How to counterattack shortstacks

[Pokey]

There are two prototypical types of short-stacked players: the cowards and the maniacs. It rarely takes long to figure out which one you're dealing with.

The cowards play an absolutely nittish game, often with a single-digit VPIP and a PFR that matches it. These are the guys who are either folding preflop or all-in on any flop. You want these guys sitting on your immediate left so that you can have the button twice as often (they'll fold nearly always, even from the button) and so that you can make some nice money stealing all their tasty blinds (which they will let go for a raise almost always). Pressure them a little bit and they'll crumble; if they happen to push back, fold and do the same thing the next time. And the time after that. And the time after that....

The maniacs are push-monkeys. They're mixing it up all the time, raising wildly, calling all sorts of raises, open-pushing most flops but folding flops quite often if pressured. These guys you'd like to have sitting on your right, so you can see what they do before you have to act. Against these folks, wait for a decent hand (A8+ suited or unsuited or any pocket pair) and be prepared to get it all-in preflop. In fact, your approach should be one that lets you get all-in preflop so that you can extract maximum value with your decent hands. Be ready for a rollercoaster, because pushing preflop is always high variance. Luckily their stack size is small, so you won't be risking quite as much.