Deep Stack Poker

Deep Stack Poker Rooms | Poker Rooms that Disallow Short Stacking

When most poker players sit at a table, they buy in for the maximum amount possible. At online poker sites, the majority of tables allow players to buy in for a maximum of 100 big blinds. However, there is a group of players that are referred to as “short stackers.” Short stackers are known to buy in for the table minimum (usually 20 big blinds). Using their small stack, they attempt to double up against their full stacked opponents. After doubling up, they usually leave the table and continue this process at other tables. The majority of poker players despise short stackers. They claim that short stackers take the element of skill out of poker and make it a game of luck. Most poker forums are full of threads complaining about short stackers. Most poker rooms dismiss these complaints but some poker rooms are listening to their customers and combating short stackers. We’ve compiled a table listing the poker rooms that have a minimum buy-in larger than the standard 20 big blinds.

Below you can find a table of poker rooms that have done something to prevent short stackers. You will notice, that these rooms still will have some tables that allow for short stacking, but there aren't as many. On top of that, the standard table minimum buy-in has been raised. For example, PokerStars upped the minimum buy-in on standard tables to 40 BBs instead of 20 BBs. Then they also added 20 BB minimum buy-in shallow tables. Please use this table as a reference, it can be helpful if you want a poker room to play at where you won't have to worry as much about running into a short stacker. PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker also offer deep stack poker tables, with a very high minimum buy-in.

#	Click To Join!	Poker Room Click For Full Review	Standard Table Minimum Buyin	Shallow Table Minimum Buyin	Deepstack Table Minimum Buyin	Bonus Code	US Players
1		PokerStars	40 BBs	20 BBs	100 BBs	STARS600
PokerStars is the largest online poker room in the world, thanks largely to their great software and outstanding second-to-none customer support. As well as a large player pool ensuring that there are lots of fish to win money from, it also means that there are enough players to populate even slightly out of the ordinary tables. This is great for players seeking deep stack action as it almost guarantees that they'll always be able to find a table running when they want to play!
2		Cake Poker	30 BBs	20 BBs	N/A	FTRRB
Cake Poker is a smaller poker room but nevertheless has a reputation as being an awesome place to play, for a number of different reasons. First and foremost if you're an American then the obvious selling point of Cake Poker is that they still accept US Players, a fact which is also great for people from the rest of the world as it means more players online. Cake Poker also doesn't allow HUDs, programs which aid players during play by providing statistical information on their opposition, which is a big draw card for a lot of players.

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Short stackers hit and run tables. They usually play using a “shove or fold” strategy meaning that they will either shove their stack into the pot or fold their cards; they rarely just call. The types of hands they usually shove with are high cards since they cannot play speculative hands without implied odds. Since most of the hands involving short stackers rarely go past the flop, full stacked poker players complain that short stackers create a poker environment that is mostly based on luck. Additionally, veteran poker players know that a short stacker sitting at your left can make playing cards difficult. Since a short stacker to your left means you must worry about being shoved over, players are required to narrow their opening range. Again, this gives full stacked players less room to maneuver against their opponents.

These full stacked poker players have taken to the various online poker forums, such as FlopTurnRiver.com, to voice their disapproval of short stackers at their tables. Most online poker rooms looked over this problem since short stackers also help contribute to rake. However, other online poker sites realized that full stackers make up the bulk of their client base. Additionally, pots involving short stacks usually go up to a maximum of 40 big blinds creating a boundary on how much rake is collected in these pots. This caused some poker rooms to implement some changes. Full Tilt Poker was the first to implement a change followed by the Cake Poker network. These poker rooms force players to buy in for a minimum of 35 or 30 big blinds, respectively. Poker players that play with a full stack rejoiced as tables improved without short stackers. Short stackers, however, have had to flee to poker rooms that allow short stackers.

It is predicted that most poker rooms will follow in the footsteps of Full Tilt Poker and the Cake network. Now that they’ve implemented these changes, full stackers that are irritated by short stackers may vote with their feet and move to these poker networks. In the highly competitive industry of online poker, poker rooms cannot afford this. Due to all this, short stacking will probably not exist in the near future. However, most poker players currently allow short stackers at their site. If you are looking to avoid short stackers, please refer to our table of poker rooms that do not allow this and have a minimum buy-in above 20 big blinds.