Poker players use a variety of skills and strategies to maximize their odds of winning. One of the most effective tactics to achieve this is managing stack size efficiency: a form of resource management in which every chip on the table is constantly taken into account.
No matter which format you’re playing, whether it’s online poker, brick-and-mortar tables or a casual home game, awareness of how stack size impacts the flow of the game is extremely useful and applies to all betting strategies. Even though it’s by no means a complex concept, many players underestimate its strategic versatility.
Stack size is always considered in relation to the blinds involved. In other words, a large stack in one game can be a short stack in another; it all depends on the ratio between buy-ins and big blinds. For example, a $2,000 stack may seem like a significant amount on its own, but it’s relatively small if your big blinds are $100 or more.
Defining stack size
Most poker games have upper and lower limits to how much you can bring to the table, with the minimum and maximum usually being 10 big blinds and 100 big blinds, respectively. The aim of stack sizing is to turn these limits into tools that inform your decisions.