Much has been written regarding the impact of stack size in No-Limit Holdem, including how to play both with, and against, a short-stack. Little, however, has been written in regards to how to play a short-stack in Limit Holdem cash games. Of course, that is because you should never allow yourself to get short-staked in a limit cash game. But just because you are sensible enough to know this, that doesn’t mean that all your opponents are, as well. Knowing how to play against a short-stack in Limit Holdem is an important skill that is often overlooked in poker literature.

A good player should always reload when their stack drops below 12 big bets, which is the maximum you can spend in a hand if every street is capped (assuming a four-bet cap). Reloading when you drop below this will prevent the nightmare scenario where you hold the nuts against a player with a strong, second-best hand, but run out of money before you can extract maximum value. Obviously, the smaller the stack the more this could cost you. So, while starting a hand with 10 big bets is forgivable, sitting with a stack of six big bets or less certainly isn’t. Hence, it is reasonable to theorize that someone nursing a short-stack is more than likely a bad player. And the smaller their stack is, the more confident of this you can be.

This theory tends to hold up in practice, too. In the hundreds of thousands of hands I have played, I have encountered dozens of short-stacked players and probably 90 percent of them turned out to be suspect players. The difficult part is that a short-stacked player might play very differently compared to how they play when they have some chips in front of them. Generally speaking, they will just want to get their chips in the middle and either double up or bust out, and move on. As a result, a tight player might become loose, a passive player might become aggressive, and a loose player may become even looser.

Adjusting Your Play

There are two reasons why you will need to significantly adjust your strategy when playing against a short-stacked player. First, you will need to compensate for their loose and aggressive tendencies, as described above. Secondly, you may need to adjust due to the simple fact that there is an all-in player in the pot. Some decisions become more complex when there is a player involved who cannot fold or bet, especially in multi-way pots. On the other hand, some decisions become significantly easier.

Some of the specific adjustments you will need to make are described below:

Don’t try to fold them out

Remember that a short-stacked player usually wants to get his chips in the middle at the earliest opportunity. They are not going to fold if there is any chance at all that they can win the hand, especially if they have already committed chips to the pot. They may even be correct to call with a very weak hand, because they get to see all remaining cards for a very low price. So, with this in mind, don’t make moves on a player that is almost all-in, because they will call you with hands that would never call a bet under normal circumstances. If you are going to bet, bet for value.

Don’t respect their bets and raises

Likewise, when a short-stack bets or raises, it means practically nothing. Often, a short-stack will hit a point where he decides that he is going to commit all his remaining chips on a given hand. At that point, he will bet and raise almost regardless of his cards. From their point of view, this gives them the best chance of winning the pot, as they might persuade some or all of their opponents to fold. Of course, you should not fall for this ruse. When a short-stack with only one or two big bets left bets into you, it means nothing. Call or raise him back very liberally, and if there is a third player in the hand, consider a re-raise to isolate.

Adjust your pot odds for multiple cards

Remember that if a player is all-in then they can’t make you pay any more on future streets. This can make a big difference to your pot odds when chasing marginal draws or holding a weak hand, because you will often get to see multiple cards for the price of one (or even less than the price of one if they are forced to make an undersized bet). For example, a player open raises from middle position and it is folded around to you in the big blind. Should you call? Of course, usually that would depend on what cards you have and what you know about the player. But what if the raiser was a short-stack who now only had about half a small bet left in his stack? Now it doesn’t matter what you have, you should call (or raise him all in) regardless. You are getting more than 3:1 odds, and he can’t make you pay to chase on later streets. Even if you hold 72o you have the odds to call, as you are only in bad shape against AA to 77.

Don’t rely on implied odds

The other side of the coin, is that while you may get better pot odds for your calls pre-flop and on the flop, you have no implied odds against an all-in player. Implied odds measure money you can expect to win on later streets…and you can’t win what they don’t have. Even if there are other players in your pot, your implied odds may be vastly diminished. Once a player is all-in, the other players in the pot are less likely to bet and raise heavily, as they have no folding equity on the main pot.

Revisit slow-playing

There are plenty of risks to slow-playing in Limit Holdem. You might give your opponents free cards to beat you. You might miss out on a lot of bets when they have a strong second-best hand. They might not be trapped into betting on later streets. However, when up against a short-stack, the conditions suddenly become quite favorable for a well-timed slow-play. They are looking for an opportunity to get all their chips in, so if you show weakness, they are likely to bet regardless of their cards. Even if they don’t, it doesn’t matter if you mis-bet on the flop, because they only have enough chips for a few bets anyway.

Consider side pot implications

If a player ends up all-in in a multi-way pot, this results in the creation of a side pot. A lot of limit players are bad at playing with side pots, because they are not used to them. You could probably write a whole article on playing side-pots, but for the sake of brevity, here are the key points:

- Only consider a bluff if your hand has some showdown value against the all-in player, or if the side pot on its own is worth bluffing at (hint: it usually isn’t).

- As a result of the above, you should be more willing to fold marginal hands to river bets, provided you feel your opponent is smart enough not to bluff at a dry side pot.

- Value bet hard if you feel you are ahead after a player is all-in. Remember, you only have to beat the other players in the side pot to win these additional bets, but they are calling hoping to win the main pot, too.

Conclusion

There is nothing particularly difficult about playing against short-stacks. What you must do, however, is switch the autopilot off for a moment and concentrate on the situation at hand. I will confess, that in the past, I have played hands very badly because I have not noticed that a player is short-stacked. This is because I wasn’t concentrating as well as I should have been, and I learned my lesson. If you only notice your opponent is short-stacked when they make a bet of $7.43 on the turn, think about whether or not you are paying as much attention to the game as you should be.

One final note on short-stacks: they will put a lot of bad beats on you. They will re-raise you all-in pre-flop with J7o and suck out on your KK because they got to see five. There is no point in getting angry about this scenario. They just used a legitimate game mechanism, and happened to get lucky. It’s all money in your pocket in the long run. Say “nice hand” and hope they make that re-raise again in the future. And hope that when they inevitably go bust in 10 hands time, they rebuy!

Good luck at the tables.