Short Stack Strategy: Playing 10-20 Big Blinds
Playing a short stack is an inevitable part of tournament poker. Blinds increase, hands go wrong, and suddenly you are staring at 12 big blinds wondering how to survive. The good news: short stack poker is one of the most mathematically solved areas of the game. If you study the correct ranges, you can execute near-perfectly.
Defining Short Stack
- 20+ BB — Normal play with pre-flop raises, post-flop decisions
- 15-20 BB — Transition zone; consider shove-or-fold for many hands
- 10-15 BB — Core push/fold territory
- 5-10 BB — Desperate; push wide from any reasonable position
- Under 5 BB — Push almost anything; even 72o has fold equity value
The Re-Steal
With 12-18 big blinds, one of your most powerful weapons is the re-steal (3-bet shove). When a late-position player opens and you hold a reasonable hand in the blinds, shoving all-in puts maximum pressure on them. Their opening range is wide, so they must fold a large percentage of the time.
Good re-steal hands include small-to-medium pairs (55-99), suited aces (A2s-A9s), and broadway hands (KJs, QJs). Avoid re-stealing with hands that have poor equity when called, like K4o or Q7o.
Steal and Re-Steal Math
With 12 BB, shoving over a 2.5x open risks 12 BB to win about 4.5 BB (the open + blinds + antes). You need the fold roughly 73% of the time to break even with a completely worthless hand. Since most openers fold 60-70% of their range to a shove, you only need marginal equity when called.
Common Short Stack Mistakes
- Min-raising with 12 BB — This commits nearly a quarter of your stack while giving opponents a great price to see a flop. Shove or fold.
- Calling raises — With a short stack, calling a raise gives you no fold equity and poor implied odds. Either re-shove or fold.
- Folding into the money — Deliberately blinding down to ladder one pay jump rarely justifies the chip-equity lost. Play your spots.