Calling small shoves from BB when you're short stacked

[Andyreas]

Hi forum,

I'd like to discuss the following rule of the CC course with you:
You can call a shove of less than 4 BBs in BB with any two cards, assuming there's ante.

When your deep, it's easy to do that.

But what if you're short yourself? Let's say <15BBs and the shove is close to 4BB?

Do you still call with any two cards? Or do you narrow the range?

 

[nerobs9]

Hello!
I use a push/fold strategy when I have less than 15-17 blinds.

But when it comes to CardsChat freerolls, I often go All In at the very beginning. This is due to the fact that games often start after 01:00 a.m. for me. and I either collect a lot of chips at once or fly out and go to sleep 😀

 

[Joe]

My understanding is that when you are short on the BB and an even shorter stack jams into you it’s inadvisable to allow them to take the blinds unopposed, which widens your calling range dramatically - as usual, depending on the circumstances. ❤️

 

[hilary antonik filho]

Andyreas
I have two versions of myself, one when I play Freerolls I'm a little crazy and raise or go straight All in. real money is the other one where I'm more normal, I take it very calmly, so each person has a way of playing or following rules or what they learned through courses, that's why I prefer not to give an opinion. Good luck buddy

 

[kunkgreen]

Usually when stealing comes from late position I tend to widen my shove range well.

However, as long as there are blinds, there is hope... So I won't necessarily shove any two cards.

One thing I've noticed is that a lot of people are making this move... and the blinds are really calling with anything. So I adapt to be able to 'steal' with hands of equity.

 

[P86]

It has to depend of the opponent how many times he did that move against you specifically if he's in SB but I don't think paying with any 2 is a good strategy tbh.

 

[D0nk3y Hunt3r]

Let's check. That means pot is around 1.5bb + 0.8bb from antes = 2.3bb + 4bb shove = 6.3bb, giving you (4-1)/6.3 ~= 50% in pot odds. Winning with any two cards against any two cards is 50-50 split making this roughly break even. Noone really shoves with any two, though and you don't win by making break even calls.

 

[theStarfish]

In this case I norrow my range massively. I do not want to risk a significant amount of my small stack by calling with any two. It has to be a somewhat decent hand, not a great hand but a decent hand. Might be the wrong move but I usually think that it would be smarter to save the chips for my own push.

 

[fundiver199]

Losing 3BB out of a 14BB stack (we already posted 1BB) is not all that significant, so we are still playing close to chip EV ranges. Where the rule is not entirely correct is, if its near the bubble, and we are the short stack, or if its for a huge percentage of our stack. Then maybe we are only supposed to defend 60% or so, depending on where the shove is coming from. ICMizer is great for these calculations, but you know that already