Playing against a short stack...? How?

Hi guys,

Hyppthetical situation as it is one I having been running into which is costing me money.

Lets say you have a 100bb stack and are in Late position. Short stack has 25bb. Lets say he's running 18/12/2 just for this example

Short stack raises from EP 4xbb and you are LP with AK.

What do you do?

Do you 3 bet to like 12xbb essentially committing youself to getting all in with this guy or do you flat call and see a flop.

If you see a flop and you miss completely, how do you play out the hand?

I seem to get myself in situations where i find my self all in with a short stack and often losing to a better hand or pushing my marginal post flop hand too far because he has so little left in his stack.

I always pre-flop raise with AK (not only to increase the pot but to test the waters) if theres a shortstack id put him all in before the flop but it really depends on the situation, the read and how much % of your stack his whole stack is. Just remember the big slick is a raising hand dont limp and let someone beat you with 2 pair on a cheap flop

if you miss the flop completely (and your in position) then a raise is really good if it gets checked to you, this works even better if you raised pre-flop and its obvious that either the flop missed everyone or someone is limping. If your shortstack then you should either be all in or already folded, hope this helps.

Against someone who only has 25bb Im trying to get all in preflop with AK every time. I am mainly a 6max player, but Im pretty sure you should be getting it in at FR as well.

^^^^^

if you don't raise all in, which could be excessive depending on who is still to act and exactly how much your opponent has, you need to raise enough to make clear you are pot commited to get it all in. The best part of AK is its fold equity.

I call.........AK is not good enough to go allin against a small stack with AK .....Risking to much
And I fold if I not hit on the flop...

But in NL 100 full ring the shortstacks is often raising with good hands.........


In NL 25 full ring and lower I would have reraised.......
It also depends on the player but that is my general rule if I dont have any reads.


If you do rerais you are pot commited and you are most likely into a coinflip.

I try to get him allin as well. Plus shortstackers are more willing to call, than another deepstack, so that is only an advantage.

put him all in your way ahead of his raising range.

gotta put him allin. i mean what hands are you behind on right here. not many. your gonna win more of these than you lose. put pressure on him, he may well fold.

You can push all in because a short all in in no one else is playing.
You are in real troubles only if you meet KK or AA. And it's always annoying not finding a K or an A on the flop (the majority of the cases). So the best is putting a big pressure preflop

It depends on where we are in the tourney. If it is very late in the tourney I would just put him all in. Other than that, I would call and see a flop.

1st let me say that I hate short-stackers (deny me of my implied odds will you). 2nd if it's your normal super-nit short-stack (the 7/6/5 guys) you have almost no FE (they generally don't raise from EP without something they are willing to get all-in with) so I actually like calling and getting in only if I hit the flop. Seems really weak I know but these guys just don't fold to a 3bet often enough to make up for the small edge they have preflop. Now a guy with the stats given in the OP gets 3bet every time because we're way ahead of his range.