Regarding a purely shortstacking strategy, especially if you can't rathole (or effectively rathole by moving to a shorterstacked table), then hit and running in short sessions is fine (at least from a strategic point of view, so long as there is no long wait-for-a-seat/travel time).

GcluelessshortstackingnoobG

For those of us still building a roll, every win counts. Unless I’m at an extremely profitable table, I don’t mind booking a modest win. It’s good for me psychologically and it keeps me on track to reach my $10k goal.

Unfortunately my casino requires a 2-hour wait before switching tables with anything less than what you have gained while playing, so it’s hard to short stack for an extended period of time.

You shouldn't even want to short stack or take money off the table. Most of your edge comes from having more money in play giving you the ability to use your stack as leverage when you are bluffing as well as more implied odds to stack opponents when you make big hands.

Not the easiest thing to describe, because the moves are somewhat based on gameflow/opponent/reads/board/etc as far as when to use it. The other thing is that some of them are things that should already be part of your game, but are vastly stronger the first time you do it in a session.

Examples are cold 4 bets preflop, triple barrel bluffs, betting 1/4th pot OTF, and 2x pot OTT, betting over pot OTF, limp/RR from UTG after a raise and a few callers (I have an almost 0% limping range, and it generally falls to 0% once i do this once), donk betting...

[QUOTE=Unfortunately my casino requires a 2-hour wait before switching tables with anything less than what you have gained while playing, so it’s hard to short stack for an extended period of time.[/QUOTE]

Golden Nugget Las Vegas?

Remind me to stay out of your way.

Wait. How are these "trick" plays. If opponents are overfolding to unknowns most of the time, then there's nothing tricky about increasing your bluff frequency. It just become a +EV spot that is reflected in your win rate.

Yes its EV+ and its reflected in my winrate. This thread is about win rates compared to time. I said that my winrate was higher early at least somewhat for the reason you stated.

I wouldnt say Vs overfold to unknowns. Vs overfold when hero’s range is unknown. This would of course happen more as a complete unknown, but it can continue to happen so long as you have an opportunity to run a line that V cant reasonably know what to range you on. Imagine yourself as a V in a 2+2 thread. Some of these lines that complete fish run are actually useful so long as you run it at the right time, knowing how their opponent will react, Like, if V has limped 0 hands in 4 hours, did his first limp all game from UTG, you raise and then he 3 bets. You have played 4 hours with him, he is not unknown, yet you have no idea what he could have, so likely you will overfold. These “wtf” moments get posted on 2+2 all the time, its a treasure trove of bizarre lines, and how typical players would respond to bizarre lines.

Also, as I said, when youd run such a line is based on a TON of different variables, its not something so easy to put to paper.

I did think of one I can put somewhat fully to paper (which is to say its a simpler one). oftentimes when I used to play at 1/2, id be faced with a situation where I had cbet at a 100% clip for over an hour, and be HU IP vs a competent/aware/not totally ABC player. I would know that V knows I am at least competent enough to fold air, and that I have cbet at 100%, and so I would expect him to C/R pretty wide, so I would typically only bet the flop 10% or less of the time (basically with hands that want a raise), and then if he checks OTT, then i would delayed cbet. A delayed cbet line isnt interesting on its own, but checking back extremely wide as a throwaway image/gameflow play is somewhat of a “trick”, especially when im checking back everything from FDs to top pair to air, when he is sitting there trying to figure out what I am holding in the small percentage of my range I actually check back. Not to mention I am getting free money when I hit big and I bet and they c/r me. At some point not far down the line, V will realize I dont have a massive exploitable cbetting range when Im cbetting them specifically, and I will be back to betting a normal frequency against them.

as for “how are these “trick” plays” I dont know what your point is, do you wanna argue about the definition of the word “trick”? you can call it whatever youd like, i call them trick plays.

Lol no. MGM National Harbor in MD. I’ll be in Vegas in November though, so watch out!

I love short-stacking at deep tables. When I 3! (AK JJ+) I get called super light by the initial raiser because people have money to burn and many don’t realize they are getting zero implied odds by calling me. You can’t say the same about deepstack which is why it is much more precarious than ss. People love to setmine and flush mine against deep opponents because they will get paid if they hit. I also employ the l/rr a lot. It’s extremely profitable, especially at loose and call-happy tables.

So while I agree you can win bigger pots with deep stacks, I also think there is much more at risk than many people care to admit. And as for bluffing, I make plenty without doing that too often.

Re: taking money off the table, once I double up or so I am in the awkward $200-$250 zone and I can’t really play well at these stack depths. Ss doesn’t work anymore but I’m not that deep either. It’s no man’s land. So I leave and come back with $100 rather than top off only to lose $200 by getting my big pairs cracked by someone correctly setmining against me in single-raised pots.

To bring it back to the original question before G banhammers us all, with OP only having time for a 1 - 3 hour session he'll mostly likely be leaning towards a more shortstacking strategy than a deep one (since he mostly won't have time to grow his stack deep unless he's allowed a large BI). Depending on his skillset, a shortstacking strategy might better suit him anyways (i.e. sitting deep is only going to work out well if he actually knows how to play deep, and most people overestimate their skillz at this). And thanks to his planned short session length, that will actually be a plus to a shortstacking strategy where his session will mostly end before he gets into too many deepstack situations.

In other words, he'll likely do just fine playing short sessions although if he's a deepstack monster then obviously he could do better by staying longer. The biggest consideration is wait/travel time, and if he doesn't have any of that, then there is no huge downfall to only playing short sessions, imo. Especially from a pure hobbyist perspective (versus a professional perspective where the thing that matters most is volume).

GcluelessNLnoobG

Went on an overnight trip Tuesday, played in the afternoon won almost a buy-in before breaking for check-in/dinner. Dinner reservation was 2 hours later, so I decided to sit until then. I lost about 1/2 my BI in the first orbit (stupid 5 outer) and made an effort to 'catch up' before dinner. It worked temporarily, I did top off and get back to even, but then continued to push and dropped 1/2 my BI before having to get up. I suspect I would have played better without an endtime.

If I knew it was an hour or two every week or two, I might manage differently. Probably not in my case, but maybe in yours it would work.

If you're playing recreationally, which based on hours you obviously are, just go in and enjoy yourself. Longer sessions can be more profitable though because of the times you'll have a deep stack along with others, which is where your monster sessions come in. A 1000bb+ session profoundly boosts your winrate, but it's hard to reach that unless you play longer or in uncapped games.