Ive just started a short stack experiment. Lets see some facts about short stackers

1) 98% of all short stackers are totally clueless.
2) They are playing scared money
3) They know very little about poker
4) They are constant donators
5) Good poker players hate them

Good poker players shouldnt hate them, but they do. It screws up their games especially if they are LAGs. Most players cant adjust correctly (even the good ones). They should like short stackers because they are dead money, but they hate them anyway because they cant play their normal strategy at the same time as they make proper adjustments for a short stack (if they even know the correct adjustments).

Thats where I come in.

1) Im not clueless
2) Im not playing scared money
3) Ive been playing poker quite a while and have a pretty good grasp of it.
4) I dont plan to donate
5) I dont care if they hate me.

I will start at $100 NL 6 max. I will buy in for 20BBs and leave the table when I double up. I wont be just shoving all in preflop like some short stacks do. I'll be attempting to play poker for real, just for only 1-2 and sometimes 3 streets instead of 4 streets. If all goes well, I will move up and see how far I can go.

Im not sure when I will move up yet. I believe using this strategy that 10 full buy ins (or 50 of my 20BB buy ins) is more than enough to never go broke but I have more than that online already and dont want to move up at all until I have quite a few hands played so I can tweak my play and see how various hand ranges work to open raise with, call raises with and reraise all in with.

This is not as easy as it looks. I have to constantly monitor my stack size to know when to leave and to reload back to 20BBs when I get blinded down just a bit. I have to try to make actual reads so I know when to shove KJs all in preflop after a raise and when to fold it or flat call with it.

In any hand where Im all in with cards yet to come, I will calculate the equity I had in the hand at the time of the all in. There will be alot of all ins and a large portion of my results will depend on short term luck so I want to have an "adjusted results" area that factors this in. My "actual" results will be just that....and my "adjusted" results will be calculated as if the hand ended at the point of the all in and I was awarded the correct equity right there.

Here is a thread where some of this is discussed
forum/viewtopic.php?t=25180

Here are my stats so far.

Approx 1000 hands

VIP...23.74%
Raise preflop...10.06%
Won $ WSF...46.98%
Went to SD....30.2%
Won $ at SD.....68.89%

Actual win rate....25.35 PTBBs
Actual hourly rate (4 tables)....$149 / hr

Adjusted win rate....11.86 PTBBs
Adjusted hourly rate....$74.49 / hr.

Im running very hot right now, but my adjusted numbers account for that and they are still outstanding. We'll see if the regulars make proper adjustments or not as we go.

I knew you would be back.

Good luck in your short stack game endeavor! I doubt many people can adjust to someone playing this style effectively as your variance is always going to be controlled. In the way way back before I really posted much at UPF I liked buying in half stack as a variance reducer, which at the time was the same as full stack at Party.

Many strategies can be succesful at this game and this one, if you follow your rules will probably eliminate the FPS you have been suffering from since moving to lower stakes.

Wow, a Chris Ferguson experiment. Keep us posted! I'm interested in how it'll develop

There are alot of all in hands since I start out with only 20BB so I wont go into all of them. So far, Im getting all in with cards still yet to come about 1 in every 23 hands. That doesnt count when I get all in on the river. Im not keeping track of those but I have to guess counting those hands Im all in once in 20 hands.

My luck caught up with me. So far, Ive won $73 less than I shouldve have today but Im still up more than I should be overall. It will all even out long term.

A couple interesting hands

#1) 2 limpers. I have 99 in the SB. I raise to $7. I dont think anyone has TT or higher. Im going to push any flop. It folds to the cutoff who shoves on me. He only started with $43 himself so I figure him to be a true donk. I still don tthink he has TT or higher after limping the cutoff so I call. He has 66 but flops a 6.

#2) I limp KK UTG. I think this is the best play now. Everyone knows youre suppossed to raise in LP to isolate the limper right? If it doesnt get raised , I can still play for mmy 20BB stack because Im short enough to not get too worked up about getting out flopped. Cutoff raises to $3. The BB calls. I shove and they both call.

Flop is J98. BB checks, cutoff shoved and the BB calls with AK. Cutoff had AJ and I triple up.

#3) MP raises to $3.50. I have QQ and have $33. The guy has only $62 himself so i shove in. He calls with A2

Next 2 are my favs

#4) 2 limpers and I have [4h] in the BB.

Pot $4. Flop [3c][2s]. SB (who has $35) bets $4. I shove in. It folds back to him and he calls with [5d]. I win.

#5) I open limp [3s] in the cutoff. This hand is one reason why this system cant be taught to any monkey with a hand chart.

Because the blinds can eat up a short stack waiting for big hands, I have to find ways to beat the blinds. I can raise in LP with a variety of hands because the blinds dont call much because they have no implied odds. When they fold, I steal the blinds and pay for a round of blinds. I can also limp in with a hand like K3s if I don tthink the button will raise me. Then I can bet just about any flop that checks to me because most flops miss most people and again, the blinds dont have odds to chase overcards or whatever.

So I limp [3s]. Th ebutton limps also and the flop comes 4 way.

Pot $4. Flop [7s][4s]. Blinds check to me. heres my favorite part of the hand. Im a short stack donk right? I might as well make a donk bet. I bet $1. The button min raises me . Whos the donk? I call.

Pot $8. Turn . I donk another $1 into him . He raises to $11 and hes trapped. I shove. He calls $8 more with [9c]

I had alot of the standard all ins

99 vs AJ
AK vs 77
AT vs KK...oops
AJ vs AT
AQ vs TT

1300 hands total

Actual win rate.......15.10 PTBBs
Actual hourly rate....$93.49 / hr

Adjusted win rate.....11.03 PTBBs
Adjusted hourly rate.....$63.88 / hr

Notice how , although my actual win rate dropped significantly (because I ran bad), my adjusted win rate is still very close because the luck is already factored in. I still doubt that 11.03 PTBBs is sustainable, but if it is...look out!

How many tables are you playing?

Playing 4 tables. Full Tilt latest update sped their tables up. Its pretty fast now.

I just noticed that my stats look very very close to my full stack stats.

24 / 9.5
W$ WSF...42.75%
Went to SD....28.26%
Won $ at SD....61.54%...(al little higher than normal)

Aggression numbers...

Flop..3.03
Turn....3.42
River...5.00 (this is higher than nornal)
Total....3.27

If someone looked at my PT stats, theres no way they would know I short stacking.

And remember, it doesnt matter how much of a stack I start with. If my win rate is 10 and so is yours, we're both winning the same amount of money no matter how big a stack we're playing. But nobody has a 10 PTBB win rate anymore, so it will be interesting to see if mine stays anywhere near as high as it is right now.

6 max. As counterintuitive as it seems, I think it works better at 6 max. People raise alot more at 6 max and a short stack can easily take advantage of this. Hence a major reason that good players hate shorties.

Here is my 1st 3 days. Im missing one hand where I doubled up because I was UTG. I doubled so it was time to leave before the next hand which wouldve been the BB and I closed the table. If you do that at FTP, the HH doesnt get written to your hard drive. I have to watch that. I also have about 100 hands at Bodog that arent on this graph.

My actual win rate right now is 16.27 PTBBs
Actual hourly rate...$101.08 / hr

Adjusted win rate...9.82 PTBBs
Adjusted hourly rate...$57.37 / hr.

Im itching to move up already as Im already up 22 short stacks. I really need to give it at least 5000 hands though, so I'll wait.

Im giving no consideration whatsoever to table selection. Im not using a HUD or anything like that. I may start using PA HUD when I move up and look for LAGs to sit behind. Im not sure about that yet.

My SD is only 26.47 PTBBs / 100 hands. Amazing.

Hmmm... Won't comment on the specific hands, but I do have a question related to the K3s hand.

I'd probably open push there, at least the way I've been trying. I think some hands like KT+, AT+ are better to raise to about 3 BB, though, rather than open-pushing.

What I think you have to bear in mind is something more textural. If you've been open-pushing a lot, then open-pushing something like AQ or AK becomes more desirable. You definitely want a marginal caller on something like AJ+ or 99+, and I view 99 and TT as almost auto-pushes because too many flops are difficult. Anyhow, I've been trying to play those situations more texturally, with the options of making a smaller raise or else open pushing, depending on my feel for the table.

Im not open pushing at all.