A surprising flatting range at 6bbs l Strategy with Barry

Not everything is shove or fold when you get under 10bbs, in fact there is surprising nuance to micro stack play.

When you do a lot of work with solvers, now and then you get a head scratcher that really shows you something new. 

I was looking at micro stack strategy this week, and discovered something unusual about when to flat with just 6bbs. The consensus would be to play shove or fold with that stack depth, but the game is more nuanced than most realise. 

Multiway value

Everyone has roughly 30bbs expect the Cutoff with 6bbs. When the Lojack opens, this is their response:

There is a flatting range of some suited broadway hands, and low suited Aces. AA, on the other hand, a natural trap some may say, just shoves.

Why is this?

It makes sense when you understand, hands like QTs and KJs play well multiway. They go up in value with more opponents. 

When we flat here, the blinds do not want to reraise, because the Lojack could reraise again. So the blinds are incentivised to call and see a flop. 

When it folds around to the Big Blind they call very wide. I have used Equilab to show the ranges and the equities:

QTs is doing very well here. It has 33% equity, which is more than what it needs when you factor in the chips already in the pot. 

However, when another player raises preflop, nothing changes. No matter how much more money goes in preflop, even if every player goes all-in after the Cutoff, they still call. 

What also may happen is another player might raise and fold everyone but the Cutoff out of the pot. When that happens, the Cutoff is getting an amazing price to call, and only needs to beat one player. 

When you have a micro stack, the ideal scenario is to quadruple up, or better. Suited broadway hands are the hands to do it with.