May
2010
Deep Stack vs. Short Stack
There are clearly many differences between playing with deep stacks in poker, and playing a short stack. With the short stack, the amount of utility you have per dollar is much lower, causing you to push harder with strong hands earlier on, hoping to either gain small increments or to double up, building back toward a normal sized stack. With deep stacks, however, early decisions have a much more prospecting kind of weight. Each opening poker hand, rather than being an all or nothing decision, is an investment, speculation, looking for high returns on your initial claim. With deep stacks you want to be looking for hands that make huge hands, ones that you can use to pry the most chips from your opponent. With short stacks, it’s about the right place and time, and the right hand. Deep stack poker also represent much more potential damage when you make a wrong decision. You don’t want to put too much of your stack at risk without solid ground, but at the same time there is the leeway that a long shot can turn into the nuts and pay you deeply. Either way, both conditions have different poises, the short one based more on numbers and spots, the deep one based more on value and implied odds.
