it - you've all done it), online poker offers players all sorts of flexibility in terms of how much they sit down at a table with. Good money management is imperative in this game, as is the ability to see the virtual chips we play for as a means of keeping score, so - assuming that we are comfortable on both fronts - what happens if we sit down at a NL table with considerably less chips than the opposition? Does stack size matter?
"Different players adopt different 'strategies' when deliberately having a go with a short stack"
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On a $0.50/$1 table, for example, the minimum that can be taken to the table is $10 and the maximum is $100, and it is not unusual to see a couple of players at both ends of the spectrum on a typical full table. Not surprisingly different players adopt different 'strategies' when deliberately having a go with a short stack (as opposed to finding yourself down to $10 from a maximum buy-in, a situation which is completely different from a psychological standpoint). I use the word strategies rather loosely, as some people arrive short-stacked and proceed to play as if they need to be somewhere else within minutes (in which case they shouldn't have sat down at all), going all-in with any random holding before a round is over. Of course this can mean early doubling or even tripling of chips but, essentially, is akin to a $10 mini-lottery ticket. Most play conservatively in the hope that they'll have enough chips to push with when a big hand comes along, but the main problem with playing with so few chips relative to both the blinds and - more importantly - the usual level of betting that goes on in NL ring games is that it is quite normal to lose it all simply by playing a hand properly. Of course that is part of the game, and nowhere near as bad as opting to bow out of a hand because, for example, you're afraid that calling all of your remaining $7 on the turn against two others with a massive number of strong outs might leave you empty. And herein lies the downside of playing with the bare minimum: not playing hands in the correct manner (and being fully aware of it) - effectively giving your opponents a weight advantage.
"Some players in possession of the most chips seem to think it is their duty to bully the short stack(s) at every opportunity"
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If you do want to limit overall risk but allow yourself a slightly bigger stack - say $30 in this case - that is nonetheless still short relative to the would-be big hitters at the table, then this at least allows for a little more leeway and action. Particularly in a full ring game the blinds are less of a problem and a more patient game can be played, while you now have enough ammunition with which to scare off other players on marginal holdings. In other words you have a more varied bag of NL tricks at your disposal. There are also the psychological implications of the short stack to consider - how will the bigger stacks react? Some players in possession of the most chips seem to think it is their duty to bully the short stack(s) at every opportunity, and they often don't mind losing the occasional pot to these 'minnows' in their quest to knock them out of the game or force a re-buy (why they go on the warpath like this I don't know, since making money is the object of the game, but every table tends to have such a character). It is exactly this type of player that the crafty sharks will target when sitting down with less than half the maximum buy-in, and in the hands of a canny, experienced player the short stack can be a dangerous weapon indeed. If you do a bit of detective work when singling out what looks to be a decent player who mysteriously joins the game short, then you might well find him simultaneously doing the same thing on other tables. It is not easy starting out on a NL table with a short stack, but with experience comes an appreciation of approaches that are specific to this particular situation. You won't get rich quickly, perhaps, but the worst that can happen is that your bankroll sustains a modest hit. With a bit of good play and good fortune, of course, you will no longer be short-stacked., which brings us to Part Two...
Have a good week!
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