NLCASH: Perfect Strategy Against Short-Stacked All-Inner HU

[Nick Rivers]

What is the correct strategy to use against someone with a 10bb stack who is pushing every hand HU? How about a 15bb stack? I usually tell people to restack or get lost when they get this low and start pushing, but I'd rather just know the optimal strategy, so I can go ahead and finish them off.

[96roadster]

I feel like you have such a small edge that its not worth playing those opponents. You cant wait for a premium hand as they are atealing the blinds pretty fast, they also seem a lot more likely to hit and run. The only thing I have found is that playing back at them usually gets them to calm down, but honostly i just dont think its worth the time.

[Nick Rivers]

It's not about whether it is worth the time. There is an optimal strategy for playing against someone who pushes every hand for any given stack size, the question is: what is that strategy for a 10bb stack? What is it for a 15bb stack? Is there a formula which approximates this strategy for any stack size? You do have an edge against people who do this, though it does shrink as the stack size goes down. At 10bbs, it is probably worth knowing, because you run into it so frequently. That's a few extra bb of expectation you can claim over the course of a day without expending too much time doing so. For some, it is worth the time to learn a strategy (or a range of strategies), but for others, perhaps not.

[Trent]

Lets consider that you will close the action. In this case stack size is pretty much irrelevent.

Q2o, J6o, T8o, J3s, T6s, 97s and up have 50% or greater equity against a random hand [ref: Reuben].

So you can easily call with those. If you want to push smaller edges you could lossen up a bit if they are a smaller stack, as the blinds increase your pot odds.

If there are others to act, then this gets more complicated of course.

Trent.

[Nottom]

This sort of thing is pretty standard for anyone familiar with SNG play and a program has been developed to analyze this exact type of situation (when to push or call all-ins based on stacksize). Do a search for Eastbay's SNG Power tools (Available Here ) if you are interested.

As for your questions if someone is literally pushing with any 2 and a 10BB stack you should be calling with something on the order of your top 66% of hands or 22+,A2+,K2+,Q2+,J3o+,J2s+,T6o+,T3s+,97o+,95s+,87o, 86s+,76s

This is a 0 EV situation. In practice you probably want to have some sort of edge so the following list is proably more accurate: 22+,A2+,K2+,Q5o+,Q2s+,J8o+,J6s+,T9o,T7s+,98s (Top 49%)

(The bottom of this range is worth a little over 1BB)

For 15BB Stacks:
0EV - 22+,A2+,K2+,Q2+,J5o+,J2s+,T7o+,T5s+,98o,96s+,87s (60%)
+EV (> 1BB) - 22+,A2+,K2+,Q6o+,Q2s+,J8o+,J6s+,T9o,T7s+,98s (48%)

Of course if the player isn't actually pushing every hand these ranges change dramatically. If instead he only pushes the top 50% of hands. We see the following results:

10BB Stacks:
0EV- 22+,A2+,K7o+,K3s+,QTo+,Q8s+,JTs (32%)
+EV - 44+,A4o+,A2s+,KTo+,K9s+,QJs (22%)

15BB Stacks (about the same as above):
0EV - 22+,A2+,K8o+,K5s+,QTo+,Q9s+ (30%)
+EV - 44+,A4o+,A2s+,KTo+,K9s+,QJs (22%)

[Hume]

[ QUOTE ]
As for your questions if someone is literally pushing with any 2 and a 10BB stack you should be calling with something on the order of your top 66% of hands or 22+,A2+,K2+,Q2+,J3o+,J2s+,T6o+,T3s+,97o+,95s+,87o, 86s+,76s

This is a 0 EV situation.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not considering rake, if someone is pushing 100% of his hands and you are calling with 100% of your hands, you will both be break even over the long run. This is obvious. Why then must you restrict yourself to the top 66% of hands to have 0 ev? [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]
I know I'm missing something, I just don't see what. Care to educate someone not familiar with SNG play?

[Nottom]

[ QUOTE ]

I know I'm missing something, I just don't see what. Care to educate someone not familiar with SNG play?

[/ QUOTE ]

Probably poor phrasing on my part.

Obviously if someone pushes blind and you call blind you are in a truely EV neutral situation.

What I mean is that against someone pushing 100% of hands, the worst hands in this range are 0EV or just slightly better. Certainly the better hands are +EV and the group as a whole is +EV, but there are no -EV hands in this range.

Basically its just the gap concept at work, similar to when facing a raise from a player who would do so with TT+, AQ+. You can't call with AQ or TT just because they are in his range, you need to call with a range better than his.