There's a whole 'nother set of weird spots that comes up when a shorty makes an awkward-sized PF push. Here's one I ran into recently...
Full Tilt Poker, $0.25/$0.50 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter
SB: $46.20
BB: $39.10
UTG: $21
MP: $6.25
Hero (CO): $55.70
BTN: $18
Pre-Flop: T
T
dealt to Hero (CO)UTG raises to $1.50, MP raises to $6.25 and is All-In, Hero raises to $11, 2 folds, BB raises to $39.10 and is All-In, 2 folds
Here's a spot where I lose a decent chunk of dough where I would otherwise have lost much less. TT is too good to fold here, especially against a shorty shoving his micro-stack with a wide range, looking to gamble it up. My goal is to isolate against the shorty and have the UTG's raise contribute as dead money. If I call here, I invite LPs and blinds to call, as well as the UTG. I want to raise, but my intention is to advertise my strength without committing myself, so I simply min-raise, which should get the point across. And I'm sure it does, which makes BB shove that much more ominous. The subsequent fold is easy, but it's hard to stomach losing 22BBs PF like this. Take the shorty out of the equation, and I probably 3-bet to $5.5, and then folding to the BB 4-bet....losing only 11 BBs in the process.
Flop: ($30) J
A 2 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)Turn: ($30) 2
(2 Players - 1 is All-In)River: ($30) 9
(2 Players - 1 is All-In)Results: $30 Pot ($1.50 Rake)
BB showed K
K (two pair, Kings and Twos) and WON $28.50 (+$17.50 NET)MP showed J
Q (two pair, Jacks and Twos) and LOST (-$6.25 NET)After the fact, it's relieving to know that I would have lost to the shorty regardless. But there are 2 things to recognize here: 1) That short-stackers can complicate pre- and post-flop decisions, and 2) That short-stackers are by and large giant donkeys!
This second point is the reason that I don't go scurrying away from tables that have one or two. While you may have to pay a little bit closer attention to stack sizes when sitting with donkeys, and while you also may have to tweak your betting strategy, based on who ends up in the pot with you, I would say that you can almost always make up for these annoyances by crushing shorties in the pots that you do play.
Here's one of a million examples:
Full Tilt Poker, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter
Hero (BB): $33.77
UTG: $58.93
MP: $21.93
CO: $35.40
BTN: $12.12
SB: $21.62
Pre-Flop: Q
K dealt to Hero (BB)3 folds, BTN raises to $0.75, SB folds, Hero calls $0.50
Flop: ($1.60) 4
K 9 (2 Players)Hero checks, BTN bets $1, Hero raises to $3, BTN raises to $5, Hero raises to $16.60, BTN calls $6.37 and is All-In
The min-reraise (Donkey Squeal!) actually had me momentarily convinced that I was up against a strong hand like AK/AA/KK/99. But this is a shortstack clown, so you get it in anyway.
Turn: ($24.34) A
(2 Players - 1 is All-In)River: ($24.34) T
(2 Players - 1 is All-In)Results: $24.34 Pot ($1.21 Rake)
Hero showed Q
K (a pair of Kings) and WON $23.13 (+$11.01 NET)BTN showed J
J (a pair of Jacks) and LOST (-$12.12 NET)Say what you will about shorties throwing off your optimal strategy...I'll be happy to collect their donations in your absence!
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