Thoughts on the GSIH Short Strategy

[bonuspokergod]

Background: Up until now, total limit B&M player for the past 4 years, $3/6 & $4/8, occasional $4/8 w/Kill. I'm solid, but really sick of it, not patient enough to grind out that [censored].

Read GSIH, tried out the short stack NL strategy in a $1/2 $100 min/200max game last weekend. Busted the first $100 buy in, rebought short again(100), and over the course of about 12.5 hours built it up to $1300 at the same table. The table broke up, so I cashed out, went to another place, barely able to form sentences because I was so tired, sat with $100, cashed out $300 in about 4 hours since I could no longer stay awake.

I post this here because I am a rank beginner at NLHE. That was my first time out playing NLHE cash games. My question is, will this continue? Because if it does, then I have found the pot of gold [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I know technically once I got to a large stack I was no longer actually playing the strategy, so I really tried to make correct reads, watch for the tells (and they were many, saved about $600 on one hand because of a tell), stay out of trouble, really stay away from the subpar/trap hands and just play position and keep it simple until I get some experience. Probably folded a bit too much, but also made some really good calls and picked off some bluffs.

An example of hands I played: This was at the second place, I sat & folded for about 2 hours except for my blinds. Finally, down to about $75 it folds around to me, i get a playable hand, pocket 8's one off. Raise to $20, button calls, SB raises to $75, BB folds, I call all-in, button calls. They check it down, I get no help, they BOTH flip over KJos, and I triple up. Hello, this is after I establish tight/rock image, and 2 people put me all in with their KJos? That right there is why this strategy works, or at least I think it does. I'm going to try again this weekend. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[Pov]

Well, it sounds like you know this, but as soon as you won a hand you weren't playing the SSS anymore. But congratulations on the big win. As I'm sure you know, these results are not going to be typical, even if your opponents are consistently horrid you will not beat the game anywhere near this rate, but the big score is a big part of your win rate in NL and you just had one. Good way to start.

[3CardMonty]

You pointed out two things here which are critical to short stack play.

1. Tight play. You said probably too tight but somehow I doubt that to be true. I do not follow the book on short stack strategy, I have my own strategy which is super tight play (EDIT: tighter than the book) coupled with the agression of going all in on those long awaited hands at the correct moment which is not allways preflop and never after the turn.

2. You mention playing a somewhat loose table (see (EDIT: your)last paragraph). In short stack you want callers. You do not want a table full of rocks folding to every beat of your drum.

What you did not get to enjoy IMO was the ability to play several table at the same time and maximizing your profits within the time you had available. This is the area where online play really can offer some benefit to this strategy.

Regardless of all that you did very well coming out with $1600 on a $300 investment over those hours of play.

Congratulations,

Monty

[bonuspokergod]

1. Oh no, believe me, I know what tight is, and I played that way. At the first casino, after my JJ's lost to a rivered K to bust my first $100, I went card dead for easily 3 hours, never lost patience and just waited for the cards. Soon I was +300 after recovering initial $100 loss.
Then I tightened up still even more because I didn't want to lose it all. From then on it was pretty much playing the opponents instead of the cards. 10 hours later I'm looking at $1300 in chips. I credit A TON of it to tells.

2. I understand completely. Get the money in WHILE you have the advantage, hope they call, and your job is done, the cards do the rest. But 2 guys overplaying KJoff given the image I had really shocked me, yet made me very happy [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
They were kind of surprised that I "only" had pocket 8's. They put me on a premium hand, yet they still raised me all-in with KJo. Nice [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Online is just not for me. I don't fully trust it (another discussion), and to me seeing the opponents in NLH is critical. Again, I know for a fact that score would not have been possible without the tells I saw.

We'll see how it goes this weekend. Thanks for the reply.

[pzhon]

Buying in for $100 = 50 BB would not be short enough to play a short-stack strategy in many games where a raise to 3-4 times the BB is typical. However, in a live game, where people will open for 15 BB and get multiple callers, you might be able to play the short-stakced strategy with 50 BB.

Your results were atypical. However, the lowest stakes NL game is always a gold-mine. People didn't come to the casino to fold.

[3CardMonty]

[ QUOTE ]
People didn't come to the casino to fold.

[/ QUOTE ]
There's a lot of truth there!

Monty

[bonuspokergod]

$100 is the min buy in for most $1/$2NL games I've seen.

[ QUOTE ]
Buying in for $100 = 50 BB would not be short enough to play a short-stack strategy in many games where a raise to 3-4 times the BB is typical. However, in a live game, where people will open for 15 BB and get multiple callers, you might be able to play the short-stakced strategy with 50 BB.

Your results were atypical. However, the lowest stakes NL game is always a gold-mine. People didn't come to the casino to fold.

[/ QUOTE ]

[pzhon]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Buying in for $100 = 50 BB would not be short enough to play a short-stack strategy in many games where a raise to 3-4 times the BB is typical.

[/ QUOTE ]


$100 is the min buy in for most $1/$2NL games I've seen.

[/ QUOTE ]
Even if it is the minimum buy-in in your local game, that doesn't mean it is short enough to use Ed Miller's short stack strategy, which I believe is designed for a 25 BB stack, or my short stack strategy, which is designed for a 10 BB stack.

At the Foxwoods $1-$2 blind NL, the minimum buy-in is $40, and the maximum buy-in is $100. Online, the maximum buyin for those blinds is usually $200, and the minimum is usually $40, though it is $20 on the PokerRoom network and the Prima network.

[bonuspokergod]

Well..When I sat down it was short compared to most everyone else at the table. Plus I PF raise enough so that if I get re-raised I can just shove the rest in like the strategy dictates.

[Mr. Curious]

The Short Stack strategy is great for people new to no-limit.
Glad to see you have had success with it.