My local casino has juicy $1/2 NL games that they spread - but they limit the max buy in to $100. I'm a moderately winning player, but I feel like my strategy is more conducive to a normal 100 BB starting stack. I'm trying to find respected links, articles, books, etc that explain strategic differences in going from a 100 BB starting stack to a 50 BB starting stack.

I've searched the forum but haven't found anything concrete. Some concepts are pretty obvious, but I'd like to get my hands on anything I can.

If anyone has any ideas I'd be appreciative!

One challenge you'll run into is that the people who write "respected" links/articles/books don't have a ton of experience playing in typical 1/2 games, where not only are stacks shorter, but people are also much looser/more passive (i.e., it's not uncommon and actually expected to see 3-4 callers to a 5-6 BB open). IMO the people who know these games best have been playing 1/2-1/3 for years, and (almost by definition) and aren't writing columns in Cardplayer. Perhaps the best exception is Ed Miller -- check him out.

I have a few of his books, but again most of his strat is based on typical 100 BB stacks. The Course is a great book, and I can reasonably tailor the preflop strategy to fit a 50 BB starting stack - I was just curious if anyone knew of a solid article that went into more detail.

Thanks for the info!

I doubt anybody has thought out a strategy for 50bb stack play in cash. The closest you can come to is probably tournament poker as the short stack. From my understanding you have to polarize yourself pre-flop a lot as optimal play.

What is the rake in this game? Unless the players are incredibad, it may be unbeatable.

50BB is an annoying stack, because you are generally too deep for classic short stack strategies and not deep enough for standard ones. However, if it is like most live 1/2 games, with standard opens being 6-8BBs, you really are effectively a short stacker. Traditional SS strat is to play very tight and to look to be AI OTF most of the time. It is designed for 20BBs in online play, but that's 6.67x a standard open, and in live 1/2 you're only at 8.3x a standard open if it is $12, which it is in many games.

Google short stack strategy. You'll be playing less than 10% of hands, and raising/3-betting them only, basically never calling. It's boring as fook, and the variance of being AI early a lot can be annoying, but it can make money if the rake is beatable.

Once the table gets deeper from rebuys, you can loosen up a bit, but as you'll still have short effective stacks against the people who rebuy, not much.

My home game is 1/2, 100 buyin. Social, no rake. Many pots are 4-6 ways, even with 10x open.

It’s beatable, but lots of variance and bad beats.

Even later in the session when stacks become much deeper, many don’t adjust and there are always 2-4 short stacks to complicate things.