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.
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