Every time a poker player sits down to play the cash game, whether it is in a

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Short Money Poker Players

Every time a poker player sits down to play the
cash game, whether it is in a Las Vegas casino, at home, or at an
online poker room, a decision must be made on how much money or
chips they want to bring to the table.

Most card rooms will have a
minimum buy-in amount, and certain games might have a maximum. When
players decide to purchase the minimum, or only a small amount of
chips (nicknamed 'short money'), it is considered to be an
indication of weakness and a 'tell' on the players ability or
recent fortune.
Players that start the game with a short chip stack are often
considered by the others to be scared of losing, and consequently
must play cards with a poor poker strategy. It has been obersved
that players not expecting to win often use a short-buy to limit
their losses on playing mistakes, while good players maximize their
potential wins by having a big stack at the table.

The 'short
money' image of weakness holds true much more at no-limit games
over other forms of poker.
Strategically, aggressive betting, semi-bluffing and blind
stealing is usually considered correct strategy at no-limit games,
and short stacks simply don't have the amunition to make those
bigger bets needed. Big stacks can make the occasional bluff with
the confidence of staying in action if it goes wrong, and can use
their calling ability to deter small stacks from risking a bluff
against them. Using a big pile of chips as a psychological tool to
induce or prevents bets from weaker opponents can be a very
successfull strategy when done properly, and good players will
immediately recognize anyone not able to do the same as a potential
target.

Your
own mind-set should be
considered when purchasing chips at a table as well. For
example, a player that buys-in for $20, loses it, re-buys for
$20, loses again and put another $20 on the table, will likely
be in a much worse position mentally then a player that simply
started with $140 and now has $100 on the table. These sense of
losing multiple times will put players on tilt and make them
lose focus much more than being down on chips 'temporarily'.
Occasionally short money players are actually good players that
are broke for reasons outside of the game, and other times a small
stack that is seen may not have necessarily started that way
earlier in the day.

Although these incidents aren't an indication
of the players' ability, it may at least be a tell on their current
state of mind. A player facing problems away from the game never
seems to play their best poker and players on a bad run, no matter
how good they can be, often go on tilt and play differently or
poorly when loosing.
The 'short money' tell is one of the few behavioural tells that
seems to hold true online as well as in real life, however it seems
to have more accuracy in actual brick and mortar
casinos. Winning players should be
looking to exploit any players presenting this remarkably reliable
tell, mostly by raising and betting aggressively against these
small stacks.

It is important to avoid this situation yourself by
consistently sitting down with one of the larger stacks at the
table and remaining adequately funded for any poker game you
play.
Catalogue: Recreation & Sports | Gambling &
Casinos
Title: Short Money Poker Players By: Shawn Somerville

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