Short-stack Strategy in Action

I was trying out Ed Miller's excellent short stack strategy for no-limit cash games, as presented in his fantastic book, Getting Started In Hold'em. I played about 1,000 hands over four tables, mostly at the Party $400 max games.

I have to say one thing about the strategy. Although it works, it is exceptionally boring. My VP$IP was hovering around 7%, meaning that I voluntarily put money in the pot preflop 7% of the time. That's a lot of folding. In comparison, my VP$IP for playing 3/6 limit at Party is around 15.6%.

The thing I was shocked was how often I was called by worse hands. I would sit there folding every hand for half an hour, then raise. And some people still called despite my exceptional tightness.

Here's a hand I played:

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $400 max (10 handed) converter

UTG+1 ($372)
UTG+2 ($207)
MP1 ($102)
MP2 ($370)
Hero ($44)
CO ($645.7)
Button ($450.7)
SB ($656)
BB ($234)
UTG ($193.5)

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with As, Ac.
UTG calls $4, 1 fold, UTG+2 calls $4, MP1 calls $4, 1 fold, Hero raises to $15, 2 folds, SB calls $13, 1 fold, UTG calls $11, UTG+2 calls $11, MP1 calls $11.

In hindsight, I raised too little. The pot is already $18 by the time it's my turn, and I really should raise to at least $20-$25. But since that amount commits me, I should just push all-in. With that many limpers, someone will bite.

Either way, although not played optimally, pocket rockets are actually strong enough to be "slowplayed" by raising 4x BB...

Flop: ($79) 2c, Th, 9c (5 players)
SB checks, UTG bets $4, UTG+2 calls $4, MP1 calls $4, Hero raises all-in to $29, SB calls $29, UTG folds, UTG+2 folds, MP1 folds.

No-brainer flop bet.

Turn: ($120) 9s (2 players)

River: ($120) 9h (2 players)

Final Pot: $120

Results below:
SB has Jh Kd (three of a kind, nines).
Hero has As Ac (full house, nines full of aces).
Outcome: Hero wins $120.

After a terrible pre-flop call, the flop call seems somewhat reasonable. This was a pretty example of the Fundamental Theorem of Poker in action. Against the range of hands I play here, he has 4-7 clean outs, twice. He is getting pot odds of 4.8 to 1, which looks fine for 7 outs twice. Happily, he only had four clean outs and therefore made a mistake according to the Fundamental Theorem.