Playing as the big stack.

Careful play, good decisions, and of course luck can land you in the ideal position in any poker tournament, the big stack.

Having the big stack means the range of options available to you is at its widest, you have the most play, you have the least to fear from other stacks.

Some players, such as Phil Helmuth, actually don't recommend a significant change in playing style once you hit the big stack, his argument is that you must have been doing something right to get there, so continue with that same strategy to continue building your stack.

That just doesn't match my style, I am constantly checking my aggression, letting consideration rule over impulse, and playing my stack size and position. Once I have the big stack though, my intention, put simply, is to do the same thing I feel effective big stack players do to me. I want to crush opponents. I want every decision for the small stacks to be critical, I want them to fear entering a raised pot with me, I want to throw them off their game.

Put simply, I want my ubber aggressive play to have put other players off of their comfort zone, with two results:

1. Some of the small stacks will lower their range as they know that you must be bluffing at least part of the time. I want these stacks to start to call my big bets with weaker holdings, second pair, etc.
2. Other small stacks will turtle until they have premium starting hands.

The second result is easy to play, you call their pre-flop raise with any decent holding, and you normally bet the flop if they check, or bet if you act first. They predictably fold if they have nothing, and call or raise if they don't. The HUD will be the first indicator of this playing style as the number of hands they get involved in continues to decrease.

The key with the first type of player is to start to identify when they have lowered their range. Getting caught in a big stack bluff where they call you with second pair is one slightly painful way, but you can also see through hand histories or other information what their starting holdings are changing to, or what they start calling with. I will sometimes even call modest river bets from them with nothing just to see where their range is at. Only once though :) Once these players range lowers you take advantage of this by raising your own range when playing these players. By not adjusting your range for other players, and being specific to these players, they will not pick up so quickly on the range adjustment.

Large pre flop raises of around 5x the bb usually mean you are able to effectively isolate these two types of people and play them accordingly. In multi way pots the combination of playing styles means you won't be able to exploit them so effectively. This is why the pre-flop raise is so important. In multi way pots check your aggression to avoid loosing too many chips.

Another key to big stack play is all in range isolation. Smaller stacks start to engage in all in madness when they are frustrated with pre-flop raise sizes or lack of ability to generate chips. So small pairs and ace-anything start to come within range. Unlike almost any other stack size, I am more than willing to get involved in a coin flip with any smaller stack, I can afford the loss and keep increasing my odds of getting further in the tournament with every player I take out.

Of course, the larger the stack I am in the pot with, the more respect I give them and the more carefully I play. I am always willing to go head on with any stack if the cards are there, but less bluffs and less overbets while playing them. This change of gears when playing big stacks means they are not able to take advantage of your increased betting range, and, even better, they sometimes don't understand your playing habits are being catered to individual playing styles, so they will assume your range with them is also lower.

So, the keys I have learned so far to big stack play are:

1. Increased aggression pre and post flop.
2. Determine the effects of your aggressive playing style on the other players, adjust accordingly.
3. Be entirely willing to call all ins on coin flips.
4. Play other large stacks more conservatively.
5. Adjust your playing style to the type of players, don't just increase aggressiveness and range for all hands. By playing players individually, they will incorrectly read that your entire table gear has changed and make mistakes.


One small note. The micro stack play developed earlier in this blog was an attempt to counter this style.