Peoples opinion on Shortstacking

PLO is a drawing game and reducing your implied odds when drawing doesn't make sense (on the surface of things).

optimal stack size is a function of your opponents. in extreme example A, you are playing with 2 tough players and 2 fish. the two tough players have 2k each and the fish have 200. obviously the optimal stack size here is 200. Why take the 2k risk in playing break even spots against tough players when you are really only there to play against the fish? You are just exposing yourself to massive risk and variance with no upside.

On the other hand, lets say you are playing heads up against a very loose passive opponent. In this situation you want to have more money on the table since this will increase your hourly since you will be playing bigger pots with an edge. Or if you are against 2 nits and 2 fish, and the fish both have 3k and the nits have 300 then it would be better to have 3k, assuming you have the bankroll to support that much money on the table. (minimum 100k).

There is another very important reason to become a skilled short stacker. Taking a shot. Let's say you have a decent bankroll, 100k, and you want to take a shot at 25/50. Now obviously you cannot put 15k on the table with a 100k bankroll. That would be suicide. Even 5k is a big risk. But you would be able to take a 2k shot. And there are some significant structural advantages to short stacking. Let's say we're playing 2/5 PLO and it's an action game. Lots of players are straddling and double straddling. Big pots and deep stacks. Exciting poker. But a short stack nit can literally wait for aces and make a tremendous profit in this game with relatively little risk, because a lot of those times you're going to end up with a 3 or 4 way all in and then someone else resqueezing or even just going all in hu for 200 with $150 extra dead money as a 2:1 favourite. And there is nothing anyone can do about this strategy, if they even recognize what you are doing. But anyway, short stack enables you to take some shots at bigger games without risking your bankroll. It also has a nice organic stack size adjusting effect, in that when you are winning, feeling good, making good decisions, getting a little bit lucky, your stack size increases. So when you are playing your A game, you get the most money on the table naturally. When things are going badly, you have only min buy or less on the table.

There are times when you should add on, and times when you should buy in for the minimum. Think intelligently about what is going on and make the right top on / add on / buy in amount decisions.