Short stack book

Can anyone reconend a good book for short stack theory and play. Preferably for NL ring games but I guess tournament would be OK too.

Thanks

I don't know of any books directly dedicated to that ...

depending on how short stacked you mean (also relative to the blinds)it might read "muck muck muck muck ship it" or "with position against the blinds only... pretend to look at your cards and then ship it)

Good question though OP I would certainly be interested in such a book

I think HOH vol.2 has a section on short-stacked play (tourney play) and how it relates to inflection pts. etc. Not short-handed though I don't think.
You can probably find some short-handed, short-stack stuff online. There's some other book I heard that's out regarding short-handed play... but offhand I can't think of it (Collin Moshman or Mathew Hilger maybe??... idk).

I've never read it but I understand that Amazon.com: Getting Started in Hold 'em: Ed... has a great chapter on short-stacking NL (although it's primarily a limit book). Ed Miller is great so I have no doubt this book will be a great read as well.

Not sure this will help for poker strategy but I recommend all shortstackers or potential shortstackers read this book first: Amazon.com: A Wish to Die - A Will To Live:...

^^^ whys that Zach?

I'll get a copy from Amazon next time I order some books (which will probably be next week.. Im compliling a list!!)

I had a look through the review on amazon.. and one thought did spring to mind, that was...

'whats that got to do with poker??'

So what did you gain or what insites did you get from it?

Im sure it does.. as you reconmended it.. but would like a bit of a heads up.

nonononononononono it was just a joke I've never read it just googled it saying you should cease the suicidal tendencies. Don't actually buy it. Gotta go now and will kinda explain why if you want to improve you probably shouldn't short-stack when I get back, but don't actually spend money on that unless you actually want to read it for its sake and nothing to do with poker.

LOL

I did wonder!!!

Thanks Zach

^^^
I looked at the title of this thread and thought, their isn't gonna be an expert at short stack play, anywhere, anytime, anybody.

Shorties tend to not stay that way long, they either improve or they disappear.

Now it might be different with ring play, as there are a few different concepts involved.

One that was explored at CC in '07 was 'Rampaging' which involves buying in as short as possible and going madcap maniac agro in an attempt to double up and get out as fast as possible. Search here....'Rampaging'.

For sure....not this

IMO, since you can rebuy in ring games, there is no reason to ever be shortstacked.

ok so here's the thing:

In a rakeless NLHE game playing with a short stack against similarly-skilled players you will have an edge. Deeper players will be raising more suited connectors and such while against you those will lose a ton of value. To play optimally against you they should be playing hands based on showdown value which would put Ax/Kx hands way ahead of suited connectors and low pairs. So basically the strategy is you play premium hands showdownwise (ie no SCs, no low PPs, just high cards and high pockets) and you play 2-street poker. You raise them preflop and get them in. Alternatively in late position you can steal and fold to a shove and from the blinds you can shove over steals pretty light if they steal a lot and don't adjust to you.

Anyway I doubt at this point you can be much more than a rakeback pro shortstacking at a reasonable limit. You aren't really playing poker, you're exploiting what's almost a hole in the rules. If they play optimally against you and are a similar skill you will be a marginal winner and possibly not even beat the rake. You'll want to kill yourself over the huge variance from flipping so often and you'll go on terrible runs because your edge is so small (if you have an edge). As you move up all the regs know how to play optimally against shortstackers. The only pots you'll use your edge is when you shove over a MP raise with SCs or a low PP and pick it up preflop.

So seriously, for your sake and the sake of others (when there are shortstackers the other deepstacks essentially have to play shortstack poker around the blinds with at least another shortstacker there), just don't do it. Learn and get better at deepstack poker. It will be a lot more fun, a lot more gratifying as you get better, learn more and move up, and you'll probably make a lot more money in the long run.

most ppl recommend a book called the little green book. i have seen it come up in alot of threads. i found it on amazon and i ordered it, should be here within a couple weeks, once i read a little bit of it ill let you know if i recommend it or not. i need to get as many pokerbooks as i can too. id love to get some advice from the pros.

The Little Green Book (and the follow-up Little Blue Book) are fantastic for beginning players. Phil Gordon does a really good job of explaing the basic concepts of tight, aggressive play and if you're a beginner they'll improve your play 100% overnight.

They don't focus a great deal on short stack play from memory though - in fact I'm pretty sure all the ring game hands in the blue book talk exclusively about 100BB stacks. He might mention it in passing for tournaments but that's about it.

FWIW there's a reason nobody's bothered to write a book dedicated to short-stack strategy: it's painfully simple. In fact I can sumarise it in one sentence:

Waiting for the right hand / situation to push (pairs / big aces / paint if you're really short), then either you double up or get eliminated / reload.

Because you're short, your options are limited and your 'strategy' as such is pretty straightforward.

I know of no specific book on short stack strategy, but you can find a great deal of on-line articles on the subject by googling "holdem short stack".

As with an aspect of poker, read the material, experiment with the concepts, and then adapt what you learn to your style of play, your personality, and what works best for you.

I would have thought that.. but time and time again I read about 'short stack experts' and 'seasoned short stackers' . Not just on CC but also in books that I have read.. so i was asuming there was more to it than met the eye.

Thanks Zach that makes sense

It's a tournament book mostly, but it is very good. My average finish improved over 50% after reading it.