[phydaux]

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The only way for this strategy and your SSS strategy to work is if you leave once you double up.

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Ding Ding Ding !!! Now you're gettin' it.

SSS has been called "strategic ratholing." Buy in for 20-25 BB, and when your stack gets to ~40-50 BB you type "Meep! Meep! Roadrunner!" in the chat window and you split.

Remember, poker is all about the battle of mistakes. Playing the SSS works because, unless the other guy has AA or KK, it's usually a mistake for him to call your bet.

All this is contingent on the SSS player being willing to shove on the flop. SSS isn't poker. It's "Shove." If the SSS player starts playing Hit-to-Win, then he isn't playing Shove anymore, he's playing poker. Badly. And he's gonna lose his chips, because he's gonna miss most flops. But so is his opponent! And most of the time the opponent will be getting incorrect pot odds to go along with zero implied odds and the correct poker move will be for the opponent to fold.

This is why "poker players" hate Short Stacker! They know the only correct play against a short stacker is to either have AA & KK pre-flop, or to fold. And they know that as soon as the short stacker steals enough small pots that he gets to 45 or 50 BB the he's gonna take the money and run.

Middle Stacking really is the worst of both worlds. If you have a 50BB stack and you raise pre-flop with KK, you are just offering correct implied odds for a guy to call with 77. So your pre-flop raises will get called (correctly) much more often. And if the flop happens to come K 7 2, then you're not getting full value because you can only win half the other guy's stack.

Middle Stacking is actually real poker, and if you're going to play poker then you're going to want to buy in for the max. But only if you feel you have a skill advantage over the other players. If you don't feel you have a skill advantage, then you either need to drop down or play the short stack.

(The guys in the FR forum are gonna nail me to a cross. They hate short stackers...)