The difference between playing a 50 BB stack and a 100 BB stack is not as big as the difference between playing 100 BB and 200 BB IMO.

Beyond that, I'm not going to try to correct most of the false statements in this thread, but I will say this:

OP, if you want to try this, good luck, but do not do the hit and run thing. Good players dislike competent short stackers quite a bit because they know full well that you're exploiting their "real poker". Don't add hit and running to the mix. People can tolerate the short stacking, but people really dislike a hit and runner. Play deep for at least an hour. Feel free to play like a nit and take advantage of free rolling on a deeper stack, but don't make a habit to leave right after doubling.

That's what I was saying, yes. You don't have to stay all night.

I thought this was standard almost everywhere?

You don't have to post at Harrah's St. Louis or Horseshoe Tunica either. You used to have to post at Harrah's STL, but the rule got changed a few years back.

Ideally you should wait til the BB or post behind the button if you are forced to post.

I'm sure there are a handful of winning players that immediately post when required. This is the forum where everyone claims they can win $50/hr at 2/5, so $5 per session can't be that big of a deal. Personally if I am forced to post, I'd probably wait if it's 5 hands or less. I'm not that impatient.

If you choose not to post, you're not "waiting for the button". You're waiting for the big blind to get to you. I agree with the consensus above, that you should usually wait, but if it's still 5 hands away I sometimes get antsy.

Also another thing you may not know: if you sit down, and the person to your left was just in the BB, most places let you do something known as "buying the button". Basically, you pay the small and big blind for the next hand, and the hand after that you're on the button. You should ALWAYS do this if allowed.

the biggest problem you'll have is that there aren't a lot of casinos with 5/10 tables

I'll assume that you're talking about the average 1/2 or 1/3 nl game that has mostly $5 chips in play.

It does take a little time and experience to get your estimates pretty close. I find I can usually guess within ~5% or so.

I think the easiest is just to get to know what a stack of 20 chips looks like, and then approximate from there, I've gotten to the point where I can usually spot a 19 stack from across the table.

Sometimes it won't really matter exactly what your opponents stack size is, if they clearly have you covered, all that really matters is your effective stack.

I think the best advice is going to be practice and experience.

I think the easiest way to count people's stack that like the really tall tower method is to count to 10 from the bottom and then just eyeball how big the complete stack is and go from there.

Definitely buying the btn if I missed the blinds and would owe the BB + SB anyways.

If you just sit down you would only need to post the BB in the cutoff.

The SB portion is dead so the question becomes is it worth 1 SB to get an extra hand otb that orbit, and have to start play out of position from the BB.

Or would we rather pay 1SB less and have our BB be on the CO with another BB and SB out there OOP.

Personally I prefer to give up that BB and btn hand, save the SB and play my post from the CO but I can see how it's close in equity.

what's the point of hit and running, but staying and giving some back. If you are in Vegas, what's the difference if people don't like you. IMO, all you would care about is if you get the action and intended results. I make it to Vegas quite a bit, and even though some people recognize me, anything I've done never affects the game. I've hit and run a couple times due to different circumstances (shows, suckout, tired, etc) and every time I came back it never really made a difference. Why would you pay back some for "goodwill?"

Parx Casino asks you if you wanna post to play immediately or if do you wanna wait for the big blind. But if you moved from a table with the same limits you don't have to post.

I gotta be honest. I play 5 days a week and have yet to see a winning "short stacker." ie someone who buys in for 40bb or less and consistently beat the games.

Sure, the theory of short stacking has a lot of good points, but I just don't see it consistently do well. Not to say there aren't successful short stackers out there because I'm sure there are. But ultimately, if you are successful at SS then eventually you evolve to playing full because there is more opportunity and money to be made playing full and deep.

I would argue through simple Darwinism the lifespan of a SSer is short. If successful , they evolve to full/normal buyin players. If unsuccessful they die out.

You don't know what you are looking at. A bunch of players you THINK are shortstackers are probably just players with short stacks in general and NOT players who are intentionally playing a short stack with a specialized strategy to take advantage of the bigger stacks who are raising preflop each hand. Darwinism works the opposite in poker....those who survive long enough to evolve, always end up as shortstackers either by strategy or of necessity in the case of bustouts. The deepstackers you see are all temporary...so long as your trust funds last and/or your luckbox tourney money.

Grunch: the good ones

Practice with your own chips. Either at the table or take some chips home and practice there. Make random stacks, eyeball them and make your estimate. Count them down. Repeat until you get good at it.

Foxwoods requires new players to post. GRRRRRR

yea i will practice it, when a player says all in or throws a random stack of chips out to bet, i will try and look and guess what it is and than when the dealer counts it or the player says it i will see how close i am. when they do a big tower, usually eye ball 100 and go from there. or if your in a hand with them asking how much behind, they will usually answer....

Jesus, my memory/OCD is so bad I end up counting my own stack every single hand

level right? It will likely work here. Have fun with the posters who think you are serious lol

OP... I think you would be better off betting on a coin flip, because that is basically what you are doing nearly every time you ship it. You are Gambling.

If you like to "Play Poker", you need ammunition... and ammunition in poker is your chip stack.

They just stopped requiring this at Playground near Montreal. Great improvement. For newbies, first-timers, the very first experience they had at the table was being completely confused. Not a good way to encourage new folks to feel comfortable when they come to play for the first time.

Casinos in Detroit (and Windsor) require you to post if you want a hand. The charity roooms in Michigan do not, nor does the Hollywood casino in Toledo. No post needed at the Taj in Atlantic City. I don't remember posting at any games in Vegas ($1-2, 1-3), but it's not something I generally get worked up about.

I just post if I'm more than 3 hands away from the blinds, I'll occasionally straddle if I'm sitting down UTG, depending if I recognize the players already in the game as gamblers.

But I agree with some of the other sentiment in the thread about posting being confusing/bad for new players.

Mohegan sun, CT no longer requires you to post as of a few months ago.

I think all of the PA ones do except for Bethlehem sands. If there's a BBJ I'll post immediately, but if not I nit it up and wait for the BB.

I was always under the impression that getting all in much more frequently=bigger swings. Maybe I misunderstood that but I have defintly read that a bit on this site.

Spino1i: maybe you didn't read my post clearly but I never said you couldn't make money shortstacking. I said that op's nitty wait for premiums and magically get paid off style he seemed to be suggesting would likely fail to make any money at those stakes. Also since I was talking about a typical solid push fold ss strategy, I obviously wasn't talking about playing with a 50bb stack, more like 20-30bb.

Anyway carry on.