Originally posted by Donkey111
First, regarding the ethic of short/midstacking, I will redirect everyone interested to NoahSD's blog who is much more eloquent than I am:
http://www.nsdpoker.com/2011/01/the-poker-economy/
Obviously, some people (like ArtisSkirpa) are so prejudiced against anything but a 100bb+ stack that they write things that are just plain false. Let me clear up a few concepts:
1. In terms of difficulty:
SS < Midstack < 100bb stack < deep (200bb+) stack
In other words, the shallower the stack, the more mechanical it is to play, and the less skilled in poker you are, the more a shorter stack will suit you.
2. Steal
You cannot steal the blinds of a mid-stack relentlessly. Well, maybe you can, if the midstacker is a new player who follows PS beginner midstack strategy which is quite tight. But any pro midstacker who is worth his grain of salt will constantly put you to the test with relentless 3-bets. If anything, you should should play a little tighter from the button against a competent midstacker. The midstacker shares something with the short-stacker: they both thrive on fold equity but the mid-stacker has to care about his pot equity a lot more.
3. Preflop 3b/4b ranges
No, you cannot adjust your preflop ranges on the fly against a good midstacker. The first reason why I studied midstacking was because I was tired of midstackers exploiting me with their 3-bets and it takes some study to make up a good defensive counter-strategy. In my case I ended up with a rough equilibrium to make sure I was 4-betting enough for value to prevent mid-stacker from blatantly exploiting me. The end result was not intuitive at all: 4betting/stacking off against a 35bb midstack (which is the size I studied) is very different from stacking off against a 100bb stack. If you are as I was before I studied midstacking then let me tell you: you should 4b/stack off a lot looser than you probably think.
4. Live vs online
This is generous to say that live is equivalent to 10-25NL online. Maybe on the soft sites it is. On the large ones, if you ask me, I will say that it is easier than 5NL! 
I do agree that midstacking online and live is very different, not because live is softer but because you end up multi-way live a lot more often than you do online. That makes midstacking live a completely different beast from online.
I also agree than you are much better off live with a full stack. In my my case I had no choice as my risk of ruin with a full stack was very high (low BR). Also due to the looser nature of the live games, you have to play a midstack a lot tighter than online. Needless to say than I often ended being bored to death...
I agree with your post for the most part. And I have nothing against playing with a less than 100bb stack as such, I just hate that there are sites out there that advocate SSS and MSS, knowing that it's bad for the game, and halts the player's (SSer's or MSer's) development as a poker player.
I disagree with the part about not being able to exploit MSers. The thing is, that everyone of them plays different, preflop ranges are different in different spots for different MSers. So you can't necessarily study MSS and know perfectly what they're ranges are. What I do, and I'm sure most other 200nl or 100nl regs do, is I take notes of what hands they show up with, after they 3bet or 4bet or whatever, then I look at those notes combined with stats and try to figure out a strategy to exploit them. I have done some calcs myself and have looked at other people's calcs, I consider myself to be pretty good with stats and numbers, so I don't really do any calcs on paper anymore.
Every reg plays different at small stakes too, so MSers have to alter they're ranges pretty significantly depending on which regular they're up against. They can't just use charts anymore when they get to small stakes. Because no one, who is actually good at poker wastes they're time by MSing, and MSers generally masstable, I assume they're incapable of adjusting enough to regs as regs adjust to them.
In general though, they play too tight vs steals, and defend they're blinds mostly by 3betting, or as OP does, only by 3betting which makes it extremely easy to steal they're blinds with a 100% range preflop. I guarantee you, none of them 3bets enough to counter that. Most of them fold too much to 3bets, so because they never call 3bets pre, I can just 3bet them like 2.5x with ATC really cheap and show profit. If you're a midstacker, you really have to be aware of what you're fold to 3bet % is, it cannot be exploitable preflop, if you never play back by calling.
OP, for example, opens 46% from the button, and a lot of MSers do, say he opens for 3x. I can 3bet him to something like 7-8bb from the big blind (7 is probably enough since he never calls). I'm risking 6-7bb to win 4.5bb, I don't feel like calculating now, but you can imagine how much of his 46% opening range he has to 4bet to make it unprofitable for me/profitable for him. Same with his 53% SB opening range.
It will take him some time to adjust by not opening so much or 4betting more. And I assure you any reg will adjust to his adjustments quicker than he can readjust.
