short stacking low limit games

ok before I even begin to write this up let me tell you that playing this way in no way is good bankroll managment. I suggest you do this only 1 level above where you should be. I currently do this only at 1/2 and have tried it at 2/4 but mainly at 1/2. 1st lets go over some rules to do this.


1. dont tilt, realize you are going to be called extremly light. You are running a 20xbb stack against people with 200bb stacks or more. They are going to call you very very light and that is what we want. Do not add more to your stack because you think you can outplay someone, that is not our goal here.

2. Buy in under the suggested amount. When you enter a game there are three amounts you can buy in at. A suggested amount, a max amount and then you can erase the suggested amount and buy in at the minimum. For my 1/2 game it is $40 and if you look at the table description up top it will tell you the minimum.

ok lets go into detail how I do this, 1st let me tell you I have had great success doing this. I just did it a couple of minutes ago and made $100 and got off the tables. Set a amount you want to win and when you reach it get the hell off the tables. Yes you will piss people off but you know what oh well. Its your money you won it fair and square and if they want a chance to get it back tell them to come find you sometime. Limp with your big pocket pairs and wait for someone to raise they will normally and the jam that pot up....all in baby. If you limp and get 5 callers throw it away, I have stacked off before with QQ when I limped I was lucky all he had was top pair 9.

do not steal blinds....ever. Its dumb, as a shortstack they know you cant call unless you plan on going all in and you would of done that anyway if you wanted to so they will push you. I try to limp with pairs and small suited connector cards, this pisses off people they hate limpers and will raise you very light but eventully calm down. Limping is contageous and all you need is 1 limper after you or before you and usually you wont get raised then. Many people wont raise medium strength hands to multiple limpers.

just try to get your money in as good as you can and let the cads fall where they will. We are playing the odds game here, AK and big pairs we want to get as much money as possible in middle if not all of it. Small pairs we want to see flop as cheap as possible and try to hit a set. I did this at 2/4 the other day, I built my like $150 to about $400. Now I could of left but decided to say little longer, had 88 and limped of course. Called a 3 bet and hit a 8 on the flop. Because of how I had been playing limping a lot and just shoving I got called by KK and doubled my stack. I said GG and left.

Just try to create the image of a person that is sitting with their whole bankroll or a huge portion of it and we will get the action we want. Like right now I have a little over $800 online right now and putting $40 at a table is not a huge amount but guess what they dont know that. As far as they know I have $50 online and I put $40 on table and save $10 for some tourneys. They are not going to give you credit for hands. Right now I enjoy doing this, now I still practice bankroll managment on a regular basis. Like I wouldnt go open 4 $100 tables and buy in full at each one because im not bankrolled for that but I see no problem with opening a couple of $1/$2 games and shortstack them. Many people on this forum will not like this and then there are some that will love it. Its up to you if you want to attempt this but it is not good if that $40 is going to put a big dent in your bankroll. For me $40 is not a big deal, now I would not do this at 3/6 or higher rightn now because that would put a dent in my bankroll. Whatever you decide to do gl.

great read and great strategy. i plan on using this when i can get my BR up enough to play at 50nl and 100nl within my BR.


i should write an article on my 18 man 5 dollar SnG strategy. it works when i actually use it =P

Personally I hate playing against those shortstacks, but I guess I'll give it a try. (If you can't beat them....)

that is because it is soo hard to put them on hands.

First session was a success 2.5 times my buyin within 1 orbit. Shoved AQ on the bb with 6 limpers and dubbled up on AK 3 hands later. Easy money

now you should be leaving the table, not sure if I like the AQ play though. After 6 limpers im not sure I want to get it all in there with AQ but then again think your playing little smaller then 1/2 right? at that level it might be good play but at higher levels usually no. At higher levels it is very very unlikely you are going to get called by anything you are ahead of and again the goal is to get our money in good.

Also im playing 6 max tables when I do this, never tried it full ring and not sure if I want to. 6 max is a lot easier to do because it means they will call you even lighter.

I play 50NL right now, so i bought in for 10. While I was waiting for the BB i saw a lot of limping and passive play, so I figured it's unlikely that someone was limping with a big pocket pair, because there wasn't a lot of chance to limp/raise. I know that at higher levels it probably wouldn't have been a good idea, but at these stakes you'll usually pick up those 3 bucks.

Full Ring has the advantage that you'll be blinded off less fast, but I can see your argument for playing this shorthanded. Once I'll have a couple 1000 hands I'll post some results ok?

sounds good, I wont get blinded off I usually reload to $40 after every blind. Looking forward to results and hell if its working do it anyway you want. As long as you leave the table when you get what you want, you can always continue it just at a new table.

I'm not going tru with this, got up 40 after about 200 hands, but now I'm just getting suckout after suckout. I prefer playing normal poker . I ended just a couple bucks negative after 500 hands.

i'm sure this works for many people, but i think you'll find it more beneficial to your game to NOT shortstack and learn how to play deepstack poker instead, even if it means dropping down a level.

you will have many more rewards down the line...