When I read over SSMTT I often see a lot of the same mistakes over and over. I also see a lot of mistakes I used to make a lot, and I’d like to do what I can to try and dispense some concise information that will answer a lot of the basic questions. Sometimes there are habits you make or misinformation you’re given and end up creating bad habits, so I’d like to write a series of posts/articles to address some stuff, that may seem fairly basic to some, but will hopefully clear up some common misconceptions.

I’d like to start with stack sizes and their relevance.
1. 10 BB’s and under. Basically, any hand you’re playing at this stack size is a shove. This is pretty common knowledge. However, with the increase in stars antes, and the high antes tilt already has, it very often becomes correct to start open shoving in the area of 15 BB’s.
When talking about shoving ranges with antes I’ve recently been turned onto a way of adding up you’re stacks relative size that I really like, known as ‘true BB’. What it comes down to is that the ‘true BB’ is 2/3rds of the starting pot. So if the blinds are 500/1000 with 100 ante at a 10 handed table then the starting pot is 2500 with a true BB of 1666. So if you’re sitting on the button with a hand like A5s and 15 BB’s, you can simply open shove since you have under 10 true BB’s.

2. 14-21 BB’s. Most (but not all) of the time you have a 14-20 BB stack you shouldn’t be open raising with hands that can’t call a 3 bet. There will in fact be spots where because of very weak/tight players behind you that you can in fact raise/fold this stack size, but for the most part this kind of stacks use is more so in restealing all in than open raising. This is in fact an optimal sized stack to resteal, though many players these days are very aware that this is an optimal resteal all in stack so be mindful of players who are aware of what this stack size indicates.
3. 22-30 BB’s. With this kind of stack you have more room for open raising, but for the most part restealing all in has become a bit to large in most (again, not all) circumstances. Also, when I say restealing I mean shoving hands that don’t really want calls. However, with this stack you should be restricting your open raising range a little bit more than 30+, moreso in early position. With this kind of stack though, I would still be highly aggressive in opening pots in late position as long as the players behind me aren’t huge risks to resteal. In the low 30 BB’s a go and go is very often the best option when thinking of how to play a big unpaired hand pre OOP. Say you have 32 BB’s and a villain in LP makes it 3X. If you have AQ you should be going to like 9-12X and shoving most flops, although if you really hit it hard and think villain will bet you should check shove instead.
4. 30-40 BB’s. The important part about this stack size is that a lot of people try to resteal with it pre. For the most part, especially in out of position spots, 3 betting this stack intending to fold to a 4 bet shove is pretty bad. This can be done in the upper 30’s in a few spots (and I would vastly prefer to do this in position than out with this stack) but for the most part if you 3 bet a stack of 35 BB’s or less you are putting to much of your stack to justify a fold pre flop unless villain flips up his hand and shows you that you’re 2 outing or something. At this stack size you can open raise a ton, especially If you’re playing at lower stakes where people won’t resteal on you even after the antes kick in.
5. Over 40 BB’s. At this stack you mostly have the full arsenal available to you. You can resteal with the intention of folding, you can raise pre, get 3 bet, and 4 bet hoping to cause a fold, you can flat call in position, and you can open you’re full range.


Thoughts on what your opponents know about stack sizes: Most people have a good idea that when their 10 BB’s or under they should be open shoving anything they play. When you see someone at 8 or 9 BB’s who’s been open shoving suddenly min raise or 3X you need to be aware that he’s got a big hand a ton of the time. A really important thing to watch in people is there understanding in stack sizes and what their shoving range is light on a short stack.

When it comes to restealing stack sizes most villains have a concept of this without actually knowing they know. Yea, that doesn’t make a lot of sense, but let me put it this way; most villains know to shove a bigger range over your button raise with 15 BB’s than 25 BB’s. Even though their bad, and they don’t understand why their doing this, they can tell that 25 BB’s feels like to many chips. However, some villains will be totally unaware of these things and try restealing marginal hands for a huge amount of BB’s, especially out of position since playing in a reraised pot OOP is most bad players absolute nightmare.

Also, a ton of your villains (and way more ranked p5’s than you could imagine) don’t realize how bad it is to open raise with the intention of folding at 13-20 BB’s so once you see a guy do this you realize that you can resteal off them when effective stacks are this size.

Okay so I think that’s about it for now, I’m going to sleep fairly soon, but if you guys have any questions or want me to elaborate on certain idea’s just ask and I’ll go into it all. I’ll probably write part 2 tomorrow.

Great post sir: what I was looking for!

Great stuff, but those two lines have me confused. 22-30BB is too large to resteal all-in, but 30-40BB has a lot of people trying to resteal (not all-in?).

I'm not sure what you're advocating with those stacks sizes in a resteal situation. Well, 22-30 you mention the go-n-go, but what about 30-40? Is it still a go-n-go?

At 22-30 BB's is to large for a resteal where you don't want to be called.

I think a good stack for Go and go is like 27-33 BB's. These are rough guide lines and not really strict.

30-40 BB is mostly a bad stack to resteal, or that is 3 bet a hand you don't want to call a shove with. It can be done, and in some spots its the best play, but often not.

Some people will 3 bet a 30-40 BB stack with the intention of folding to a shove, and in the upper 30's it's a good play in some spots, but in the low 30's it's mostly (and again not always) bad.

Bond 4 mod!

Now I'm going to have to keep clicking the refresh button waiting for Part II.

Hmm @ "true BB's".

Are you saying that with M <= 6.67, it's fine to shove whenever you're open raising?

Am I missing some subtlety to "true BB" that captures something that the standard M calculation doesn't?

Is it only bad to open-raise/fold with this stack size b/c you can expect to do better by re-stealing? Or is there another reason it is bad?

Honestly, Betgo made a very controversial post quite some time ago where he considered 13-20 BBs kinda of like extra ammo that you could afford to get rid of (but of course you wouldn't just dump unnnecessarily) if you lost it b/c then you could play unexploitably at 10BBs. I still think he made a valid point.

I think this is especially true in SSMTTs and much less true at HSMTTs. The sole reason is this: Many players in SSMTTs still don't try to steal. I can't tell you the number of times I have tried to re-steal from a guy b/c I though he was "stealing for certain" in a $4 tourney, only to find he has AA.

Now I am not saying I don't re-steal in SSMTTs. But I target specific opponents for it. I won't just do it to some random b/c he is on the button and "has to be opening wide and I have a good re-stealing stack." That gets me in trouble.

Basically what I am saying is this. While 13-20BBs is ideal for re-steals, what do we do when opponents don't attempt to steal?

Good post Bond.

Sherman

very good post bond...unfortunately on the run so haven't had a chance to fully process...looking forward to response as this is an area that we can all work on improving!

I'd agree that at 13-15 bbs raise/fold sucks, but I think you can often find spots where raise/folding 16-20 bb stacks is totally fine.

Good post.

Edit:

As an example, blinds are 50/100, no ante. You have 1800 on the button w/ K9o, folded to you. BB has 550, SB has 2800.

I'm totally fine with raising to 300 to isolate BB and folding if SB reraises me.

Hi bond, nice post. Like this bit especially.

Are there any more common stack size related mistakes that you see alot and think are easily exploitable?

Actually, 16-20BB stack is very difficult for me. Say, 50/100 blinds, 2000, in the UTG, UTG+1, and sometimes MP1. I'm almost entirely unsure what to do with 66-88, AJ-AQ. I itch to play those hands. My default is to raise to 275, but there are always a myriad of problems:

1. A big stack who floats me and goes to school on me when I miss.

2. A stack at around 1000 - 1200 that comes over the top.

Should I open limp and give up to a raise, assuming the raise isn't coming from a shorty? Open fold? How does table dynamics effect things here?

Barry

Sherman, i think you bring up a valid point.

I've recently been playing a few smaller stakes tournaments to try and get a good HH to post here about how LAG you can get. What i've noticed is that few players know they can resteal so i think at tables full of weak/tights at 14-20 BB's raise/folding is totally fine.

Barry, i think utg at like 16 BB's i end up folding AJ but raising AQ intending to fold to a reraise in most spots.

I prolly fold 66, maybe 77, but i'm opening 88.

Agreed that it's an awkward spot. I think basically if you raise one of these hands in EP at this stack just play it super straight forward and don't expect people to get out of line with you.

there already is this term called "M" that the majority of people know and understand, is there some fundamental flaw in the concept of M that requires you to replace it with this "true BB"? it doesn't seem conceptually different in any way at all except that you are using 2/3 of the pot instead of the whole pot in making your calculations

Great post, looking forward to part 2

I'll be 100% honest with you. MikeJ and Curtains were the big proponents to me with the true BB. At first i resisted, then once i converted over to it i really liked it. I'll ask one of them to come and explain why it's good, as they are way smarter with technical/mathematical stuff.

Bond, curious on your thoughts on getting deepstacked early. I find myself in this spot frequently as lower limits have plenty of opponents that will gladly donate their stack with top pair, say blinds 15/30 we have a stack of 5000 and the usual SSMTT 40/3 opponents, with a couple decent players at the table. Curious on your take here, keep in mind, we are playing vs opponents that are not the least bit aware of our stack, let alone hesitant to enter a pot oop against it, and are weak post flop. I need a little help here as I don't seem to chip up as I should. I am beginning to see more flops in position, floating weak post flop players in position and opening a wider range in late position. I've had mixed success as fold equity is not as strong here comparing to HSMTT. I have read MLG's going deep, but it is written more for strategy vs thinking players, I feel SSMTT has too many players willing to go broke with TPTK not to inflate pots when we hit or have big draws.

Most guys need to remember that "M" and "True BB" are just shortcuts. The math is there for everyone. We have to pot size, we have to stack size. I make more moves off of pots =>20% my stack size than anything else. I could be really deep and make the same moves pre-flop (effective stacks).

If you stand back and think "What will I do on the flop if I get flat called?" "What will I do if I get reraised?" And just cut out the middleman.

If you'll call the reraise, then just jam. If you'll jam any flop, then just jam. If you're going to weaktight the flop, probably fold, and if you're going to fold to a reraise, probably just fold.

^^^^Shortstacks only apply please. I don't mean 40BB stacks here, obviously, unless your effective stack is less.

at what position do you stop open shoving 10 true bb's?

what are the range differences between EP/MP/LP

M is ******ed, true BB is much more accurate and easier to grasp, but maybe that's because I grew up playing SnGs in which it's really ridiculous to not think in terms of BBs.

btw is true BB same thing that I do? Basically just take 2/3rds of antes, add them to BB etc etc and thats the new effective BB? I wrote article on this over a year ago.

That's the one curtains. Do you mind explaining a little in detail why you find it preferable to M?

I've never used it before, but I would find it preferable b/c it is the most equivalent with what you are using the rest of the tournament (i.e. 1 BB = 2/3 the starting pot before antes are in play).

Sherman

Doesn't it just seem really natural to think in terms of # of BBs? Here's my article listed below although I wouldn't say its extremely advanced:


How to account for antes in NL Tournaments (# of Theoretical Big Blinds)


As many One table tournament players know, you generally think of your stack size in terms of # of Big Blinds. I definitely do this because its exceptionally easy, and makes it very simple to determine whether or not you should raise in a given situation. Also all of the math I have ever done on poker involves # fo BBs. I am going to coin a term called the tBB, which is the theoretical big blind in ante based situations.


Recently the former WSOP Champion, Dan Harrington, coined a term called "M". This term stands for your stack size divided by the BB,SB and the antes. The number you get is supposed to guide you towards making your decisions. While I'm sure it's reasonably effective, I find it incredibly annoying that it doesn't use # of BB's as it's measurement unit.

To combat that I have created what I think is a much more valuable system to those who wish to think in terms of # of BB's. Let's say for example that you have 3000 chips in the SB where the blinds are 100-200. The table is 9 handed. You obviously have 15x the BB, which is generally enough so that you shouldn't just be opening allin from the SB with hands like Q7o.

Now let's talk about how to adjust our calculations once we take antes into account. Let's say that there is a 25 chip ante as well. What I think is the best way to handle this, is to take the sum of the antes, and put 2/3rds of them towards the BB, and the other third towards the SB. So there are 225 ante chips in play because there are (9 players * 25 chips). 2/3rds of 225 = 150. 1/3rd of 225 = 75. So now we add the 150 to the BB and we see that the actual blind structure is 175-350. Suddenly we don't even have 10x the BB! We actually have just 8.5x the BB. I believe that this sudden change in our calculations makes Q7o a clear allin, based on its figure of 9x the BB on the famous Karlsen and Sklansky charts.


Also note that you should generally be SLIGHTLY looser than even these figures suggest, as the blinds will have less money committed than usual. Yes the blinds may theoretically be 175/350, but the BB only has 225 in the pot, thus making him less committed and probably slightly tighter.


Anyway I hope that this article should provide a reasonable alternative to those of you who hate thinking in terms of "M" and would prefer to keep their thinking in terms of # of BB's. Just remember to make this simple calculation at the beginning of each level, so you know what the theoretical blind structure actually is. Below are a few examples for you to figure out on your own:




1. The blinds are 300-600 with a 75 chip ante. The table is 9 handed. You have 4800 chips. How many multiples of the theoretical BB do you have?


2. The blinds are 300-600 with a 50 chip ante. The table is 9 handed and you have 4200 chips. How many multiples of the theoretical BB do you have.


3. The blinds are 1000-2000 and the antes are 100. The table is 6 handed. You have 34000 chips. How many multiples of the theoretical BB do you have?




(4.5) instead of (8).

This should show you how drastic an effect the antes have. You have nearly half as many multiples of the BB that you would if ante's werent involved. You should see how pointless it can be to say something like "I had 8x the BB but there were antes involved". Instead just do this calculation at the beginning of each level.



(4.67) instead of (7).


This is an example of how important the ante amount is. Despite having less chips we actually have more multiples of the BB than in example 1, just because the ante size was 33% less.


(14.167) instead of (17)


This shows that the effects will be lessened somewhat when the table is shorter and the antes are only 1/20th of the BB. However there still is a serious difference between 14 and 17x the BB. If the table was 9 handed we would have just 13x the tBB.









**** - Another method of calculating your tBB is to look at the total pot size before the hand. Most online sites provide this information in clear view on the playing table. You can then take 2/3rds of this figure and have an approximate BB size to use for your calculations. In fact this method may be simpler than the one I have written about above. It's the same concept it just allows you to skip a step, namely the adding of 2/3rds of the ante to the BB.

yeah that's what i figured, basically there is no difference in effectiveness at all, it just comes down to whether you are used to thinking in terms of M or big blinds

since i did very little strategic thinking regarding stack sizes in tournaments before HOH 2, advice given in terms of BB's is just as awkward and foreign to me as im sure M is to some people

maybe an obv question but are your guidelines in the OP based on BBs or true BBs?

I like this post. It seems I have problem in 14-20bb where I tried to steal the blinds and causing me a lot of troubles which lead to the poor MTT results recently.