I'm designing and testing out a new shortstack strategy of my own making. I'm attempting to make it as mechanical as possible to be able to multitable as much as possible. Tried it today playing 6 tables with a 20bb stack and was at 8.32ptbb/100 after 1k hands. Positive variance is probably the main reason, I got my AK push called 3 times and won them all (vs QQ, vs 99+KT and vs AJ). I have one preflop problem and one post flop problem, both very specific. This is the preflop issue:

JJ UTG
I'm not sure it is profitable to push JJ when UTG. Assuming people play perfectly against you (ie: calling with AA-QQ and folding everything else). It's 0.6% chance to get AA, so with ONE player left to act he'd have a 1.8% chance of having a better hand than you, but with 9 players I figure the chance of nobody having a better hand would be only about 85%. So assuming they play perfect you increase your stack with 1.5bb 85% of the time but on average lose 11.7bb the other 15% of the time, making it a -1.3bb EV move against perfect players.

Obviously this is incredibly simplified. It doesn't consider multiway pots, the fact that you could get called by inferior hands etc. I have however been doing different calculations and considering other things and I still end up on the fence, does anyone have any theories or enough of a sample size to shed some light on this? It seems like most people advocate pushing it.

I think Ed Miller recommends pushing JJ UTG as well. I read his book "Getting Started in HE" and that had a few sections on short stack play.

I think Ed's book talks about a real shallow stack of only 10 BB's. Some sites require 20 bets and now you still have some bets left in your stack when you take a flop.

We were discussing this strategy today at work as my co-worker plays it while trying to win bonus money.

It's neither of the reasons you guessed. I just didn't have anytihng to do, got the idea to try and make a 'perfect' shortstack strategy and test it. It's just a small project fueled by boredom and curiosity. I also figure it's a good excercise with some ok side effects, learning more of the matematics involved, getting a big DB of players (playing 6 tables).

So far it is actually making more money than my normal win/rate, especially at these super rocky tables. At one time yesterday the *highest* average vpip was somewhere below 25% and one table was at 16%, not exactly my favorite setting, this strategy however should be working without table selection.

I hear ya Zim. The thing is, the way you describe it, I'd rather do something else with my time.

Sometimes, Allstar ... so do I.



Best,
Zim

I wouldn't say that it does not improve your poker. You learn a lot about short-stack situations in tournaments. You learn a lot about all-in confrontations. But of course you should mix it with normal full stack buy-ins.

The variance in full-ring is roughly half when I play short-stacked. With a full stack mine is 36PTBB/100, with a short-stack it is around 20. This means that I can play higher limits than with a full stack (I do not do it but this would be possible) and it is less stressful.

For someone with >10 PTBB/100 it does not make sense to go to a short-stack strategy, since you make a lot less money. But I would bet here are some guys who do not reach these 10PTBB

MHFlush