Playing the Small Blind When Stacks are Small

Advanced Play

Usually a player going all-in before the flop every couple hands is soon to be broke, but there is at least one exception. This crazy aggressive strategy is actually correct in the very specific situation when:

1) it is late in a tournament (most often in a Sit-N-Go tournament) and the blinds are so high that all players are short stacked, and

2) you’re on the small blind and it has been folded around to you. If you have a stack of less than 10 big blinds you should often push all-in in this position.

You should push absolutely no matter what you have if your opponent folds too much. Let’s confirm this looking at a simplified situation. The blinds are 200-400 and you have 1600 chips. Your opponent has more than you but is very tight and will only call with the top 10% of his hands. Out of 10 times, you will win the 600 in the pot without contest 9 times. 9 x 600 is a profit of 5300 chips. One time out of ten he’ll call, but even if you lose every time he calls you’re still a huge winner overall. You take the risk of losing right away because your position will be so much stronger if you win than if you fold. You’ll go from having 1600 chips to 2200 chips, almost a 40% increase. You also must keep in mind that you will not lose every time you’re called. If your opponent adjusts and starts to call you more loosely, although your edge won’t be as big overall, you’ll have a higher chance of winning and doubling your stack.

If you use this strategy you’ll sometimes get caught and look pretty dumb. People will think you’re crazy because you’ve gone all-in with 39o, and they’ll tilt the times it ends up beating their AKs. You may start getting more action in other situations, when you’re not the small blind. However, when blinds get big every pot is important, and the player that is most aggressive and wins the most pots usually does the best.

Remember not to take the strategy too far. The reason it’s so important to be in the small blind is that there’s only one player left who can call you. When there are two or more left a much stronger range of hands is required for pushing to be profitable. Also note that it is best to tone down your strategy a little bit and start folding some very poor hands if your opponent has a very loose calling range.