Push/fold when everyone is relatively short-stacked
Join Date: Apr 2020
Posts: 10
Hello,
I was wondering whether Nash charts for push/fold are still applicable in scenarios such as high-blinds in, for example, 9-max SNGs when the table is still mostly full but the stack sizes vary from ~5BB-12BB. If you have 10BB in this scenario, would you min-raise some hands, or shove tighter, or is it still theoretically most profitable to shove as the charts would tell you to? Maybe this is a stupid question but any insight is much appreciated
Join Date: Sep 2002
Posts: 11,479
Once you get down (or the blinds get up) to less than a 10-blind stack you are pretty much in the push-or-fold regime, even at a full 9-handed table. You are going to be pushing with a much wider range opening from the button or the small blind than you would from early position.
The information is out there, although generally behind paywalls. I know, for example, that Jonathan Little's PokerCoaching.com training site has default near-GTO starting-hand ranges available for their lowest tier of membership.
PokerCoaching.com also offers for free (with opportunity for in-app purchase of membership) an Android app that includes multiway push-fold tables and a quiz feature that you can use for training, without paying for that membership.
A thing to bear in mind is that for stacks that are even a little bit larger than 10 blinds, you are going to have minraise-open ranges as well as a shoving range. Generally the min-raise-open ranges are going to be your very best hands that you min-raise/shove with and your very worst hands that you min-raise/fold with. In between this polar range is your open-shoving range.
Join Date: Apr 2020
Posts: 10
Hey Alan, thanks for your comment, that is useful. What about situations where Hero has, say, 9BB, a big stack IP has 12BB and the other 7 players have 4BB, in a 9-max SNG. I have heard people say ICM doesn’t factor in at the start, but in this situation do we not have to be tighter when pushing?
Join Date: Sep 2002
Posts: 11,479
In that situation the small stacks are incentivized to jam with wide ranges, and the two bigger stacks can be picky about their spots (and should really stay away from each other). Everyone should be playing jam-or-fold when they play, because the effective stack in all but one of the 36 possiblie heads-up confrontations is going to be 4bb and the other one is 9bb.
