Deep Stack Struggles: Hot Tips

Last week​, I wrote about why you might get uncomfortable as stacks get deeper and deeper.

I promised you a few hot tips, so without further ado…

My #1 Deepstack “Hack”

I love to 3-bet weaker players with basically all of the hands I opt to play when I’m in position on them and nobody has yet called their open raise.

This allows me to isolate them and play a heads-up pot with a lot of money behind.

I get to leverage my positional advantage across each street and my large skill advantage.

I get to read their hand with each of the many actions they’ll be forced to take throughout the hand.

I get to spot and attack their imbalances with the flexibility of not having to worry about getting raised all-in.

If you know what you’re doing, it’s like taking candy from a baby who’s trying to escape on ​a bike with no training wheels​.

Getting on the Pedals

But what if you don’t (yet!) know what you’re doing? What if you don’t have a large skill advantage, or have those proper, balanced ranges in place yet – the ones that can connect with a variety of flops, turns and rivers? Here's a bit of interim guidance — think of it as the duct tape holding your strategy together while you fine-tune your skills for the long haul.

Position, Position, Position

We all know that position gives you an advantage: The IP (in position) player gets to act last, after seeing what the OOP player(s) decide to do.

Playing with deeper stacks means you’re going to see more turns and rivers without being all-in. Each additional street you see gives the IP player another turn to act last – another advantage.

This is especially true when the training wheels come off and ranges get out of whack, which is why it’s so valuable to play more pots in position while you’re learning to balance.

Tip: Play more hands in position and fewer hands OOP.

We’re Not In One Pair Land Anymore

When playing with shorter stacks, top pair in a 3-bet pot is often enough of a hand to put your whole stack in. Hands like AJo and KQo are powerful hands in late-position confrontations.

When stacks get deeper, top pair won’t often be good enough to want to continue piling in money with, and it will become more of a check-and-guess type of hand. In addition to the discomfort of facing aggression, there is a real, structural, proven EV advantage to being the one with the polarized range applying the heat.

Because of this, those pre-flop hands that make strong top pairs will decrease in value as stacks get deeper, and speculative hands will increase in value.

76s can make some big hands and some big draws, both of which are great ammunition to put your opponent to the test.

Big preflop pairs are still very powerful, by the way. Not only can a hand like KK win a medium-sized pot, it can also flop top set and stack some weaker sets or two pair for a ton of money.

Tip: Avoid playing big pots with “top pair hands”. Instead, aim to build bigger pots with hands that have potential to develop into huge made hands or draws.

Embrace the Small Bet

With the advent of solvers, we’ve learned that small bets get used very frequently in GTO poker.

They get used most frequently when out of position, and when stacks are deeper.

Why?

Because if we employ a big-bet-only strategy from out of position with deep stacks, we’re going to be forced to define our range too early in the hand, giving our opponent the ability to react with visibility and aggression on a number of turns and rivers.

(This is an oversimplification, as the full list of reasons gets quite complicated! Check out my prior ​article on small bets​ to learn more.)

Regardless of your familiarity with the concept, I suggest you try out small betting when out of position.

Tip: Fire more small bets out of position (and make sure to learn ​the theory behind it!​).

Next

These concepts and tricks should get you headed in the right direction as you gain more experience and knowledge about deep stack play. You’ll also notice that each tip will make your life a bit easier when playing deep: You’ll find yourself in fewer awkward big pots with hands that can’t stand the heat, and more often setting the tone in position.

Remember, like I said ​last week​, improving your overall poker game is what you’ll need to do to crush these games. Combine practice, education, and time, and you’ll get there!