You see changing gears executed by top sportsmen in many different sports. I play a lot of Pool and you see players being mediocre during the beginning of a match then suddenly they run three racks and secure control of a match they then go on to win. This is changing gears. They are doing something different which has a positive effect on their performance within the game because of this style change.

When you play in an online poker tournament you must change gears several times in order to win. A mistake I frequently make is getting through the first fifty per cent of the tournament and then with my medium to large stack I wait too long for good hands. Just before the money I push all-in and rely on luck to decide whether I get paid or bust out. I should change gears and be more aggressive as the bubble approaches. Of course I will bust out a few times but I will also build a bigger stack some of the time too giving me a better chance of securing the top prizes.

The hard part is knowing when to change gears when it is not so obvious you need to do so. This often happens at a real money cash game table. It is only instinct and feel that indicate when the time is right. How do you give someone good advice on something that is so personal and intuitive? Players like James Akenhead seem to know exactly what to do. It helps that players are naturally afraid of him. Better players get more respect for plays so make sure your poker playing base is solid before trying anything cute. Fortunately there are things to look out for to indicate when a change of gear is optimal and/or necessary that applies to both cash games and poker tournaments.

Your poker table may be passive and then someone joins the game that sets the tone by raising hard and trying to bully the table. This can instantly transform the table and you need to change gears here to survive this new dynamic. You may be the player forcing the change by changing gears yourself, or another player may do it. Look out for when players who change their style suddenly and do something different. This is a signal to consider your own style and whether it is time to change gears and play poker in a different way.

Even the most solid poker player cannot afford to become predictable. Within the paradigm of tight aggressive you can ebb and flow between aggression and passive play to confuse your opponents. If you play a hand a certain way and an opponent instantly calls or folds that you did not expect, consider that they may have a read on your preferred play in this spot. Doing something different makes opponents question their reads. Remember that reads are educated guesses based on observations. You can muddy the waters for opponents by changing gears and give them more to worry about when playing hands with you.

By Malcolm Clarke

Short stack strategy suits both the experienced player and the new player. The new player benefits from the fact that decision making is likely only to last for two streets of action, usually at that point you are either all-in or forced to fold. Experienced players may have found that players are either frightened or unwilling to play them because of their excellent play and in order to change it up they buy in for smaller amounts. This can disguise your ability as many unknown players look at small buy ins and presume that this is just a weak player buying in with whatever they have not bothering about deep stack play or bankroll management. It is rare that players look at a short stack and say that this is short stack specialist, unless you are well-known for it. The assumption with short stackers is “assume they are bad until they show you they are good”. Whilst you are showing them, this is where money can be made.

Poker Players often go on tilt seeing a short stack. Short stack strategies are heavily criticised on the forums and in the online poker room chat. These false perceptions by other players on playing short stack poker give you an advantage right away. Players will either give you more action to try and bust you or give you action because they believe you to be weak.

Reading other players hands becomes easier the shorter you play too. It is not worth playing suited connectors or low pocket pairs against a short stack player as the implied pot odds you are receiving are not enough. It is not worth your while risking the bets to hit the improved set or draw when your potential win is only a small amount. If players are showing you drawing hands or connectors at the showdown then they are making fundamental errors against you. Players should only be playing AK, AQ and high pocket pairs against you. Anything else is too loose and these are players you can beat with this strategy.

There is increasing clamour by anti-short stackers to have the online poker rooms increase the minimum buy-in to forty big blinds from the current normal amount of twenty buy-ins. They believe this would eliminate short stacking players from the game. This will probably not occur as the online poker rooms are aware that it is unlikely every room will suddenly implement this change. This means if one flagship site changes their buy-in rules then the short stack players will simply move elsewhere. As online poker rooms are not in the habit of costing themselves money you can expect that, for now at least, you will be able to continue buying in short.

Short stack poker is not an easy strategy to profit from. Some of the best short stack players make their money from others trying unsuccessfully to play short stack poker. It is also a difficult game to play for long periods as there is not much thought involved. What would be an interesting hand to consider in deep stack play is usually an all-in bet during short stack play. I have decided that only a money motivated player would be interested in playing short stack for long periods of time. If you are a poker theorist who thrives on unravelling the complexities of a hand then this may be a poker strategy you should avoid.

By Malcolm Clarke