Quote:
Originally Posted by AAJTo
1) playing this way is massively boring
For whatever little it may or may not contribute to the conversation, if someone is shortstacking to build up a bankroll for eventual full/deepstack play, shortstacking is the opposite of boring.
I don't want to put this in too many words, but unlike fields like music, mathematics, athletics and art where someone with significant natural talent has an almost insurmountable head start over someone with no natural talent, poker comes down to who wants it more 19 times out of 20 if not 99 times out of 100. Seriously, you pick any 2 poker players in the world and I can almost guarantee you that the more successful of the 2 is the one who works harder.
A poker player who WANTS to get better will pay attention to every single hand being played at the table while waiting for their preemies. They will be constantly profiling and re-profiling players. They will be putting players on approximate ranges based on their actions and refining those ranges throughout the hand, and when a rare hand goes to showdown, see if they were right. The player might even pull out a notebook and write down a confusing spot to post it later.
When a shortstacker gets dealt a small pocket pair or suited connector, he obviously has to fold, but he can think to himself, "How would I play this hand if I were deep or full stacked?" and if he's not sure, write that down and post it later.
I have a friend who built his whole bankroll $80 at a time by shortstacking every weekend for a whole year. By the end of that year he had a gigantic mental database in his head which gave him a big head start when he started playing full.
Hope this helped.