Adjusting to short stacked opponents December 4, 2006
Posted by yorkshirepuddings in Cash game, Online Poker, Strategy.2 comments
Hello readers, hope you all had a good weekend regardless of what you got up to. Spent most of mine working but overall it was a decent one. Starting the dreaded Xmas shopping this week which I detest, thank the Lord for the internet is all I can say! Anyway, enough of the BS, back to poker!
As I mentioned in a previous blog entry I have been playing on the Tribecca network and, not wanting to curse it, things have started very well. However, I am becoming slightly frustrated by the fact that an awful lot of the players are buying in pretty short ($5-$10) which I feel is preventing me from getting full value from some of my hands. A basic theoretical example would be if I’m sat there on the button with $30 holding 9d8d and a short stack with a $5 stack raises to $1 from UTG+1($0.10/$0.20 blinds) and I opt to call, hoping to hit a nice, but unlikely, 2 pair or straight or flush or even take the pot away using my position. The flop comes 9hAd8c and I know villain has definitely hit the Ace and will call off his stack, I’m not going to get paid of the maximum from this hand. I’m betting $1 to win $5 (assume the blinds get raked). Is this 5/1 stack ratio sufficient to call a raise with as I am sure that i have read somewhere you really need closer to a 10/1 ratio?
What sort of adjustments should I be making against these players? I’m used to having a short stack at the table but it is something new for me to have around 3 of the 5 opponents sat with a short stack is something new. There seems to be two extremes that they fall into. You have on one hand the player who you can steal from at will as he’s sat there waiting for QQ+ and AK hoping to limp then raise all-in and on the other hand you have the maniac who obviously doesn’t really care about the $5 in his stack and is willing to go all the way to the river holding anything that remotely resembles a hand!
I usually try to punish the short stacks in a tournament environment and I have chips to throw around but how do you guys deal with these little buggers in a cash game setting? Am I getting too hung up about being paid of to the maximum and should I just be trying to make +EV plays to get the entire stack of the short-stacked donkey? After 25BB’s are 25BB’s regardless of where they come from!
As always, thanks for checking in 
