How to 'steal fold equity' as a micro stack
How do you get people to fold when you have a very small stack? By using the leverage of bigger stacks at the table.
I have a reputation for being able to nurse a micro stack for an inordinate amount of time in poker tournaments. I think this is because most people do not know how to play a micro stack and even good players just start to punt once they get below 10 big blinds.
Perhaps the biggest myth about micro stack play is that there is no skill to it. It is not the case that you just shove the first decent looking hand you get dealt then pray to the poker gods. Not only can you be more careful about picking your spots, there are even techniques you can use to make it more likely your opponents will fold even though it doesn’t cost them much to call.
I call this stealing fold equity.
Shove into the biggest stack
As a general ICM principle when you are short it is best to target the other short stacks at your table. If you have six big blinds then the player with 11 big blinds is not going to want to call you and thus they should be your target.
However, once you get down to a really short stack, let’s say under 5 big blinds, this strategy can flip. Now your best strategy might be to shove into the biggest stack at the table, especially if they have been putting their chips to good use and playing aggressively.
It works for two reasons. First of all, everyone else at the table will tighten up their ranges because they don’t want the chip leader to play back at them. That 25 big blind stack with 77 might just let it go because they don’t want the chipleader to flat or squeeze when it comes round to them.
The other reason is because the chip leader will rightfully call you with the widest range and thus give you the best chance for a double up. So you might even be ahead when you shove into them with Q8o.
Ride the maniac wave
On a similar note, if there is a particularly wild aggressive chip leader at your table then your best spot might be to call if they raise ahead of you, rather than waiting to shove into somebody else.
Like before, you will be up against the widest range so you have the best chance of winning. The players behind you will not want to engage with the chip leader so you most likely will get all of them to fold. This also means that the Small and Big Blind will get out of the way most of the time so if you do win, you will more than double up.
Even if more players call behind you, there is an increased chance the chip leader will blast them out of the pot after the flop, meaning you have a chance at an even bigger pot despite only having to beat one player.
Leave a chip behind
Whenever you are so short that you really don’t have much fold equity, instead of going all-in, bet 95% of your stack. So if the blinds are 500/1,000 and you have 3,500, bet 3,000.
That extra money behind would not be the difference maker between a player calling or folding anyway. But what it does do is put the rest of the table in a position where one of them is going to have to either raise preflop or bet on the flop to get you all in.
In this example, preflop somebody would have to raise to 6,000 to get you all-in. If they did this then it makes it more likely the players behind them will fold. Or they might realise they have to commit too much extra money just to bust you so instead they just get out of the way. Even if you get two callers, one of them will have to at least min bet on the flop to get you all-in, which would allow the other player to fold.
If you are near the bubble or the pay jump this also has the added bonus of allowing you to stall for a little bit longer as the action comes back around to you.
I call these methods stealing fold equity because you are using the leverage of another player’s stack to get other players to fold. This does not mean we are trying to take down a pot uncontested, what we are trying to do is get heads-up against somebody with a wide range with some added dead money in the pot. Much better than shoving our 3 big blinds then getting four callers.
If you want more insight like this, Dara has a regular newsletter where he gives free tips like this all the time.
More from Dara O'Kearney
- How to adjust when nobody folds
- How to construct a bluff range
- How to play the 2nd from last table
- When to do swaps in tournaments
- What poker players get wrong about laddering
