Short or Deep? More Deepstack Poker vs Shortstack Poker

Note: I've recently published a short stack and deep stack strategy guide. It's a highly recommended read if you are more interested in the nuances of short stack and deep stack poker.

So we've gone over the nuances and situations to play short or deep. I've been so interested in this topic that I've continued to search out articles on the subject. One thing that came up was what the bankroll requirements are for Short stack Poker in comparison to Deep stack Poker.

I needed to look back at my bankroll strategies I posted in a very early and very popular article. Poker Diversification: Bankroll Management

If you are trying to learn to play shorthanded poker, then I personally suggest playing at the same levels you would play at with full buy-ins. Shorthanded poker is a challenge for your common logic and psychology and can easily turn a winning player into a losing one without some practice. Once you can get used to the short stack style of playing you can begin to loosen up your bankroll limits as follows:

Gambler:

Full Buy In: 10 Buy Ins (In a $.5/1 No Limit game with $100 max buy in, you would want a bankroll of $1000)
Half Buy In: 17 Buy Ins (In a $.5/1 No Limit game with $100 max buy in, but buying in for $50 would want a bankroll of $850)

Quarter Buy In: 30 Buy Ins (In a $.5/1 No Limit game with $100 max buy in, but buying in for $25 would want a bankroll of $750)

Conservative:

Full Buy In: 20 Buy Ins (In a $.5/1 No Limit game with $100 max buy in, you would want a bankroll of $2000)

Half Buy In: 33 Buy Ins (In a $.5/1 No Limit game with $100 max buy in, but buying in for $50 would want a bankroll of $1650)

Quarter Buy In: 55 Buy Ins (In a $.5/1 No Limit game with $100 max buy in, but buying in for $25 would want a bankroll of $1325)

Ultra-Conservative:

Full Buy In: 30 Buy Ins (In a $.5/1 No Limit game with $100 max buy in, you would want a bankroll of $3000)

Half Buy In: 45 Buy Ins (In a $.5/1 No Limit game with $100 max buy in, but buying in for $50 would want a bankroll of $2250)

Quarter Buy In: 80 Buy Ins (In a $.5/1 No Limit game with $100 max buy in, but buying in for $25 would want a bankroll of $2000)

Of course these numbers aren't exact science, but it should serve as a general guideline. Remember these guidelines only apply to those who have at least become sufficient at shortstack poker. The better you become at short stack poker, and learn to exploit the big stacks, you can become more and more loose on your bankroll requirements.

This will allow people to build up bankrolls and move up the limits faster than normal. Just remember not to speed up the limits too fast, if you hit a hard losing streak after hitting a limit remember to jump back down to make sure you don't piss away your hard earned bankroll on a limit that you can't compete in yet.

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A few more notes on shortstack poker...

Short stack decisions. With a short stack at a table full of big stacks, you will make fewer and much easier decisions after the flop. With deep stack poker you are often forced to make difficult decisions all the way until the showdown. With a short stack you can commit all your chips.
How short your stack is will determine your starting hands. With a short stack your implied odds (see A Quick Easy Guide To Odds in Poker.) will be limited because you can only win as much money as you have in your stack. Example: you have a $5 stack at the $.1/.25 NL game. You expect the most a main pot will get to in this game is probably $15 dollars if you commit all your chips and two others commit as well. If you instead had $25 at the table, your implied odds against another big stack will be around $50 if you can get him to commit fully to a hand by the showdown, thus your implied odds of limping in with a hand is much better with a full stack. This means that you can still chase with your small suited connectors but beware that your implied odds are a little worse off.

This brings up another aspect of short stack poker that was illustrated in the last example. With a short stack your implied main pot was three times the size of your stack where the deep stack
had an implied pot of only twice his stack. This is a concept that hasn't been defined by anyone. I will be a pioneer and call it the speculative odds. This is the odds that if you hit your draw or hit a big hand that you will actually see the big pot that was used to calculate your implied odds.

With a short stack you are more likely to see a bigger main pot relative to your stack size. Often a small stack will get involved all-in with more than one big stack. A deep stack if played correctly should have the action down to heads up if he's playing another deep stack by the time of the showdown. This means the most that will make it to the pot is your stack, your opponents and the little bit from blinds and bets from other players who have since folded.

Another note on short stack pot odds. A deep stack can only bully around other deep stacks. A deep stack with a strong hand but vulnerable to drawing hands can bully the other deep stacks out of the hand who may have that drawing hand with big pot sized bets. A deep stack can't bully a short stack because the short stack only has to commit the rest of his chips to see his draw which may often be less than the size of the pot.

Psychology of short stack poker. This is probably why we see such an influx of people who prefer to play deep stacked. This psychological condition of being opposed to short stack poker is probably due to the fact that almost only tournament poker is shown on television except for High Stakes Poker. We see in tournaments that almost always the short stacks are fighting for their lives, fighting to keep themselves in their chairs, forced to make difficult decisions for their tournament life.

This is so far from the truth in cash ring games. In cash games the blinds never increase and you have unlimited buy ins, so you are never eliminated. People are easily manipulated however in their psychology. A short stack is often read as a tell by other poker players, especially online poker players. A short stack immediately is read as a fish, a newbie, etc. A deep stack is immediately read as a shark. Often when a deep stack sits at the table he can immediately begin to bully the table because people respect his big stack, even though it doesn't give him any clear advantage over other players.

A short stack on the other hand is often never respected, bets are being called down with trash hands because they think you know nothing and think you are stupid for buying in short. This is great for those who like to see flops with drawing hands, and when you connect with a set, flush, straight, etc. you will bring in some much appreciated cash from those who think you are donking off your chips.

When should you play short or deep? I touched on this in the previous article, but I have done some revising to be done on the idea of figuring out when to play short and when to play deep.

Playing short:
You should play short when you multi table. A short stack has easier decisions and fewer decisions to make post flop. This makes it easier on the people who enjoy playing 2, 3 or more tables at the same time online.

You should play short when you are at a table full of decent deep stack players. This will allow you to take advantage of your better pot odds and the added benefit of free fold equity. Good deep stack players will punish you for chasing draws when you have a deep stack, when you are short stacked, you often will get the odds to push all in to see your draw through. Good deep stack players are also good at thinning the pack by the time it comes to showdown. When you are already committed all in, there is a good chance that the good players will force the other deep stacks out of the hand by the river and showdown.

Playing deep:
You should play deep when you are playing worse mixed stack opponents. When you can consistently make better decisions than your opponents preflop and post flop you should take full advantage of that by buying in with a full stack.

You should play deep when you are fully focused on your game and on the top of your game against similarly skilled opponents. Again you will gain an edge against your other deep stacks post flop if you make good reads and good decisions.

If everyone at the table is bought in short (subsequently making them all deep stacks with large blinds) you should buy in for about the same amount as the deepest stack. The reason is that you gain no advantage over these players by buying in for the minimum as they all are already close to the minimum stack size anyway. If all these players are better than you or you aren't making the best decisions, you should stray away from this game and find a deep stacked game to buy in short.

Poker Forums, Communities, and Friends.

I will give everyone the biggest secret in poker. It's how I went from total donk to where I am now. Now this might come off as a huge surprise to some, but it truly is the most important thing you can do to become a better poker player.

Join a Poker Community. This will serve as free advertisement to my friends at my poker community, but it's well worth it since I owe everything I've received from poker to them.

A poker community is a great source to learn, you have a mix of good and bad players all communicating with one another. You will have a place to brag, a place to share frustrations, to ask about strategies or just to help find a friendly cardroom.

I personally found myself at http://www.poker-strategy.org/. I didn't dare invest any money in poker, so I free rolled my entire first few months of playing poker, I followed their strategies, posted my hands, and finally I was inticed by one of the many lucrative sign up bonuses. I invested $50 and I ended up having around 2 to 3k a few years later.

What should you do? Go sign up, introduce yourself, and ask some questions. Maybe you have that hand history saved of a horrible bad beat, or a hand where you took 30 seconds to make a decision and you still felt like you made the wrong decision in the end. Go post that hand history up on the boards, ask people if they think you made the right decision. Join them in the chat room and just rant and rave on the chat while you either steam off your chips or stack them up high.

A poker community is the best place to go tilt for free. It's a place to hone your skills when away from the felt. You can go examine the many hand examples posted up on the forums and post your own opinion on the hand, and how you might play the hand. Of course this requires being friendly and not degrading or disrespecting the members, but if you are that kind of person, you probably aren't reading this article anyway.

A poker community is also a great starting point if you plan on learning a new version of poker. Often there are experts in all different fields of poker who are more than happy to draw someone to their 'dark side'. They can give you the basics, and when you start to get into complicated situations they can analyze your play after the fact.

I hope to turn my blog into it's own little mini-community. Somewhere people can come to read my latest hand example and post their comments and opinions. Where people can read my strategies and post their own. In this I open my doors to others to do just this, if you have any hand examples or strategies of your own you want to post, send me comments. I'll sensor if I have to the content and edit it to look somewhat professional, but that's just to keep the site looking clean. Ultimately I want my site to become a wikipoker.

Omaha Hold Em High/Low 8 or Better Advanced Strategies

The game has a nice long name. But many refer to it as Omaha H/L or Omaha 8. I posted a General Omaha High Low 8 or Better strategy quite some time ago. If you are unaware of the game, or just starting out, I suggest reading it first.

With the popularity of the game it has become now a much tougher game. You no longer get tables where 6 of the 9 players have no clue what they are doing. Now a days you get maybe 2 or 3 people at the table who don't understand the game very well. This has drastically reduced profits that can be ascertained from especially limit games any longer, the edge we once enjoyed is much smaller.

The new game now a days is to play Omaha 8 No Limit or Pot Limit. People still understand the game, but now your range of decisions multiplies. It can be played a lot like Hold Em now where you can steal the blinds and pressure the tight wads who wait for A2 every hand, and even when called you are rarely ever worse than a 40% underdog to even the best of hands. It often comes down to reading your opponent and the board, and deciding whether to bluff or hope to hit a huge hand.

Lets use an example, you are in Middle Position with a random hand, nothing great, but it's been folded to you and the rest of the players left to go after you play very tight poker. You decide to go on a pure bluff and raise it up 4 times the big blind. You get everyone to fold except the small blind. The flop comes K J 8 rainbow.

With a flop like this, without even looking at your cards you know you can probably bluff and chase the small blind off his hand, he checks to you and you bet out the pot. He thinks for a second, and decides to fold. He probably had the A2 and was chasing the low, he read your strength as having a high only hand and you hit the flop nicely. A high flop like this is going to happen a lot and it is sometimes well worth it to bluff at it when you know your opponents are playing straightforward tight poker.

The same is true with flops with A or 2 or both in it. This often counterfeits someone's low draw and will throw many kinks into their plans, often again a big bet will drive these players off their hands, allowing you to scoop up an uncontested pot.

Select aggression is key in this kind of game. You need to spice the game up with aggression, people will pick up on it, defend their hands more, start to chase more often, push back with bets. This is when you change gears a bit, slow down the loose play, wait for either premium high or low hands and continue to bet them like you bet your bluffs. Continue to bluff but with less frequency. Suddenly you will begin to get paid off on your made hands by those trying to keep you honest and you've successfully made a profitable table.

These are keys to winning at NL and PL Omaha 8. It's much like changing from limit hold 'em to no limit hold 'em. It's more a game about bet sizes than it is about the cards, you no longer are a machine at the table calculating everything out perfectly. You analyze your players and bet or fold accordingly. One will also notice these games are much more prevalent than the limit games now a days, it feeds to the action player, they feel they can play more hands, they can bluff more often and can risk more money.

Remember every game takes some time to learn and understand. If you've never played Omaha 8 before, then I am sorry to say that it's going to be a hard road. I became skilled at the game at the very end of the heyday of Omaha 8 Limit. I was winning tons of money playing calculated poker, playing like a machine. By the time the fish hole dried up and everyone understood how to play the game correctly I was well versed in the game and could plunge into the PL and NL arenas. If you want to learn now, you have to grind it out in the low limit games where some fishes still reside. It won't be as profitable and not as addicting as it was for me. You can jump into NL and PL Omaha 8 but be prepared for a roller coaster of a ride. You can start out playing just straight forward poker, make a little profit and diversify your strategy from there.

Online Poker Tells - A guide to online player reading.

What is a poker tell? It's an action made by a poker player that tips off the strength of his or her hand. Now we all make them in online poker, it's all about minimizing how much we tip others off. I'll begin by illustrating the tells, and finish by telling you how you can minimize these tells.

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Your online alias or name. This isn't the most reliable of tells, but if you have no other read or data on an opponent then you may as well try and use it for a little information. If a player's name is in all caps then chances are he is aggressive, loose, and a bit high strung. He's going to probably be bluffing his brains out, and will more than likely go on tilt easily. This also goes for names with a mix of upper and lower cases, such as tIrEur or something silly like that.

If a player's name is pristine simple and not out of the ordinary then they are probably conservative and straightforward with their poker play. This person is probably very careful about what their actions, enough to put some thought and effort into typing their alias into the sign up sheet.

If a player's name is in all lowercase, maybe with some typos, he's probably loose and passive. Doesn't really care too much, knows just enough to hang himself. Expect a lot of limping and chasing, but not much aggression unless he has the nuts or close there too. But may be hard to make fold a semi decent hand.

Again not the most reliable of tells, and this form of picking up on players tendencies is well known now and some more crafty players out there will make a name with the intent of making you think they are a loose when in reality they are tight.

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The speed of which someone bets, raises, or calls. Again this can be taken advantage of by crafty players and you can sometimes get misreads on players who are multi tabling and just can't make decisions quickly.

If someone hesitates to a big bet, they are probably relatively weak, but may have a drawing hand or just a good hand but fear the set or straight. This is a person who you may be able to bluff off on the next card with another shot if you feel they haven't made their draw.

An instant call or raise has widely been considered a sign of strength. But don't always be fooled, especially if you make a big raise and it's an instant call but not an instant all in or raise. People are aware of these online tells and may try and set you up for a future bluff with an instant call. Instant action usually portrays strength and confidence, and it may be enough for a bluff artist to convince you that he is trapping you.

Again not the most reliable of tells, and easily taken advantage of by crafty players. This includes the use of instant check/call/raise boxes. Again these boxes can be taken advantage of by crafty players, and beginners and amateurs alike don't use them often because they can't think that quickly for their hands, and at least understand that they don't want to give away their hand strength.

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Post the big blind or wait for the big blind? This online poker tell can be much more reliable. I for one used to never complete the big blind and will wait for it to come around. It saved me money and I was patient enough not to care if I play now or 15 minutes from now. Ever since realizing this online tell I no longer wait for the big blind ever.

It's a sign to players who are savvy enough to pick this up, that a player who pays the big blind to play early is often loose, looking for action and probably a fishy who isn't playing professionally or isn't playing to win in the long run. This is exactly the image I want at a table, I want my big hands to be paid off, I want people to call me down to the river with nothing more than top pair 2nd or 3rd kicker because they think I throw my chips away for action.

A first impression is important in poker, and it often takes a lot of good play to convince another player that you are in fact good, and by that time you probably already have a good portion of their bankroll in your pocket.

This is why I don't use this tell too much, it's too easy to get trapped into thinking another player is terrible. You have to stay humble in the game of poker and always reserve doubt for the skill of those around you. The reading of an opponent never stops as we are always learning, always getting better (or hope we are) and thus we must always readjust our reads.

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Betting patterns. This is the most important read for online poker and many would argue(as I would) that the most important read for any form of poker. The weakest link of most poker player's game is that they can't change gears, they don't adjust and they are set in their ways. The only time someone ever seems to change gears is when they get beat bad and throw themselves into tilt, this often results in the remaining tight players trapping you into giving away the rest of your bankroll.

Rule one: How often does someone see a flop? This will allow you to set a basic range of hands for this player. If he plays only a quarter or less of the time even from the blinds you can bet he only plays the premium hands, AA-99, AK, AQ, AJ, KQ and the very occasional suited connector from late position.

The exact opposite is true of someone who sees the flop half the time or more. You can't figure out what hand he has just because he plays a lot of flops. This makes it difficult for you to read him, but should mean that you should constantly bet into him and force this person to define his hand. Nothing helps a read more than pressuring your opponents, a lot of players don't consider paying the big blind to see a flop much of a decision, but paying 4 times the big blind to see a flop may make that decision a whole lot harder.

Rule Two: How often does this person bet and in what situations? If it's a tight player who bets a lot then you can expect that maybe 50% or more of the time he's betting with the best of it, but if he's betting a lot he must also be bluffing a lot. Doesn't matter how tight you are unless you only wait for hands like AA and KK, you will get unfavorable flops or flops that don't help your hand, but you would still like to claim that pot. Someone who bets a lot you can almost always guarantee is someone who bluffs a lot.

If someone bets very little, they are meek. They don't bluff often, and even when they have good hands they don't bet big. These guys are easy to stay away from, and easy to not pay off. You will only find yourself in trouble with these people when you have a huge hand and he has the nuts(also known as the best possible hand).

The person in between who seemingly bets a lot at one time but not another, becomes loose at one point then tightens at another instance is the scariest person. This is a person who knows how to change gears, someone who you can't get accurate reads on. This is the person you should strive to become, and probably the hardest to do so. This requires most of us to leap out of our comfort zone. If you are used to being tight aggressive it feels weird and uncomfortable to become loose aggressive. The maniacs out there just feel so bored when they change into tightwads and suddenly don't play a lot of hands. However if you can get over these mental blocks and switch your play up consistently then you can truly become a terror at the tables.

Fishes are victims of one of the more blatant of online poker tells. They make serious errors in bet sizing. If you identify one of these at your tables you can really narrow down their hand range. These players will often bet very little or check their good hands always trapping no matter if it's the nuts or just high pair, you punish these guys by not bluffing and getting your free cards to a better draw. These players will also over bet their draws and bluffs. If you are confident in this read you should either call or re raise, trap them or bluff back into them and scare them off the pot.

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These reads are no where near as good as the reads you can get at a live game in a casino or home game. It's hard even for the best players in the world to hide some of their tells, we all have them, but some are more blatant than the rest. If you can mix up your play in online poker, then you really have no tells. They can't see you twitching, your eye movement or body language over the internet.

I'm much less versed and experienced with real live poker tells, but after reading some literature on the subject I try to watch televised poker a little different now. I try and take those ideas from my readings and apply it to what I see on the television. For someone who doesn't have many chances to play real live poker it provides good practice to pick up on tells.

If you want to practice reading opponents from online poker even when you can't play any poker, go hang out in the many numerous poker strategy forums on the net. Read the hand examples and try and read the opponents based on their betting and post your opinions on what you think they had and what you think of that player's play. I plan on posting more hand examples as well in the near future to help my readers practice and analyze when they can't get to the felt.

Well I hope you all enjoyed this article, and put these ideas to good use. Remember to keep mixing up your play, keep focused in making good decisions, keep reading your opponents whether your in the hand or not, and above all keep having fun.

Shortstack Poker vs Deepstack Poker

Definitions:

Shortstack Poker: To play poker with smaller amount of chips than the rest of the table, often seen as a disadvantage, especially in tournament poker.

Deepstack Poker: To play poker with larger amount of chips than the rest of the table, often seen as an advantage, especially in tournament poker as you can coast into higher payouts more easily.

Now lets clarify, in tournament poker you ALWAYS want the deepstack, always. You should never play to have a shortstack all the time, it has it's advantages in certain situations, but there is never a good excuse to purposely play shortstacked in a tournament. You should always play a tournament with the intention of accumulating as many chips as possible.

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With that out of the way, lets address the true intent of this article. To play short or deepstacked in cash games. Here is an example of shortstack poker that doesn't work out as well as if you had a deepstack.

The blinds are $.1 and $.25 in a 10 handed game. You are dealt pocket 9s in early position with a stack of $10 the minimum buy-in for this game. You limp into the pot and have the hand go 6 handed. You are dealt a miracle flop, 9 5 3 rainbow for the nuts. You lean out with a smallish trap bet of $1 after being checked to, but you unfortunately made everyone fold except the button. He just calls you, and the turn comes a harmless 2. You bet out with $2 this time and the button decides to raise you another $2 to a total of $4. Now you decide to push with the top set. He insta calls and flips over the two 5s for trip 5s. The river comes a harmless King. You just scoop a pot of $21.50 for your trouble.


Where's the trouble with this hand? Lets say the button had $30 and instead of buying in for the $10 you bought in for the $25. You would have probably won $25 dollars instead of only $10. You limit your risk by buying in short, but you also limit your reward as well. Interestingly this hand also shows why someone would buy in for less than the maximum. If the button had bought in for the minimum and lost with his trip 5s to your deepstack he would have lost less than if he had the full amount bought in. Now here is another example, but this time I will show a lesser known advantage to buying in short.

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You are at the same table with $10 dollars. You are dealt in middle position with JT suited. Two before you limp, you decide to limp, and one after limp, the button decides to raise it up $2. Both the blinds decide to fold. Both limpers before you call, making the pot $6.90. You feel you have the pot odds to play and you call. Now your stack stands at $8.00 and the pot $8.65. The limper after you decides to fold. No matter what the flop comes down as you now are getting great pot odds to play.

Preflop: Hero is dealt Js Ts in Middle Position
Early Position 1: Call $.25
Early Position 2: Call $.25
Hero: Call $.25
Middle Position: Call $.25
Button: Bet $2.00
Small/Big Blind: Fold
Early Position 1: Call $2.00
Early Position 2: Call$2.00
Hero: Call $2.00
Middle Position: Fold

Flop: Qd Kc 5s Pot = $8.65 (You now have the open ended straight draw and a back door flush draw)

Early Position 1: Check
Early Position 2: Check
Hero: Check
Button: Bet $4.00 (You now assume the button probably has AK, AQ, AA, or maybe even KK, QQ or JJ)
Early Position 1: Fold
Early Position 2: Call $4.00
Hero: Raise $8.00 All In (You may as well, the pot is now $16.65, you are getting with your all in raise 3:1 or 25% pot odds which is plenty to chase your straight draw (8 outs or about 32% odds of hitting by the river), and backdoor flush to the river.)
Button: Calls $8.00
Early Position 2: Call $8.00

Turn: Qd Kc 5s As Pot = $32.65 (Bingo! You hit your nut straight and you are still drawing to the flush.)

Early Position 2: Checks
Button: Bets All In for remaining $35.00 (Button was deepstacked from a previous hand)
Early Position 2: Folds but shows the Queen of spades and the King of spades. ( He grumbles that he can't chase the flush and says he knows the button has AK. He is also deep stacked and just won't risk this much money for a flush draw.)
Hero: Shows his Js Ts
Button: Shows his Ad Ac for three of a kind Aces. (Is behind and must catch an Ace for 4 of a kind or a King, Queen or 5 for a full house.)

River: Qd Ks 5c As 3s Pot =$32.65

Early Position 2 Blows up in anger that he was forced out of the hand and subsequently tilts.

Hero: Wins $32.65 with the flush As Ks Js Ts 3s

If you landed with either a flush draw or straight draw you are more than likely getting the right odds to play and it puts you in a great position to semi-bluff. You only have to pay $8.00, the amount left in your stack to see the turn AND the river into a pot that has $8.65 already in it. If you are up against a lot of other big stacks you may not have to worry about a 3 or 4 way showdown because they will continue betting into a side pot that may drive away their drawing hands, but not your own because you are already fully committed.

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Shortstacks are also harder to read. They have a wide range of hands they are capable of committing to on flops, from draws to sets and above. This means you can only call their commitment with big hands unless you have good implied odds vs another big stack in the hand.

Deepstacks can be equally hard to read. They have the option and implied odds to play a wider range of preflop hands, especially if they can outplay other deepstacks after the flop. However, unless the deepstack is reckless you should almost always assume that the big stack has a huge hand, near the nuts if he is willing to commit all his chips.

So what advantages do deep stacks have? Remember you have no advantage over small stacks. Against small stacks you have to play small stack poker. You only have preflop and flop to force the shortstack to make mistakes. Play only good tight aggressive poker against shortstacks, if a shortstack is playing loose poker then this player is incorrectly putting in too much money in relation to his stack with inferior holdings and eventually you should get the shortstack committed with a poor hand that shouldn't of been played preflop.

So this brings up the point of basic shortstack poker theory and strategy. Good shortstack poker is a tight and aggressive game. You are playing an all-in game with premium holdings and you should bet according to getting the money in the middle as quickly as possible with premium hands without over betting the situation. Loose poker should only be played deepstack vs deepstack.

This is why you buy in deep. Deep stacks have a big advantage against other deepstacks that are weak, more so than shortstacks. If you are a good deepstack going up against a weak deepstack, you can force your opponent to make mistakes on every street, from preflop to the river. This allows you to maximize profits from the poor players. If you are also playing weak shortstack players, you may have fewer advantages and their stack gives them more chances to draw out, but if you play good shortstack poker with your deepstack(tight-aggressive) then you should be able to take all their money too.

What would I do? Well it depends greatly on the game that I'm playing in. If it's a game full of jokers who don't bet or play properly then I will go ahead and buy in with a full stack and just aim to clean all the fish.

If it's a game with some good premium players with big stacks at the table(maybe I just won enough money to move up a level in blinds), then I will be more than happy to buy in short so I can commit with good hands and draws after the flop, limiting the number of difficult decisions I'm forced to see. It also limits my risk when playing big hand vs big hand situations, even though it also limits the reward from these situations as well. Just remember good players will often get out of big hand/big hand situations more often than the bad players.

Remember one thing, the ideas of shortstack poker vs deepstack poker is a very new idea and the theories are very fresh. The majority of poker players, even at the better limits don't fully understand these ideas. I have re-edited this article after reading and learning much more about these theories and have recently posted a definitive guide to shortstack and deepstack poker.

Shortstack Poker and Deepstack Poker: The Definitive Guide

A Common Mistake: Sizing Your Bets.

As I've been playing some games lately online, I've come across a very common, well known mistake still happening from the majority of online poker players. They do not know how to properly size their bets.

This doesn't refer to the tricksters out there, whom I will address later. This is about the player who either bets too little or way too much or both. I'll lead out with an example:

You are in early position of a $25NL Texas Hold 'Em game. Blinds are $.10 and $.25 cents. You are dealt AQ and the first player folds. You are rolling with a shorter than normal roll of $7 because of a bad beat a few hands prior. You decide to push all in. You win the pot uncontested and think you made a pretty good move with AQ driving out smaller pairs and just taking the blinds.

So what's wrong with this picture? You bet 28 times the big blind, an absurdly huge number. The pot was only $.35 cents and you bet $7 dollars into it. Now if you were in this game facing a raise like that pre-flop what on earth would you have to have in front of you to make that call? Only hands that have you beat. AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK and maybe even TT would call you too. If someone was rolling even shorter than you maybe even smaller pairs. But all of these hands have you beat heads up, and actually 4 of them have you absolutely dominated, referring to AA, KK, QQ and AK.

What should you have done in this position? Well leading out with $.75 cents or even $1 is more advisable, you will still make those with lesser hands fold. And you still leave room for hands that you will dominate left in the hand, like AJ, KQ, and at least in a coin flip with paired hands JJ and below. These are hands that you will extract the most money out of if you hit the flop, and even if you don't hit the flop, you can often drive smaller pairs out of the hand with continuation bets if the flop looks scary enough with high cards.

True this puts you in a situation where you have to make more decisions, it's so easy to be binary in your decision of all-in/fold. It makes it easy because you no longer have to make anymore decisions later on in the hand. If you are going to beat the other players you need to put you and them in situations where they have to make decisions, and as long as you make better ones based on better information, knowledge and wisdom you will not only beat them but you will extract more and more from them as well.

Here is another example at the same table.

Preflop:
Middle Position: Call $.25
Hero: Ac Qd - Bets $.75
Small Blind: Calls $.75
Big Blind: Calls $.75
Middle Position: Calls $.75

Flop: Qc 8d 5s | Pot = $3.00
Small Blind: Check
Big Blind: Check
Middle Position: Check
Hero: Bet $.75
Small Blind: Fold
Big Blind: Fold
Middle Position: Call $.75

Turn: Qc 8d 5s Js | Pot = $4.50
Middle Position: Check
Hero: Bet $.75
Middle Position: Call

River: Qc 8d 5s Js Ts | Pot = $6.00
Middle Position: Check
Hero: Bet $.75
Middle Position: Raise $4.00
Hero: Call $4.00

Middle Position shows As 8s for an Ace High Flush.
Hero mucks cards.
Middle position wins pot of $14.00

You have AQ again, but you are now on the button. You raised it a proper $.75 cents and had 3 callers, 2 from the blinds in a loose game. The pot now stands at $3 dollars. The flop comes Q85 rainbow. It's checked around to you and you bet $.75 cents again. The blinds fold but the middle position calls you. It comes down with a J matching a suit on the board, and you bet $.75 cents again and you are called. Finally the river completes the flush draw and the straight draw with a 10. You are checked to again, you bet $.75 cents again but then get check-raised to $4 dollars. What do you do now? You think you may be beat, but still have top pair and top kicker, and you make a call. He turns over the flush and you throw your cards in the muck in disgust while silently yelling in your brain that you can't believe he chased his back door flush.

What went wrong? You bet way too little in this example, and this example is almost an extreme case, but I see it all the time at the tables. The initial pre-flop bet was great building a nice sized pot. But after you hit top pair and top kicker you have to protect that hand with more than just another 75cent bet. Middle position was looking at getting 5:1 pot odds in that he only had to put 75 cents into the pot to win$3.75. He was almost inclined to chase his flush/pairs/three of a kind with pot odds like that, and he knew he could probably extract even more later if he did happen to hit his hand.

What should have happened? You should have bet anywhere from $1.50 to $3.00 to push out the chasers, or at least make them pay to see the turn and river. A price that shouldn't be paid mathematically speaking. Now you are forcing your opponent to make mistakes, and if you are playing a poor player, he may still chase at that price, and more often than not he will not hit his flush, and end up paying dearly for chasing it.

How about those crafty players out there? Occasionally you can try and fool people by over or under betting your hands. You really only ever see this happen against the better players who understand pot odds and bet sizing. It's often a tell that if you over bet you probably are bluffing, and if you under bet you are probably trapping. If you have a table image of the newbie who doesn't bet properly or give away your hand strength through your betting you could get away with some tricks. You do the opposite of what they expect, you over bet your good hands and under bet your bluffs. By sending this false tell you may get paid off on your pocket aces and get away with bluffs with small bet sizes. Again this is a risky strategy, but a viable one if you are tuned into the table and you are not playing with a bunch of clowns.

If you are playing clowns, play straightforward poker with appropriate bets, and try not to change your betting style in terms of bet sizes in accordance to your hand strength, because you may have that one shark at the table who sees right through your betting and may take full advantage of that tell.

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On a side note, I'm back into playing poker a little more lately. It won't be a super regular thing, but I will try and put in a couple hours a week depending on scheduling. I will also be going to Hawaii for the first time in about a weeks time and I'm very excited.

I hope to still try and write more and more articles, I notice I still get visitors and I'm glad that people still get a lot of use from my articles.

Leave comments as usual if you have anything to add or would like to comment or suggest anything for a future article.