Here is the original post:

I've had medium-term success (2 years) buying into 2-5 NL for 300$. (200-1k buyin) My question is buying in short-stacked a good strategy? Any thoughts are appreciated.

I've been playing live Holdem for 7 years now and have employed the short-stacked buy-in strategy in the last couple years. Am I losing value playing this way? I feel like the game plays easier to get 60bb all-in easier by the river and get some free double ups against hands that wouldn't call off for a 500$ effective stack.



To move on I need to provide so more information but I'm not sure how I'm suppose to do that if Venice closed the thread. Hopefully this is what you wanted me to do.

My strategy in this game is to play ABC poker until I double through. Hand ranges are most often restricted to AQ+, 99+. Attempt to only play in position and I try to squeeze against active PF raisers if a couple callers come in between. I'll 3-bet to an amount that has me clearly pot committed. This is how I try achieve my double up or more.

Once that takes place and I have 600$+ I open the range up a bit while still attempting to stay in pots in position. Ranges most often include AJs+, 66+, 87s+. I abandon the squeeze plays unless its an obvious spot I feel I can get away with it. The game use to be very aggressive and it wasn't hard at all to get stacks in the middle if I play my hands passively as long as it is safe to do so (i.e. safe boards, etc.)

This is spiraling off in another direction now but to comment on why I say it use to be this way. All the action has gone to the PLO games in our card room. So this is honestly why I am writing this thread. I'm having trouble adjusting to the new game. Not as much action, but still a decent game. I stopped using my short buy-in strategy in an attempt to apply more pressure and it hasn't worked for me. I always find a reason to talk myself into not letting off the gas when I make a play. I can play great for 6 hours and then I have that one blow up that wrecks a night. I'm doubting the change to buying in for 500 or even 1000 and if I should head back to my short-stack strategy. Hopefully this is enough more insight to get this going. Thanks!

If you are bad postflop its a good strategy. If you're better than your opponents you want to be playing a deeply as possible.

Tight tables are playable, in fact you can make a bundle off them, but I wouldn't relish playing in them short-stacked.

I'm very interested in your question, but nobody is going to write a book here. This is so much easier to approach using a "case study" approach like in business school. To give one example, I don't think it would be too difficult to rip apart -- er, I mean, analyze -- a hand in which you played 87s with a $600 stack. That would be an excellent place to start.

I mean, throw me a frickin bone here.

I'm not quite sure what you are trying to say here. Elaborate?

Now we have a better idea of what the issue is. The reality is that you were making money by nitting it up and taking advantage of everyone playing much looser. These players have now moved on to PLO and will be gone in about 9 months time with their bankrolls busted.

You're now at tables where everyone is playing like you play, extremely tight. Nobody is putting in significant money without the nuts except for you. You're going to have to change your game. The idea is to put pressure on people, but you need to do it in the right places. You'll need to figure out what everyone's budget it for TP. Let's say that they are only going to put in 25BB with TP. The idea is to put pressure on them when their range is capped at TP to make the pot bigger than 50BB.

It takes a lot of practice and patience to do this. A good rule of thumb is that if you are bluffing and they are still around on the turn, you're probably not going to get them to fold.

PS. What he's getting at is that it is easier to figure out what the problem is by looking at some hand histories rather than having you describe how you play. Most posters are terrible about describing how they play. It will often go like this:

"I'm playing TAG for the last 6 hours. An EP raiser makes it 25, 3 people call and I call with my Q8o in the SB."

Good insight Venice. Thanks!