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When playing no limit poker, the stack size of every player at the table is critical. Let's explore a few examples of how these decisions are affected by stack size. Hopefully, after identifying these situations, you will see the value in noting your opponents stack sizes. Here is a simple hand situation showing how play varies due to stack size. You are in a NL Holdem game with $1/$2 blinds. You are in the small blind with no action yet. You have $500 and hold 4,4. The player that's the big blind has only $25, so you can simply go all in or make a bet and push after the flop. This should make you money. Let's say the big blind has $500. Now, the all in play doesn't look so good. You will win the $3 a lot, but will get crushed when you are called. You don't make enough $3 hands to cover the $500 loss when it happens. How about this. Would you put $100k in there for the $3. If the only hand that calls you is A,A (1/220 times), this is what happens. You win three dollars 219 times and then, bam, you go broke. Having an opponent that only calls with A,A would be nice for your bankroll if you go all in every time. You'd win $657 because he will fold 219 times. Then when he has AA, he would win $26. This makes you extremely profitable. Now, let's say you've got $500 with 3,3. Again the blinds are $1/$2 and you complete the blind. Your opposition raises to $10. With different stacks, you might be correct to fold, call, or raise. With a $15 stack you could do any of the three choices. It would depend on your read of this opponent. Now, when his stack is $40 this becomes an easy fold. WIth this hand, you need to get that 3rd three to be confident to win and that is only a one out of eight times event. And, you are only going to make five times the $8 if you had called. Given a $500 stack, you can easily call and when you hit your hand, you might make way more than the 8 times you need to for long term profits. Holding 6,7 suited is a good hand when the table is full of chips. You can make big bucks when this type of hand hits. When everyone is short stacked this hand just can't get paid enough on the few times it actually hits. The big pocket pairs can cost you a lot of money if the stacks are big. These hands are hard to get rid of. When people hit their hands, you can pay heavily if you can't let them go. When stacks are short, you can play these hands all the way. You won't be risking a huge chipstack with just a pair. Often the preflop bets will get you all in or to a point where you can push after the flop. So, this is an easier situation for playing with big pairs. When everyone has radically different stack sizes this can get complex. Regardless, when you want to bet, you have to consider the stack size of each player involved.
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