Shoving ‘All In’ with a Short Stack

If you play tournament poker, you are more than likely to find yourself short-stacked at one point or another. That is, unless you win every tournament you play, or have a habit of busting out when you still have a lot of chips. For the 99.9% of you who will play short-stacked at some point or another, here is just one ‘all-in’ strategy on wielding a short stack in a No-Limit Hold’em tournament, and at times in a cash game as well.

This is very basic short-stack strategy—when you have less than ten times the big blind, there is only one move: all-in when you are the first one in the pot. The idea here is to try to steal the blinds. Depending on how short-stacked you are, you can be more or less selective with the types of hands that you try to steal with. For example, with 8 times the big blind, you might wait for any ace or pair (or even KQ), but with 4 times the big blind, you might want to go all-in on your first chance to be the first one in the pot, with any cards.

In general, the more chips you have, the more you want to play your cards and the shorter your stack, the more you want to look for the right opportunities to go all-in. If you have a premium hand (AK, pocket Jacks or better), then you may want to go all-in even if someone has come in before you, but if there is significant action before the action gets to you, then you may want to stay out of trouble. This is a good strategy for the newbie tournament player, but for more advanced play, don’t restrict yourself to this one play unless you have less than six times the big blind.

Of course, everyone has their own strategy for going all-in, and this is just one of them!