Managing stacks

Stack management sounds like a simple skill, yet is probably one of the most underrated and unexplored areas of poker. The best poker players acutely understand the term and how it affects each and every tournament they play. Stack management is a skill that can be worked on, improved and perfected like no other.

Every poker player worth his salt knows how to handle a short stack, yet very few know about correct strategy for big-stack versus big-stack confrontation. And fewer still know how to handle playing a medium stack in the middle and late stages of a tournament.

Knowing the battles to pick, the players and stack sizes to attack and understanding the complex balance of risk and reward is something a game theorist could probably spend a lifetime studying. But I know what you really want is ideas and advice. So this guide is designed to give you a few ideas on how the stage of the tournament and your stack size should be taken into account at every level of competition.

EARLY STAGES

In the early stages, stack sizes will not be of too much importance compared to other factors, so we won’t dwell on stack size here. But this stage of the tournament is interesting as striking a balance between chip accumulation and preservation is the holy grail of good tournament poker.

Generally chip accumulation should be paramount in the first few levels, opposed to a more defensive strategy. As all players start with the same number of chips, there is no immediate advantage to any player in a hand. This should make you more inclined to press marginal edges, as you should make less errors than other players and profit more from evenly matched stack confrontations.

Secondly, in the early stages, nearly all of the bad players are still in. These players are incredibly valuable in allowing you to build a stack. They will make so many unforced errors that you can be justified in playing a high proportion of hands in an effort to catapult yourself into an enviable position. Thirdly, the stacks are deep in comparison to the blinds. The increase in implied odds is a huge reason to go out of your way in an effort to hoover chips up early. Most players will make more mistakes post flop in a deep-stacked situation than they will further down the road when most of the money will be going in pre-flop. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, building a big stack early on will allow you to make more moves and power plays in later stages. It will also give you a cushion to absorb the inevitable bad beats and lost coin flips that will occur.

MIDDLE STAGES

In these stages, stack sizes are beginning to become defined. Pre-flop play dominates, with only a fraction of all pots seeing a flop, so paying close attention to stack sizes is key. Generally, chip preservation has a higher value than chip accumulation at this time, but any edge should be pushed – provided the reward is great enough.

SMALL-STACK

Fold equity should be your primary survival tool. All of your poker will be pre-flop, given that you will lack the clout to play down the streets effectively. You need to ensure that when you are involved your raise or bet will cause considerable damage to your opponents stack.

For example, on the button with 7,000 chips at the 300/600/a100 level you should be much more willing to open shove any two cards versus a tight medium-stack of 15,000 than a loose big-stack with 45,000. You have to focus on the villain’s stack as opposed to your own, and try to visualise how hard a decision will be for him.

You should virtually never limp, regardless of your hole cards. Your tournament life is too fragile so you need to minimise the luck factor as much as possible. Punish any weak players limping – you will often find the domino limping effect can be punished well by timely shoves. Above all, never lose your fold equity and never call all-in bets without a big hand.

It’s vital you know the tournament structure, which online means keeping the lobby open, as there are plenty of spots that are useful for picking up easy chips. In live competitions play can tighten up considerably, or loosen in some cases, as you approach dinner or next day breaks. You also need to be aware of dangerous positions, such as having 11 big blinds in a tournament when the blinds go up in two minutes.

If by any chance you do get ridiculously low, to the point where you have no fold equity, you should look for multi-way pots with cards that can make big hands such as suited connectors. This will give you the best shot of recovery through trebling or quadrupling up.

AVERAGE-STACK

The re-steal is your biggest and best weapon when you have an average stack. Three-betting pre-flop, over the top of late position thieves, is a proven method of accumulating chips in the middle stages. This pressure on opponents can let you regularly take down decent pots pre-flop in situations where the cards don’t matter. Other valuable moves for staying ahead of the curve are min-raises from early position, squeeze plays and (provided you really know your opponents) cold four-betting. In all these situations, ensure you have correctly analysed both the price your opponents will be getting on the call and their ability to understand what you are trying to represent.

Being aware of a player’s thought processes is fundamental. You shouldn’t try to bluff a mug. A good player will fold A-J to a four-bet shove given the action – a bad player will probably snap-call you.

BIG-STACK

This is the fun part. As a big-stack you should be putting consistent pressure on your shorter stacked opponents. Both short and medium-stacks are your target, although avoid the very short stacked players who will be looking to gamble.

It’s probably best to only challenge rational thinking opponents when you have junk. Going after maniacal or loose-passive players without the goods will just put you in a lot of unpleasant spots. Also, be aware of how showing down hands affects table image. Try not to devalue your raises too much showing down 4-7 offsuit.

Challenging other big-stacks is something of a double edged-sword. Generally you want to go after bad big-stacks in position, especially if you have reads. You don’t really want to tangle with unpredictable quality opponents as things can get messy very quickly.

To break it down simply, you should bluff and float the tighter ones, re-raise the looser ones pre-flop and dodge the really good ones. To be taking advantage of other big-stacks you should ensure you fully understand the ideas of pot control and the importance of position.

END STAGE

The end of the tournament is where the best players start to really branch out and the bad players curl up and try to limp into the money. You should really put the pressure on anyone you see taking their time to act when you are approaching a payout bubble.

You should also be changing gears often and frequently putting other stacks to tough decisions. Winning a big pot and taking the chip lead to the final can be one foot on the podium platform, so never be afraid to make a risky (but calculated) bet. But be sure to use the right amount of chips to do the job and not a single one more.

Needlessly bluffing big when the guy either has a monster or nothing is dumb. Keep your bets efficient. For example, raising three times the big blind might well be fine in the early stages but now a raise of two and a half times will suffice to nick the blinds and antes.

Be prepared to try everything. For example, preserving the final table bubble by saving a short-stack so you can continue to hoover up the blinds and antes is a great tactic. And you should always look to target weak spots.

This can mean going after specific players, such as attacking someone who is playing very tightly whenever they are on the big blind. It could mean focusing on table dynamics, such as re-raising another player who has also decided to attack a tight player. Or it could mean targeting short stacked players simply trying to hang on for the final table. Don’t let that be you.