Using Your Stack to Your Advantage
There are two distinct poker stacks that can offer advantages to players the deep stack and the short stack, and both have their benefits and disadvantages.
This article will look some of the benefits gained from the deep stack.
First, what is deep stacked. Different people have different methods of determining what a big stack is in poker. For some it’s about 2x more than anyone at the table. I personally don’t like this definition as it’s too limiting. Besides poker is a game of relativity.
I like to think of the big stack in terms of your stack vs. your opponent’s stack at a given time.
If you’re mid stacked compared to the poker table as a whole, but are about 2x larger than your opponent, then I would say you’re big stacked compared to who you’re up against. Hence, it’s possible to be short stacked against one player, and deep stacked against another player.
Absolute stack size would put a big stack at about 50x the big blind.
So here are some tips to help your big stack play. 1.) Raise, don’t call. When you’re deep in chips and are looking to play a hand, one of the big mistake big stack players make is to call and hope to catch some cards. Their play loosens up, and they play more freely the garbage hands. Keep this up, and you’ll see your big stack move to average very soon. Instead you should be concerned about how your opponents are viewing your stack. You’ll be able to intimidate a lot more opponents out of decent hands, because they just will not have the resources to keep up with your bets if they’re shooting to win with an average hand. Use this to your advantage. 2.) Remember you have the capacity to bust many opponents at the table, as you have their stacks covered. Use this fear that you could break them to your advantage by ramping up the aggression. You’ll keep a lot of players off of your winning hands because of the fear that their game could be over, while even if they win, you’ll still be around. 3.) Definitely use your stack to push around small and micro stacks. You can keep a lot of them out of hands by just betting what they have, but be weary of calling small stacks who push all in; if you do, make sure you hand at least has some showdown odds in its favor.
Absolute control of the table can come in the form of a big stack. By continuing to play tight and aggressive poker, you’ll see your stack continue to grow over the course of the game, and you’ll probably have the opportunity to knock a few of the feeble microstacks out.
