Fold equity is the key in modern online poker

I spend a lot of time on poker forums these days and the discussions that I have with certain players are illuminating. However I do feel that there are certain problems with regards to some players and how they play poker games like NLHE. I have felt now for some considerable time that a short stack approach has far more viability than a big stack approach for many people. I think that this is especially the case with novices and even intermediate players.

If you play a short stack and you play that short stack well then your decision making process is far simpler and I will look at an example here to show you what I mean. I was looking at a cash game on www.pokerstars.co.uk recently when a player who I didn’t know was playing an 18bb stack after only buying in if I remember correctly for 20bb (may have been more).

It was folded around to the button who made it $3.50 (the stakes were NL100) and the small blind called. Now here is my take on this situation. Clearly the button doesn’t need to have a strong hand to raise from that position but when the small blind called then they too were representing a weak hand otherwise they would have raised. The big blind re-raised to $12 and the button called with the small blind folding. The flop came 10d-6d-4c and the big blind shoved what he had left and was called by the button who showed A-K. The big blind had Q-J and a jack came on the turn and he doubled up and immediately left the table.

Now here was a guy that played a short stack very well. He sensed weakness after buying in for the minimum when the button raised and the small blind called. This put $8.50 into the pot and with him only having $18 on the table then this represented a big increase in his stack. But I liked how he just didn’t sit there and wait for big hands to come along before he made his move. On this occasion then he ran into the button with a proper hand but the fact was that he played his short stack well during that hand and deserved the luck that came his way and you have to admire that in a poker player.