The importance of the size of your chip stack in no limit Texas hold'em is paramount. Depending on the size of your stack, the advantages or disadvantages that you have vary widely. Being short stacked is a huge disadvantage while being on the big stack is highly advantageous if you use it properly. Properly using your large stack to your advantage is something every player must learn in order to become a very successful player. There are a few simple things that you can do to help make being the large stack as advantageous as it should be.
The first thing you should understand is that you should not be afraid to muscle other people around. What I mean by this is that because your stack is larger than the other players you can make large bets that they will have trouble calling or force short stacked players to have to make a call for all of their chips. Once you have the large stack it is important to keep it so avoid making stone cold bluffs. It is also smart to pick on the smallest stack at the table. You have the biggest chip advantage over the smallest stack at the table and raising him, and taking advantage of the power you have over a player in his position will often result in you busting them. By taking out the shortest stack at the table, you will grow your stack and then be able to take on the next shortest stack and so on. |
