Why do high stakes NL players play short-stacked?
Posted by Dan A
Posted by
Dan A
posted in
High Stakes
Why do high stakes NL players play short-stacked?
While railing Stars high stakes games, I've seen some elite HS players buying in for 40BB. Can somebody explain why they would do this? At this table, OtB was buying in for 40 BB, which I don't understand because presumably he's giving up some EV since he's an elite player that will have more of an edge deep-stacked.
I remember in a podcast Ben86 said players do this in PLO because you can get all-in 3 ways as a shortstack with your equity protected and have the other players make each other fold. However, 3-way all ins are way less common in NLHE and I'm sure the EV sacrifice from playing short isn't worth the very rare EV gain of being all-in multiways.
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What makes you say that playing short is sacrificing EV compared to playing deeper?
From a theoretical point of view, shortstack play increases advantage of OOP and decreases advantage of IP. As IP play is a major source of EV, it should be a matter-of-fact that overall EV decreases short stacked.
To compensate the decrease of EV, we need a bigger skill advantage.
If you're a strong player then your EV scales up with stack sizes as the complexity of the game and room for edge increases. Imagine on the extreme that you were playing against OtB heads up with 1BB stacks. His edge over you would be extremely small.
Dan A I love how even though it's almost impossible to make a mistake in The 1bb example Otb still has an edge, That's the level we should all aspire to reach :)
I was being hyperbolic, but I think you get my point
Just a different view:
Short stack create a different dynamic and therefor demand a different strategy then the standard 100BB or more play. So one could study short stack play and become excellent in that aspect of the game. Your opponents play less short stacked and thus have less incentive to study short stacked. This can create a skill edge in the short stack play and thus an EV gain for the short stack player.
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