Small Stack/Large Stack SnG

Hey everyone,

Been playing some SnG's ($5) on stars and am noticing a hole in my game.

I have no problem playing as the short stack, I isolate players and make them call my all-ins when I have the best of it. I can build back to mid/leader-ish stack most of the time.

(**For the purposes of this topic, I'm referring to 3 players especially, once your ITM and just want to go for it. However some tips for the bubble would be nice too**)

However once I get out of the danger zone, I find myself unsure how to place the aggro back onto the short stacks.
Hands I went all-in with when I was SS (short stack), I know have trouble playing.

I have read several of the SnG guides but want to isolate this specific aspect for discussion.

Do you simply target the short stacks with any (decent-ish) hand and target bets aimed at 3/4 their stack?
Bet the SS entire stack repeatedly and make them make do-or-die calls (at the risk of them being blinded away)

Let them enter flops and then raise for info and/or raise to put them on difficult decisions:

i.e. Simply raise to put them all-in if you have any semblance of a hand.
OR raise smaller to see where they stand (difficult read seeing they will often go all-in to represent the goods)


Advice please, is it just a matter of aggression and putting them on tournament-life decisions?
Or whittling them down with attrition?

cheers :D

When I get ITM in a SnG I usually get assaulted with all ins which force me to make decisions fast. Also, usually by the time it gets down to three people the blinds become a big enough agressor to take that role away from the other players.

That being said, it seems like when someone is in your position they certainly go after the short stacks. Of course, as you can tell, im usually the short stack in these scenarios...so I can't tell you how to play it, only how it was played against me!

my goal when i have a big stack is to poke at the small stacks enough to the point where they start "announcing" their cards.

i do different things depending how how big their stack is in relation to mine as well as position, blinds, bubble or no bubble, etc:

(this is a tatic that i use in the $10 SnGs on stars....not sure if it will work for $5 or higher SnGs though)

situation: i'm big stack sitting with about 6-8k.....rest of table sitting at 2-3k

this is one of those situations where you don't really want to get too careless. if you double 1 guy up, then he'll be sitting with a good chance of doubling up again and taking the lead.

normally, what i would do....is play "weak" and lean on all of them. generally, i will camp for a respectable hand before i bring out a raise - but i will push very hard if i sense any kind of weakness. if i'm big blind and a small stack SB just calls (when everybody else on table folded to blinds). i'll go ahead and raise big regardless of what i hold. after you do this 2-3 times, he should begin to get the picture and fold his blinds to you. i do a similar tatic whenever i sense somebody is trying to steal (regardless if its my blinds or not).

this is where it gets important. if the same person decides to raise or even call you after you've sent the earlier msg to him, i would get out unless i have a premium hand. every now and then, you will have to "reaffirm your dominance"....but for the most part, you will meet very little resistance.

lets say that after even after you've sent your message, he still decides to call. you can pretty much put him on a decent hand. i would go ahead and check and see the flop. if you sense any signs of weakness after they flop (even if it completely missed you), go ahead and raise 1/2-2/3 of his stack.

this brings up another good point. sometimes, i run into what i like to call "the all-in i'm a small stack pushing a big stack around" syndrome. personally, i LOVE to play against these people. what i generally like to do, is pull a couple of really bad steals/bluffs against them. poke at them and send a message to them that if they raised me all in, i'll get out. i'll generally lose 500-1k chips to them on purpose. then i'll repeat the same weak raise patterns when i hold the nuts(or some decent hand that's relatively difficult to beat)......and they normally will bite and push all in on a bluff to push me out. works every time.

my general approach to playing a big stack is - poke'em to death. keep leaning on them, keep exploiting weakness, give them a little confidence and rip it away, and always be the one who is ultimately in control.

thanks for the responses guys

variable what an in-depth post, cheers.

I can relate to what you mean with the "all-in syndrome." Unlike yourself, the big stack's I have played are fairly weak/passive when being aggressivly bet into by my shortstack, assuming they dont want to double me up.


So once I get back to a decent sized stack, you recommend 'leaning' on them which I can see where your coming from. I'll start raising a considerable portion of their stack like you suggested and put them on the hard choices.

"Sign's of weakness" thats what I was looking for, I was playing my cards when the large stack, that was my problem.
No problem playing 'them' as the small stack, but got passive once I was large.

thanks very much! :D

Don't make your raises so big that you can't fold if they push, however. If/when you're stealing, you want to be able to get away to avoid doubling them up. Much more frequently than people seem to think, I find small stacks only playing good cards, with the end result being that unless someone doubles them up, they get blinded out. Most of the time someone doubles them up, however. Don't be that guy.

As in any good thing is poker I think this is mostly situational.

When I am big stack in the tourney ITM I found out there are basically two types of short stack players. The only playing like you wrote when you are short stack - very agressive players who try to build up their stack - they tend to raise/go all in with crap hands so I usually wait for a decent hand (Ax, any pair, KT and up) and go all in with them trying to knock them out.
The other kind are the ones that play very timidly hoping one of the other players will bust - against those I play very agressively