The Chip Stack Blog

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SNG strategy – busting the short-stack

SNG’s provide one of the best ways to build up a fledgling bankroll: score a win in a freeroll and take the small change you pick up to the SNG tables – this is what many thrifty people do, and this is how they start up a bankroll from naught. SNGs are great for this purpose because they offer much better individual odds for players than MTTs (even though the potential winnings/initial investment ratio of SNGs is much smaller than that of MTTs). In a SNG, you have a very limited number of opponents you have to best in order to make it to the money. Most of the time, you’ll only have about 7-5 players to dispose of and therefore each and every one at your table becomes your deadly enemy while remaining a potential ally in the same time.

There are few things more annoying in poker than watching the short stack at your SNG table bounce back time after time on the money bubble. What’s interesting though is the wolf-pack mentality involved in the whole setup. The player who finds himself the short-stack, will soon have the other people ganging up on him. The other players will often call a short-stack’s all-in on all sorts of subpar hands, just to school up on him and to further cripple his all-in odds. It always pays to be aggressive in poker and SNGs are no exceptions from this rule. Sometimes however, aggression is not going to get you anywhere. Imagine the following scenario: you’re in the BB on the money bubble of a SNG and the short-stack in early position goes all-in. The hand is folded around to you: what do you do? Aggression is not going to be of any help here. You either call or you fold, there’s no other option. I know what you’re tempted to do… if that guy considers it worthwhile to put his tournament life onto the line from that early a position, he much have something, right? Since all you have is rags, you’re better off folding. You could afford to call him, but you do not want to chip him up any more than strictly necessary, so you fold.

This approach is flawed. First of all, by gifting him your BB, you still chip the guy up. Secondly: your “rags” may not even be as big a dog as you think they are. Thirdly: you need to keep in mind that short-stacks are always somewhat desperate. The fact that your opponent pushes all-in doesn’t mean he’s got AA, or KK in that pocket… He might have a much wider range of hands there, and since no two unpaired cards are really that much better than another two, your odds there may in fact be much better than you think.

Another reason for you to make the call comes from Sklansky himself. Remember the section where he details starting hand selection based on the pot odds? You know, where he says that if your pot odds are really-really good, it makes sense to commit on any two cards?

Well, that’s almost the case here. Take a look at the pot odds you get and if they’re at least 2-1 (or better) you should make that call.

On most random hands, you are about 40% to win, and that coupled with 2-1 pot odds simply screams for a call.

As a SNG player, you should never take to the green felt without securing a good rakeback or poker prop deal. The tournament fees that you pay on every SNG you register for is a pretty large long-term burden. A rakeback or prop deal will help you get some (or all) of that burden off your shoulders.