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Every player who plays in a tournament will be playing with a short stack once in a while.
Too often I see other players going all in after a big loss. Don’t do that, poker is also all about patience.

Go all in when you think you can win, not when you’ll have to play 5 other players also. Chances that you win are very small pre-flop or you must be having a killer hand like AA or KK.

In the tournament yesterday where I finished on the 6th place out of 800 players, I played a short stack 3 times during the whole tournament.
Very early in the game I lost a game with two pair, aces and queens, against 3-of-a-kind 6. From my 1500 starting chips, only 210 were left. Because this happened a few minutes after we started, the blinds were still small, so I didn’t worry much about it. The immediate hand after this beat I got KJ suited. Not bad, but very dangerous to play. I was in late position and had a nice view at the table. 1st player called, 2nd player called, 3rd, 4th and 5th player also. When it was up to already 5 players joined the game, so I folded my KJ suited.
Why the hell should I fold King Jack suited in late position I hear you thinking?
Well, chances are very high that one of the 5 players has an ace or a queen. Or one of the 3 remaining kings or jacks are playing along also? If the flop turns an ace or a queen, I can pretty much throw my cards away. Even with a raise pre-flop Chances are great that 4 out 5 players call me, being short stacked. So in my eyes I made the best decision I could at that time. BTW, flop was 4 8 Q, turn was a J and river a 10. A good fold I made!

For the next seven or 8 plays I folded also until I got AK. 2 players in the game and I made raise to see the flop and will decide to go all in or not after the flop. Luckily for me only 1 player calls my raise. Flop paired my King which made me go all in on my turn. Other player called to see my pair and Ace kicker. After the river my stack doubled. I could play a few extra hands now and that made sure I went up in the rankings also.

True, luck is also in play, but if you lack the patience part, luck doesn’t always has a chance to reach you

For the next 2 hours I kept playing a lot of cards, even J4, 10 3 and cards like that. So I was very loose.
The thing is when you play lots of hands, your opponents don’t know if you’re bluffing or not. You’ll just have to make sure that at the time they call you, you aren’t.
Once I failed this and was a short stack again. With 50 players left in the tournament and 27 places paid, a money finish was far away.
This time the blinds where higher also and the ante’s made my stack smaller and smaller every game. Action was required. With everybody folding pre-flop I went all in with A4 suited. The big blind called me and it was a showdown. The flop gave me the advantage as I paired my Ace, but my opponent made a pair with his Jack. He didn’t hit a card on the turn or the river, so I doubled up again.
At this time I felt it was time to stop playing loose and start playing very tight. The money was a bit closer now, but not completely there. With KK just a few hands later I went all in pre-flop and luckily for me a player who lost a serious amount of chips the game before called me. He showed AQ. Paired his Ace on the flop and his Queen on the turn. Only a 3rd King could save me, but it showed a 4. Because he was very short stacked I got back almost 1/3rd of my chips and wasn’t out of the tournament.

But my luck changed into the good way now. The next 5 plays I received JJ, KQ, 46 (which I folded), AJ and QQ. The 4 games I played I won. With my pocket queens I won a monster pot. Nobody believed that I again received good cards in this short time, so almost everyone called my pre-flop raise. With a 3rd queen on the flop, I started slow-playing my trips. The player in front of me made a bet, I called and 1 player went all in. I and the initial raiser called. I won and was pretty sure to end up in the money now.

Whit some decent play the hands after, I even made it to the final table where I lost with my straight against a flush and ended up on the 6th place.

Like I said, be patience, play the cards you think you’ll have a decent chance of winning. If there are too many other players in the game, even fold good hands.  Good luck!!!

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