Playing against the bitty stacks.

[Talex]

Hey Folks,

I often find myself sitting at a table online, say .50/1 NL at UB, where the majority of the table is playing with around $25, a quarter of the max bet. There are also generally one or maybe a couple of players who have rolled over the max buy-in.

What's the best buy-in here?
What's proper general strategy?

I'm usually buying in for the max, and looking to double through the bigger stacks. I find myself playing mostly premium hands against the short stacks, with my speculative hands and monster makers reserved for when the big stacks wade in. I'm wondering though if this is the best way to handle these tables.

I guess this is the reverse of the whether short stack play is best discussions. Given that most of your opponents are short stacked, are you better off going short stacked yourself, or playing to double through the big stacks?

-Tim

[gavrilo]

Against a shortstack, I play tighter. I start mucking more non-premium pocket pairs, Axs, suited connectors because you aren't getting good implied odds.

Sometimes an occassion arises where I can use the shortstack player against a third player in the pot.

If you know the shortstack player to be the type to call all-in with say a flush draw or go all-in with a flush draw with a third player who is decent. In the right situation, you can come out betting if SS is next to act because if he calls, the third player will need a bigger hand to call, or if you act after, you can raise to force out the 3rd player when you hold a mediocre hand. Situation has to be right and you have to know the players.

If that made any sense at all.

[Wardfish]

If the table is full with a waiting list, try to bust them out and get someone with some money to sit in their place.

I find they come in 2 main categories: (1) tight-weak, or (2) 'in-for-a-penny-in-for-a-pound'.

Raise to isolate type 1, be prepared to call with something (but not much) against type 2.

With all the various stakes available on UB, there is no way anyone should be allowed to sit down with 20x the Big Blind. Its a waste of a seat.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

The bottom line is those itty bitty stackers are pathetic no-balls wimps and they deserve to be busted. Bet the exact quantity of their stack nearly every time you bet into them.

al