Short Stack Strategy: How to play against other SSS players?

Introduction

In this article

• another short-stack player
  
• recognise them and adapt
  

Identifying a shortstack strategy (SSS) player

There are a few tip-offs that give such players away:

1. A stack of around 15-25 BB
2. A VPIP between 5% and 10% and a PFR of 5% to 10%

Not every player fitting these criteria is a SSS player, so it is important to make exact notes about your opponent and to watch the table. If you see a potential SSS player who does not play according to the chart, make a note of it and do not treat him as an SSS player in the future.

Modifying your reraise range

If you identify a player playing SSS, you can make exact mathematical decisions with your hands.

To do this, you use the information on SSS players and their raise ranges from the different positions:

Early : JJ+, AKo/s

Middle : 99+, AQo/s+

Late : 77+, AJo/s+, KQo/s

The standard reraise range for a raise before you is JJ+, AKo/s.

You can modify this rule for playing against SSS opponents.

To implement the following modifications, it is sensible to have an advantageous position over the SSS player, since you can then guess their range more exactly and reraise or fold accordingly.

The following chart shows your equity against the raise range of a SSS player, depending on his position and on your hand.

Discussion of chart

The chart shows the equity (chance of winning) of your starting hand (on the left) against the range of the SSS player who is raising from the position listed in the top row.

Red entries: For these you are at a disadvantage and will lose money in the long run if you join the hand. Hence, do not reraise. Instead opt to simply fold.

Green entries: Nothing changes because you are the favourite against the SSS range. Reraise as standard practice.

Yellow entries: These are boundary cases where your equity advantage is under 3%. Note that Partypoker takes a 5% rake of every pot. This is a disadvantage for all players who put money into the pot, so you can expect to lose about 2.5% of the pot to the rake.

If you count the blinds as dead money, they make up about 3.5% of the pot, which is again divided between the two players. As such, you get around 1.75% back from the blinds.

So in conclusion, you need an equity advantage of 0.75%.

What this means for individual hands:

AKs against SSS player from middle position / JJ against SSS player from middle position:

You should only reraise if there is dead money in the pot left by limpers or other players who called the first raise. Otherwise fold.

AKo against SSS player from middle position:

You have a small disadvantage in equity, but can reraise if you have enough dead money (at least one raise-caller). Otherwise fold.

TT against SSS player from late position/ TT against SSS player from button first-in:

You have a slight equity advantage, but a reraise would increase your variance dramatically, since we are consciously going into what almost amounts to a coin toss.

If you have a big bankroll that can absorb the loss, you should raise here. Those treading with caution can fold and give up a 1-2% equity advantage for the comfort of a lower variance. The same is true for the 3 previous hands.

If there is dead money in the pot, you should reraise in any case.

Modifying your all-in range after a reraise from a SSS player

In this case you raise and get reraised by another SSS player.

The standard all-in conditions after a reraise are as follows:

But if you know the exact reraise range (TT+, AKo/s) of your opponent, you can make these conditions more precise.

Note that all dead money in the pot influences the values on this chart. This chart assumes no dead money at all.

Therefore if a player calls your raise and the SSS player then reraises, the values change.

If this is the case, you can go all in with larger ratios of stack:raise.

The more dead money in the pot, the higher you can push the boundary. In general however, values should not be increased by more than 0.5.

You can estimate the correction as follows:

This is not exact since the different hands require different corrections, but it is an acceptable approximation.

Further tips and advice about playing against SSS players

It is generally advantageous to have a good position over the SSS player, so that you seldomly find yourself being the underdog in any hand. This is especially applicable to the position immediately to your right, as this is the opponent who will tend to give up the SB, if folds come all the way up to him.

If you have a SSS player directly to your left, you can steal from the SB with a large range, because he'll often fold.

According to the strategy, he'll only reraise with JJ+,AKo/s, which makes up 3% of his hands. The strategy forbids calling.

If you raise from the SB with any 2 cards and he plays only 3% of his hands, you have the following expected values, depending on the size of the raise:

Effective stack: 20 BB

EV(Fold) = 0 BB
EV(Stealraise 3 BB) = 0.97*1 BB - 0.03*2.5 BB = + 0.90 BB
EV(Stealraise 4 BB) = 0.97*1 BB - 0.03*3.5 BB = + 0.87 BB
EV(All-In 19.5 BB) = 0.97*1 BB + 0.03*0.25*19.5 BB - 0.03*0.75*19.5 BB = + 0.68 BB 

Even with an all-in you would make a profit.

It is important that you immediately fold if you are reraised, to avoid losing unnecessary money.

Example hands

Finally, a few hands that demonstrate the concepts in practice.

Examples 1-3 deal with modifying the reraise range.

Examples 4 and 5 deal with modifying the all-in range after a reraise from an SSS player.

Example 1

NL10$ ($0.05/$0.10)

UTG ($2.10) - SSS
UTG+1 ($19.01)
UTG+2 ($6.78)
MP1 ($2.05) - SSS
MP2 ($9.40)
MP3 ($8.23)
CO ($10.25)
BU ($6.35)
SB ($10.05)
Hero ($1.90)

Preflop: Hero is BB with J, J

3 folds, MP1 raises to $0.40, 5 folds, Hero folds.

Final Pot: $0.55.

You suspect a player using the SSS raises from middle position, which is a yellow entry in the chart, because you only have 50.2% equity against his range. Since no dead money is lying around, you fold.

Example 2

NL50$ ($0.25/$0.50)

UTG: $43.85
UTG+1: $33.25
MP1: $10 - SSS
MP2: $71.55
Hero: $9
CO: $47.25
Button: $50.45
SB: $47.05
BB: $49.50

Pre-flop: Hero is MP3 with A, K

UTG calls $0.50, UTG+1 calls $0.50, MP1 raises to $3, 1 fold, Hero raises to $9 (All-In), 4 folds, MP1 calls $6.

Final Pot: $19.75.

There's another raise from a SSS player in middle position. AKs is a yellow entry in the chart and the discussion notes that you should only play the hand if there is dead money in the pot besides the blinds. With 2 callers in early position, this is the case. Therefore, reraise all-in.

Example 3

NL25$ ($0.10/$0.25)

UTG ($41.60)
UTG+1 ($43.17)
UTG+2 ($23.75)
MP1 ($22.85)
MP2 ($5) - SSSS
Hero ($5)
CO ($16.10)
Button ($25.15)
SB ($27.15)
BB ($12.65)

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with A, K
4 folds, MP2 raises to $1, Hero folds, 4 folds.

A SSS player raises from middle position. With 48.6%, AKo is a yellow entry in the chart. Since there is no dead money, we have a clear fold.

Example 4

NL10$ ($0.05/$0.10)

CO ($8.78)
Button ($2) - SSS
SB ($20.90)
BB ($5.98)
UTG ($8)
UTG+1 ($12.50)
Hero ($2)
MP2 ($13.90)
MP3 ($2.85)

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with Q , A .
UTG calls $0.10,1 fold, Hero raises to $0.50, 3 folds, Button raises to $2 (All-In), 3 folds, Hero folds

You raise from middle position with AQo and are reraised by a SSS player. According to the original strategy, this would be an all-in situation because the ratio of raise size to stack size is 3:1<4.9:1.

With the aid of the new table, you should find that the all-in threshold for AQo is a ratio of 1.3:1, and since there is 1 limper in the hand, you can correct this value by +0.1.

So in the end you can go all-in at a ratio of (1.3+0.1):1 = 1.4:1. But since the ratio here is 3:1, you would have to fold.

Example 5

NL10$ ($0.05/$0.10)

CO ($9.08)
Button ($10.10)
SB ($2.40) - SSS
BB ($10.10)
UTG ($9.8)
UTG+1 ($8.09)
Hero ($2.40)
MP2 ($12.49)
MP3 ($9.85)

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with T , T .
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $0.10, Hero raises to $0.5, 5 folds, SB raises to $1.5, 1 fold, Hero folds.

You raise with TT from middle position by $0.50, because of a limper. SB, who has been identified as a SSS player reraises. According to the original strategy you would go all-in in this case, as the ratio of raise:stack = 3.8:1<4.9:1.

You find a better value from the table of 2.1:1 for TT. You should modify the value by adding 0.1 because of the limper.

The result is that you can go all-in at (2.1+0.1):1 = 2.2:1. But since the ratio is 3.8:1, you would have to fold.