Easy Way To Learn Texas Holdem Poker

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• Make sure you learn the best starting hands in Texas Hold'em poker and how to play them, as well as the worst starting hands to play. Playing the former and folding the latter will immediately make you a better player. Once you've got the basics of how to play, make sure to understand​ how your position at the table can help or hurt you.
• Learn how to play Texas Holdem Poker with this great Android poker trainer app. This is an easy poker guide for any holdem player and will teach poker basics for beginners and advanced poker.
• Texas Holdem poker rules are very easy to understand but very difficult to master and perfect it. Texas Hold’em Poker can be played both online and offline and a lot of cash can be won by winning the game. In India, conducting poker tournaments is illegal and would be held accountable except in Goa and a few other places.

Texas holdem is currently the most popular form of poker
played around the world. In the 2000’s it exploded in popularity
and remains wildly popular today.

The easy way to remember this is that the dealer never deals to his or her self first. What 2 Player Games Can We Play Besides Texas Hold’Em? This is the traditional “old-fashioned” game that most people used to learn poker before No-Limit Hold-em became the dominant game. Both players have a designated ante that they pay before.

The most popular form of poker before Texas holdem surpassed
it was seven card stud, but sometime in the 1970’s or 1980’s
Texas holdem became king.

Because it’s so popular many players just assume everyone
knows how to play. It seems like you can turn on the television
and watch a tournament almost any time, but what about all of
the people who want to learn how to play but are afraid to sit
down in a real money game at first or are afraid of making a
mistake?

This page is written for you if you fit either of these
descriptions or simply want to make sure you understand
everything before playing. We’ve written this guide so you can
quickly learn how to play Texas holdem even if you’ve never
played poker before.

The first section includes general poker rules and the next
section has a complete set of Texas holdem rules. Then each of
the main parts of a hand of Texas holdem poker is described in
detail.

General Poker Rules

Before you learn how to play Texas holdem you need to
understand the basic rules of poker. The basic poker rules
include information about the deck of playing cards and the rank
of hands.

Most poker games, including Texas holdem, use a standard 52
card deck of playing cards. Each deck of cards has four suits
with each suit containing 13 cards. The suits are:

The ranks of cards in each suit from highest to lowest are:

• First: Ace
• Second: King
• Third: Queen
• Fourth: Jack
• Fifth: 10
• Sixth: 9
• Seventh: 8
• Eighth: 7
• Nineth: 6
• Tenth: 5
• Eleventh: 4
• Twelveth: 3
• Thirteenth: 2

The ace can also be used as a low card, equal to 1, below a 2
for straight purposes.

Some poker games use one or more jokers, but Texas holdem
doesn’t so they aren’t included in the information on this page.

Here’s a list of possible poker hands from high to low. When
you determine which player has the best hand look at their best
five cards and start from the top of the list and work down. The
hand you get to first that’s held by a player is the winning
hand.

• Royal Flush

  A royal flush is five cards, all of the
  same suit, which forms a straight starting with an ace high.
  The ace of clubs, king of clubs, queen of clubs, jack of
  clubs, and ten of clubs is one of the four possible royal
  flushes. The ace, king, queen, jack, ten or hearts is
  another, and of spades is another, and finally in diamonds
  is another.

• Straight Flush

  A straight flush is five cards, all of
  the same suit, which also have five cards in sequential
  order. The only difference between a royal flush and a
  straight flush is a straight flush is king high or lower.
  The king of spades, queen of spades, jack of spades, ten of
  spades, and nine of spades is a straight flush. The six of
  clubs, five of clubs, four of clubs, three of clubs, and two
  of clubs is also a straight flush.

• Four of a Kind

  When you have four cards, all of the
  same rank, you have four of a kind. The eight of spades,
  eight of hearts, eight of diamonds, and eight of clubs forms
  a four of a kind in eights.

• Full House

  A full house is three cards of the same
  rank and two other cards of the same rank that aren’t the
  same rank as the three of a kind. Three kings and two sevens
  is a full house.

• Flush

  When you have a flush you have five cards of the
  same suit. It doesn’t matter which five cards you have, as
  long as they’re all five hearts, or all spades, or all
  diamonds, or all clubs.

• Straight

  A straight is five cards in sequential order
  that aren’t all of the same suit. Remember the ace may be
  played as above the king or below the two. So both an ace,
  king, queen, jack, ten and a five, four, three, two, ace are
  straights. You can’t play what is sometimes called around
  the world, though. This means you can’t play a hand like a
  king, ace, two, three, four as a straight.

• Three of a Kind

  Three of a kind is any three cards of
  the same rank. The ace of spades, the ace of clubs, and ace
  of hearts is three of a kind. The suits don’t matter when
  looking at a three of a kind.

• Two Pair

  Two pair is two cards of the same rank and
  two other cards of the same rank that aren’t the same rank
  as the first two cars. Two aces and two sixes form two
  pairs.

• One Pair

  One pair is two cards of the same rank. Two
  threes is a pair or two kings is a pair.

• High Card

  When you don’t have any of the other hands
  listed above you have a high card hand. The highest card in
  your hand is your high card. If you have an ace you have an
  ace high hand. If the highest card you have is a nine, you
  have a nine high hand.

If two or more players tie for the best hand you break ties
using the following rules.

• When two or more players have the exact same five card
  hand they tie and split the pot. For example, two players
  each have a pair of sevens, a pair of twos, and an ace.
• If two or more players have the same best one card, two
  cards, three cards, or four cards hand, the winner is the
  player with the next highest card not being used for the one
  two, three, or four card hand. For example, if two players
  each have a pair of aces and the next highest card in one
  player’s hand is a jack and in the other player’s hand, it’s
  a seven, the player with the jack wins. This is called a
  kicker.
• When two players have a flush the player with the
  highest card in their flush is the winner. If they each have
  the same highest card the next highest card is compared,
  until one player has a higher card.
• If two players have a straight the player with the
  highest card in their straight wins.
• When two players each have a full house, the player with
  the higher three of a kind wins. If the three of a kind is
  the same in both hands the player with the best pair wins.
  For example, a hand with three queens and two sixes beats a
  hand with three tens and two aces.

Texas Holdem Rules

Now that you know how poker works, in general, it’s time to
dive into the specific rules for Texas holdem. In this section,
you’ll learn about the different types of Texas holdem and what
happens in each part of a hand.

Variations

Texas holdem is offered in variations based on betting limits
and also based on the format.

The three betting variations include:

• Limit
• Pot Limit
• No limit

And the format variations include:

• Ring Game
• Multi Table Tournament
• Single Table Tournament
• Heads Up

All of the formats can be offered in any of the betting
variations. You can play limit ring games or tournaments and no
limit heads up games, single table tournaments, multi-table
tournaments, and ring games. Basically, you can attach any of
the betting variations to any of the formats.

In a no limit game players can bet or raise any amount up to
their entire stack. In a pot limit game players may bet or raise
any amount up to and including the size of the current pot. When
you play in a limit game all bets and raises are restricted to a
set amount based on the limits.

A limit game has two amounts. The smaller amount is the
betting limit on the first two betting rounds and the higher
amount is the betting limit on the last two betting rounds.

In a $30 / $60 limit Texas holdem game, the first two betting
rounds use bets and raises of $30 and the last two betting
rounds use bets and raises of $60.

Each Texas holdem game also has a pair of forced bets called
blinds. Blinds are set by the house in no limit and pot limit
games and set based on the limits in a limit game.

The big blind is the same size as the smaller betting limit
in a limit game and the small blind is half the big blind. This
is the most common setup, but you can find a few games with
blinds that are the same or in another strange configuration.
Occasionally a pot limit or no limit game has both blinds post
the same amount.

Pot limit play is the least popular of the three Texas holdem
variants so you may never play but if you do there’s a unique
rule dealing with the size of bets that you need to be aware of.

When you make a bet or raise you can bet as much as is in the
pot. So if the pot has $100 in it, you can bet up to and
including $100. But if an opponent bets first and you decide to
raise the amount you can raise is different than you might
think.

If the pot has $100 in it and an opponent bets $20 and you
want to raise you can place a bet of $160 total. The way it
works is you use $20 to call the bet, making the pot size $140,
and then you can raise up to and including another $140. It’s
important that you understand how this works, though because you
can’t say you call a raise. You have to announce your intention
to raise and move all of your chips for the raise forward at one
time.

A Texas holdem ring game is one where players come and go and
once it’s started it doesn’t have to end as long as players want
to play and a dealer is available. Most poker rooms close or, at
least, have tables close, but some online poker rooms can have
the same table open for months or longer if players keep joining
when others leave.

If you’re playing in a tournament you post a buy in and
receive chips. When you run out of chips you’re eliminated from
the tournament. In some tournaments if you run out of chips
early you can pay an additional fee and buy more chips. These
are called rebuy tournaments. In rebuy tournaments, you can only
buy back in for a limited time.

The only difference between a single table and multi table
tournaments are the size of the field of entrants. A single
table tournament has 10 entrants or less and a multi-table
tournament can have thousands of entrants.

The number of entrants who win prizes and the amount of the
payouts are listed with each tournament and you should make sure
you completely understand them and the other rules before
entering a tournament.

Occasionally you may be forced to place ante best later in
tournaments. These are bets placed be each player at the table
before each hand. In many ways, these are like blinds. If a
Texas holdem tournament has antes in the later rounds it’ll be
listed in the tournament information when you sign up.

The last thing you should know before learning more is that
most Texas holdem games have a minimum betting limit. This is
usually equal to the big blind. You also have to raise at least
the size of the last bet when you raise. So the minimum bet will
be equal to the big blind unless it’s posted differently in an
un-raised pot, and in a situation where you’re making a raise
you have to raise at least as much as the last bet.

So if the bet was $50 and you want to raise, you have to
raise at least $50 more. A minimum raise in this situation would
be $50, making a total bet of $100. This is $50 for the call and
another $50 for the raise.

Blinds

We’ve already mentioned blinds briefly, but here’s a little
more information about how they’re assigned at the beginning of
each ring game or tournament.

Usually, the dealer shuffles the cards and deals one card
face up to each player at the table. The highest card is awarded
the dealer position or dealer button. This player acts last on
each round of play for the hand except the first round. The
small blind is posted by the person to the immediate left of the
dealer button and the big blind is to the immediate left of the
small blind.

The person who deals the cards and the person with the dealer
button aren’t the same in poker rooms and casinos. They can be
the same person in private or home games that don’t have a
designated dealer.

For the rest of the parts of a Texas holdem hand, the play is
the same whether you’re playing in a tournament or in a ring
game.

Before Each Hand

At the end of each hand or at the beginning of each hand the
dealer button is passed one place to the left and both blinds
move one place to the left. The players in the blinds place
their blind bets and the dealer starts dealing one card at a
time face down to the first player to the left of the dealer
button and continues dealing to the left until each player has
two face down cards.

These hole cards are used in combination with the community
cards, discussed in the next section, to form the player’s best
five card hand. The community cards consist of five cards, so
players can use both of their hole cards and three community
cards, one of their hole cards and four community cards, or none
of their hole cards and all five of the community cards to form
a five card hand.

Once each player has two hole cards the player to the
immediate left of the big blind folds, calls the big blind, or
raises. To call the big blind simply say that you call and slide
chips forward in the same amount as the big blind. If the big
blind is $20 slide $20 worth of chips forward.

If you want to raise state that you raise and the amount
you’re raising. The maximum amount of the raise is based on the
variation of Texas holdem you’re currently playing. This was
discussed earlier in the variations section.

After each player acts the next player to the left must fold,
call the current bet, or raise.

When play comes around to the small blind she can fold, call
the difference between the current bet and her blind, or raise.
If the small blind is $10 and the current bet is $40 she only
has to place another $30 into the pot to call.

If the pot hasn’t been raised the big blind can check or
raise when it’s her turn. By checking you get to see the flop
for free in an un-raised pot.

Play continues until every player has folded or called the
last bet or raise. If you fold simply slide your cards to the
dealer face own. Until you fold protect your cards at all times.
Many players place a chip or other small item on top of their
hole cards. This shows that they want to remain in the hand and
the dealer shouldn’t attempt to get their cards.

The Flop

Once the before the hand parts are completed the dealer
places the flop in the center of the table. The dealer burns the
top card in the deck by placing it in a discard pile, and then
deals the next three cards face up in the center of the table.

These are the first three of the five cards that will make up
the community or board cards at the end of the hand. As
mentioned above, the community cards are used by each player in
combination with their hole cards to form the best possible
five-card poker hand.

After the flop cards have been dealt the first remaining
player to the left of the dealer button is the first player to
act. She may check or bet. Play continues to the left with each
player remaining in the hand checking if no one has made a bet,
calling the current bet, raising, or folding. Play continues
until each player has folded or called the last bet or raise.

In limit Texas holdem the bets before the flop and on the
flop round are at the lower betting limit. The next two rounds,
the turn, and river, are completed using the higher betting
limit.

The Turn

Once the flop betting round is completed the dealer burns the
top card of the deck again and then deals one card face up in
the center of the table beside the flop cards. This is the
fourth of five total community cards.

The first remaining player to the left of the dealer button
acts first, by checking or betting. Play continues to the left.
Each player may check if no one has made a bet, call a current
bet, and fold if a bet has been made, or raise a current bet.

Once each player has called the last bet the dealer starts
the river round.

The River

Just like the turn, at the beginning of the river, the dealer
burns the top card of the deck and places a single card face up
in the center of the table. This is the fifth and final
community card.

At this time, the first player remaining in the hand to the
left of the dealer button starts the action. She may check or
bet. Play continues to the left just like it did on the turn
with each player checking if able, calling, raising, or folding.

Once each remaining player has called the latest bet it’s
time for the showdown.

If all of the players check on the flop, turn, or river play
moves on to the next round. No one has to make a wager on a
betting round.

The Showdown

After all of the betting rounds have been completed each of
the remaining players show their cards so the pot can be awarded
to the player with the best hand. If no one made a bet on the
river the first player to the left of the dealer button is the
first to show her cards. Each remaining player to the left then
either shows her hand if it beats the current high hand or
folds.

You don’t have to show your cards if you fold, but if you
make a mistake you can’t be awarded the pot unless you show your
cards.

If a bet was made on the river the player who called the bet
can wait for the original bettor to show their cards first
before revealing her cards.

Never take your hands off your cards if you think
you have the winning hand until the dealer gives you the chips
from the pot. Also, never take another player’s word for the
strength of his hand. Look at the hand yourself before throwing
your cards away.

After the best hand has been determined by the dealer she
gives the chips to the winning player, collects all of the
cards, makes sure the dealer button has been moved and the
blinds have been placed, shuffles the cards and gets ready to
start the next hand.

Summary

Now that you have a complete guide on how to play Texas
holdem the next step is learning more about how to be a good
Texas holdem player. We have a complete strategy section to help
you become a winning player.

Make sure you read the starting hands page and the low limits
page to get started. Once you master those two areas continue to
the pot odds page and then add the rest of the poker strategy
section.

Before you finish with the strategy section you should be
able to play at a breakeven level or better. With a little
practice and time, you should be able to start winning on a
regular basis

In this article, I will make the case for playing a short stack in NL Hold’em cash games, at least in the beginning of a poker career. Many of you reading this might scoff at the notion. Even so, please hear me out and, at least for a bit, and forget everything you know about a so-called “correct” buy-in amount. It is my stance that there is no reason that you have to sit down at the table with the maximum allowed in order to succeed at poker. Your goal should be to make money, not try to adhere to an arbitrary set of rules that someone established before many of us were born.

Through recent history, there has been a popular misconception that short-stacking players are relying solely on some kind of pre-flop shoving chart or “system” that has been purchased and downloaded from the Internet. Therefore, the prevailing belief among “mainstream” players is that all short stackers have no skill or talent and are generally dismissed as nothing but an annoyance. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

Short stacking is actually a microcosm of deeper-stacked play, and top small stackers are skilled poker players in their own right. They are just playing a different strategy based on buying in for less money. And, while stack size fluctuations necessarily affect everyone’s strategy, we are all effectively playing the same game.

In truth, short stackers play by the same rules and post the same size blinds as everyone else. They can raise, fold, check, and call. They use math to make their decisions and plan hands just just like deeper-stacked players do. It is still poker, no matter what your chosen buy-in is. As a matter of fact, a distinct skill set is needed for playing each of the various stack sizes, and strategy must change as a stack grows or shrinks. Consequently, shorter-stacked players typically have more competence when it comes to adjusting to varying stack sizes than do 100 big blind players, who always keep their stack topped off.

Furthermore, contrary to popular belief, while there are significantly fewer difficult decisions, small-stack play is not purely a “shove fest,” and still requires a great deal of finesse. With 30 to 50 big blinds, you have plenty of room to maneuver both pre-flop and post-flop. Just like deeper stacked play, short stacking requires planning every single hand based upon your opponent’s range and tendencies, as well as your commitment level.

Even today, when your average poker player thinks of a short stacker, he likely conjures images of desperation all-in moves by players without any skill, who are resigned to being a one-trick pony. While this may sometimes be the case, as I do often see poor players buying in short, this stereotypical view creates a powerful weapon accessible to those willing to wield it in the form of a favorable image. Beyond that, there are many other reasons that buying in short is advantageous:

Reason #1: Your Strategy Is a Mystery
Full stackers generally spend all their time trying to figure out what other full stackers are doing. As a result, a lot of regular 100 big-blind players will view you solely as a nuisance. One cannot blame them. No-limit hold’em is a difficult game, and trying to “master” full-stack play is all they want to focus on. They feel that spending time understanding a short-stack strategy would detract from their learning process. To them, you are just another annoying shove bot.

The thing is, even skilled full-stack players tend to have trouble winning versus short stackers. This is likely because they are either too lazy to attempt to figure out what you are doing or do not see any merit in doing so. Their focus is solely on deep-stacked poker. That’s their story, and they’re stickin’ to it. Consequently, the majority of the time regulars will play pot after pot incorrectly against you. Even if they do attempt to adjust, often it will be in the wrong manner, and even more money will be spewed your way.

Reason #2: Mistakes are less punitive
During the learning process, a novice is bound to make numerous errors. Paying less for each blunder is a nice side effect of short or CAP stacking. Because the costs of mistakes are diminished, a novice can more freely and confidently make the difficult decisions he or she faces. One also no longer has to worry about a single “bad beat” ruining an entire session. Having KK run into AA or having someone flop a set against your top pair, hurts a lot less when it’s only for 30 big blinds.

Reason #3: You Face Fewer Difficult Decisions
Having decisions become much more straightforward and obvious is a positive thing in almost every endeavor in the world, so why not in poker? If you normally play a 100 big blind stack, how often have you had to fold to a river raise or shove and wonder whether or not you were bluffed? How often have you hesitated to value bet the turn because you were afraid of the pot getting too big by the river?

We have all been in this spot. You flop top pair or an overpair and get raised on the turn. Did he just make a straight? Did he flop a set? Is he bluffing or semi-bluffing? Is it worth another 70 or 80 big blinds to find out? While playing a traditional 100 big blind stack, most sessions include multiple similar “tough” decisions.

Reason #4: The ever-present threat of an all-in bet
On all streets, short stacks wield the threat of an all-in bet that can come at any time. Well-timed reraise shoves cause multiple headaches for your competition. Most players will not know how to correctly react and will unknowingly concede a veiled edge to you each time you stick all your chips in.

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As a case in point, 3-bet shoving is a decisive pre-flop weapon. If your opponents are not well versed in the nuances of range battles, you will be at a significant advantage anytime you sit down with them. An expert 3-bet shoving strategy seeks to take advantage of multiple tactical mistakes that unskilled players commonly make. Among them are:

• Opening raises that are too large, especially from late position:
  Open raising too large while we are sitting behind them can be a giant leak for our opponents. We exploit their incorrect opening raise size by widening our 3-bet ranges based on the size of their bet. If they do not similarly adjust their calling ranges, we profit.
• Loose opening ranges coupled with tight all-in calling ranges:
  Calling our shoves too tightly will cause money to leak away from this type of opponent in the form of non-showdown earnings. In other words, the dead money we win when we shove and are not called, more than makes up for the few times we are called and have inferior equity.
• All-in calling ranges that are too loose:
  Our superior equity versus loose calling ranges yields a net profit via showdown winnings. We just have to make sure we do not 3-bet light against these players and that our shoves are mostly for value.
• An incorrect interpretation of Hero’s 3-Bet range:
  Opponents who are employing a HUD will often fail to realize that we are 3-betting a different range against various players. For example, we may have a raw 3-bet stat of 8% against the field but 3-bet much higher against certain opponents. If those players base their actions on a range of 8%, the profit over time will be immense.

After the flop, a short stack’s commitment range is generally much wider than it is for a full-stacked player. Unskilled players will tend to fold many times tighter or looser than is correct due to their inability to comprehend commitment decisions. Clever players will think they need to call your all-in bets with weaker holdings, as they may assume you are stacking off lighter in any given situation than you actually are. This provides more abundant opportunities for you to get paid off when you have a strong hand. As long as we take note of our opponents’ commitment ranges based on their HUD stats or through keen observation, we can fairly easily exploit them via minor adjustments.

Additionally, profit in poker comes from our ability to consistently make decisions superior to those the field is making. Therefore, we should create as many opportunities for opponents to make mistakes as we can. The frequent barrage of all-in decisions coupled with our wide opening range and constant aggression otherwise, guarantees more profitable opportunities per hour than our counterparts can muster.

If you want to know a few more reasons, I cover this topic a bit more extensively in my first book. I also lay out my own personal way of playing poker, which has given me success all the way up to 600NL. In fact, I can’t imagine playing any other way. As of this writing, I have been short stacking for about seven years now and over the past few years have experimented with playing a 100 big blind stack again from time to time. Invariably, what I always seem to miss most is the ability to isolate bad players with pre-flop committing plays, such as shoving or 3rd & going. And while I otherwise feel comfortable deeper stacked, I still always come to the same conclusion.

Contrary to popular belief, playing a full stack severely inhibits a player’s route to maximum profit against most bad players. This is because a short can use his stack size as leverage to obtain much more profit against the weaker players than a traditional 100bb stacked player can. My stance on this is almost certainly going to be viewed as a radical one, since the number one reason full stacked players tell other players to never play a short stack is the ability to win the maximum against weaker players. There are certain instances that I do agree with putting as much money on the table as possible and in fact do as a matter of course. However, these situations are few and far between.

In particular, should you face a deep stacked maniac who is willing to get it in both pre-flop and post-flop for 50 plus big blinds with extremely weak holdings, either pre-flop or post-flop, then you definitely want to buy in for the maximum possible. However, you will seldom see this type of opponent, so sitting down with a deep stack as a matter of course just doesn’t make sense in most situations or table dynamics. Currently, I play on a sitewith numerous loose and weak players, and I sometimes play sessions without seeing even one of this player type.

One other exception is that if you are a tight full-ring player that builds his or her entire strategy around set mining. In that case, you also want to play a bigger stack. You would, of course, want to be as deep as possible in order to attempt this approach. However, since this style of play is highly unlikely to win in today’s games, I discount the idea as a viable argument against playing a shorter stack in fishier games.

Inevitably, due to a great frequency of facing awkward SPR situations which lead to numerous awkward turn and river decisions, full-stacked players seem to be resigned to spending most of their time looking for spots to either cooler their opponents, or avoid being coolered themselves. Therefore, in my opinion, playing a full stack seems to be much more of a “one trick pony” style of playing and infinitely less fun. Indeed, I would much rather play 250 big blinds than anywhere near 100! In my opinion, really deep stacked play is almost as fun as short stacking, since SPRs are always so high. However, that is another story for another day.

Why 30 big blinds?
Short stacking is so misunderstood that even the amount which constitutes a short stack is up for debate. Some people feel that anything under 50 big blinds is a short stack, while others feel that a “true” short stacker sits down with 20 big blinds. Among knowledgeable poker players, it seems that most are in the camp that less than 40 big blinds is a short stack, 40-80 big blinds is a mid stack, 80-150 big blinds is a full stack, and anything greater than 150 big blinds would be considered deep stacked.

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Traditionally, most short-stacking “systems” concentrate on 20 big blind play. In this book I have focused on playing any stack size under 45 big blinds and suggest a buy-in of 30, if possible. After experimenting with many different stack sizes, I have concluded that 30 big blinds seem to provide the perfect balance between allowing for three streets of poker while remaining small enough that a player can comfortably 3-bet shove a wide range before the flop. The importance of having 3-betting and 4-betting simplified during the learning process cannot be overstated. Even so, a 40 big blind starting stack is fine as well, along with a few minor adjustments.

Another good reason for learning with a 30 big blind stack is that a 20 big blind buy-in is no longer an option on numerous poker sites. In the last couple of years, many sites have raised their minimum buy-in from 20 big blinds up to 30 or even 40 big blinds. For your info, I have compiled a list of the best short stack friendly sites out there.

The changes were made mainly to appease full-stacked players who are intolerant of players who use a short-stack strategy, since they collectively have trouble beating them. They do not want to have to spend time learning how to beat short stackers and would rather segregate themselves from them altogether. And when “forced” to play against anyone with less than a full buy-in, full-stacked players often quite openly let it be known that they feel short-stack players are the scum of the earth.

It’s rather unfortunate that a player’s chosen starting stack can be such an object of contempt. In fact, sitting down with less than the “standard” buy-in has become such an anathema, that if you post a hand on an online poker forum that has you starting with less than 100 big blinds, you will likely be ridiculed to no end and receive no advice on the hand itself. Some of the vitriol spewed is so intense that you would think short stacking is against the rules.

My thought on the subject is that a lot of these bitter feelings are a carry-over from the “old days.” A generation ago, the thought of buying in for a short stack would have been unthinkable for a good poker player. Before the advent of online poker, a top professional always wanted to have more money in his stack than less-skilled players. This allowed him to wield the full force of his “skill” against them.

Additionally, such a strategy would simply not work in live poker rooms. Once you obtained more than 50 or 60 big blinds, a shift in strategy would have to occur. And sitting out and getting back on a waiting list would not work as a solution. Not only is it a waste of valuable time, it would likely be frowned upon by opponents and the poker room as a form of “going South.”

Today, online players have the ability to come and go as they please, with no such rules of etiquette in place. With the ability to play multiple tables, comes the option of leaving once you hit a goal amount of money. You can simply bring in a new table and start fresh with your chosen starting stack size.

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When learning, we should be inclined to make matters less complicated, not more. It is much better to play a simple strategy well than a complicated one poorly. Therefore, buying in short provides a superb starting point for someone fairly new to NL Hold’em cash games. Playing a smaller effective stack instantly solves numerous problems beginner and intermediate players face. In fact, it solves many of the problems all players face.

One common problem confronted by full stacked players is how to proceed with one pair hands when raised on the flop or turn. For short stackers, stack-to-pot ratios will always be lower and decisions considerably more straightforward. Therefore, when you flop top pair or an over pair as a short stack, you can cbet with confidence, since you are almost always committed. In fact, you want to be raised! Let them fire away since you can profitably call it off nearly every time.

For advanced players or grinders, small stacking also offers a simpler, crisper decision-making process. Almost every decision at the poker table is much clearer when wielding fewer chips. Once armed with the right information, a skilled short-stacking player will find that he can make decisions faster, play more tables, and increase his hourly rate. This is all done in a more stress-free poker environment that is conducive to less variance due to less money being in play.

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Beyond tactical considerations, short stacking has multiple passive benefits that occur without having to actively do anything. Sitting in with a small stack not only removes potential leaks from our game, it also significantly alters the dynamics of a table. Our mere presence potentially creates leaks in opponents who fail to adjust correctly.
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Overall, the key arguments for buying in for less than 50 big blinds are the inherent beneficial image, the lessened frequency of difficult decisions due to lower SPRs, and the ability to play higher stakes on a smaller bankroll. As a matter of fact, that last one might be a big enough reason over all others, as moving on to higher stakes as quickly as possible when building a bankroll, should be the number one priority of any poker player.

So if you are fairly new to poker or have struggled and are looking for a fresh way to approach the game, give short stacking a try. Good luck at the tables!