I use small bets to conserve chips when I have a tiny stack, allowing me to lose two hands before I go broke instead of only one.
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Jon, txs as always for your commitment to our education 🙂
For me, being short-stacked (13-23 BBs), I might wait for a better shoving hand. I already feel vulnerable with so few chips. Cause if I spend 5-6 BBs on the hand, now I’m down to 14 BBs. (I know the recent WSOP champ came back from 7 BBs but that road is exhausting.) At 14 BBs, is my shove really that effective on a future hand? For me, at 20BBs I’m often playing all-or-nothing poker to try and double up. I generally don’t want to spend a small portion of an already small stack. I get tilty when I’m short, and getting even shorter often freezes my brain. It’s more psychology for me. My inner game melts down when I’m really short.
If you had had 2 callers before you, would you have shoved, hoping to pick up the dead money from 2 players and the blinds assuming everyone folds?
While it is never fun being short stacked, you must accept that you will occasionally find yourself in that situation. When you do, make a point to stay sane and make rational plays. Developing hard rules such as “When I have 20bbs or less I am all in or nothing” may work in the smaller stake games but as develop as a poker player, you will find that other plays lead to a higher expectation (and going broke less often). You are correct that if there was a raiser or a raiser and a caller, I would have for sure pushed all-in. Good luck in your games!
Jonathan,
Another good lesson, I want to make a couple comments from my experience to get your thoughts:
1) Rather than min raising I like making 2.1x or 2.2x, or 2.25 live if the $25 chip is the lowest denomination. I like doing this because I think I get more folds preflop, which is an excellent result because I am doing this with a lot of hands not just good hands like AT.
2) You make the comment that you could get a better read live on the villain than online. While it is true you can get good reads online by observing other players, I use a heads up display online and I feel like I get an even better read with the software based on the fold to steal attempt and 3 bet numbers.
Interested in hearing your thoughts on these comments.
Bill
Jon, txs for the reminder on the dangers of small-stack rules. Extremely helpful to thiink about other plays having higher EV. I just watched your Crushing Cash preview (FYI, the first 5 minutes of your Bluffing video has already changed my game.) I like in your “Crushing” video that even with the nut flush you would have still bet $40 on the river in the first hand. Last night I felt like I left $$$ on the table by not shoving river nuts twice. But I considered my Os and felt my bet sizing was appropriate to get calls. Your illustration helps me feel better about the decisions 🙂
Thanks! I am glad you are finding the content to be helpful. While it is usually a good idea to bet large with the nuts, it is important to consider your opponent’s probably range and make your bet based on the hands you are trying to get called by. Good luck in your games.
Jon, I executed your play perfectly. Down to 10 BBs with A/Ko on the button, blinds 3000/6000. Normally I’d just shove but I min-raised and both blinds called. I hit the K on the flop and shoved there and they both folded so I picked up many more chips by using my short stack more thoughtfully. Yeah! FYI, I’ve bought 2 packages under another name and appreciate your time 🙂
Nice job! Winning an extra big blind or two really adds up. That being said, if your opponents will call and all-in with numerous worse hands, especially when you have 10bbs or less, going all-in is usually ideal because it is tough to win, on average, more than 1.5bbs or so after the flop.