Push 'em Provides Chance to Sharpen Short-Stacked Strategy

Poker Strategy / Short-Stacked Shamus / 28 March 2012 / Leave a Comment

In a Push 'em game, ace-eight will likely be among the range of hands with which you'll be making those all-in shoves.

While clearly more of a gambling game than regular no-limit hold’em, Push ‘em will provide opportunities to employ some strategy and thus give an edge to players who can smartly play their short stacks.

There's a new game debuting on Betfair Poker this week called Push 'em, a variant designed to provide action in a hurry. A no-limit hold'em cash game, Push 'em requires players to buy in for exactly five big blinds -- no more, no less -- making the chances of facing an all-in confrontation soon after sitting down quite high. While certainly not as complicated strategy-wise as typical no-limit hold'em, there are a few ideas to keep in mind that can improve one's chances of leaving a Push 'em session a winner.

Push 'em will be offered at a variety of limits at Betfair, from $0.05/$0.10 up to $5/$10, with all Push 'em games being six-handed. For example, when sitting down at a $0.25/$0.50 Push 'em table, you'll be buying in for exactly $2.50, with no option to buy in for more or less. In other words, you can go ahead and give all players my nickname -- "Short-Stacked" -- when they start their Push 'em sessions.

One necessary modification from typical NLHE strategy will be to open up one's starting hand requirements considerably. Since folding even one orbit's worth of hands will cost almost a third of your stack (1.5 BBs), it's likely you'll need to choose a hand quickly with which to push your chips in the middle.

That's not to say you can't follow a few broad principles of hand selection and even employ some other strategic thinking in Push 'em.

Pocket pairs

Pocket pairs only come around once every 17 hands or so, which usually means if you are dealt one, you will have the best hand preflop. In Push 'em you should be ready to commit your stack of 5 BBs whenever dealt a pocket pair, either by open-raising all in or calling others' shoves.

Even if you are dealt the lowly 2-2 and someone has shoved ahead of you, it's going to be worth calling with your 5 BBs. Against a random hand, pocket deuces generally rates a tad over 50% to win, and even against the wide range of raising hands in Push 'em -- say any pocket pair, A-x, K-x, and Q-x -- PokerStove tells us 2-2 is still going to be close to even money to win by the river.

Any ace, king, queen

You're going to be glad to pick up big cards in Push 'em, including any ace, king, or queen.

Most players will probably be comfortable shoving with any ace or king, although some might hesitate before committing with Q-x. However, if no one has opened the pot and you are dealt Q-x, it is probably worth a push given the probability you'll have the preflop edge. Obviously a call in this spot will likely mean you'll be behind with five cards to come, but more often than not callers will hold A-x, K-x, or pairs from J-J to 2-2 and your queen will still be live (if not your kicker, too).

I would consider pushing with a queen, though I would hesitate before calling with all but the better Q-x hands (e.g., Qs-Js). With an ace or king, though, I'm going to call with my stack of five BBs.

Suitedness

Not long ago we were discussing the significance of suitedness in no-limit hold'em. One of the ways suited cards have value is as drawing hands, with a flopped flush draw potentially giving a player extra leverage after flop. However, since essentially all of the decision-making in Push 'em is going to occur preflop, there will be fewer opportunities to take advantage of having flopped a draw.

Thus while suitedness does add a few percentage points to your hand's value, pushing with 7s-5s shouldn't seem that much more of an option to you than going all in with 7d-5c. Like small connectors, suitedness really is more of a concern in games where there are post-flop decisions to be made -- likely not the case in Push 'em.

Position

The significance of position will be relatively minimized in Push 'em thanks to the fact that players are essentially reduced to the single all-in raise move before the flop. Without post-flop play, position will only matter once -- not four times like in hold'em hands that aren't decided before the river.

I wouldn't place that great an importance on the difference between an all-in push from the player sitting under the gun and one from the guy on the button, although pay attention to your opponents as some will allow their position to dictate just how wide they'll go with their opening ranges.

Hands that get folded around to the cutoff or button will present opportunities for blind steals for players in those seats. The player in the small blind may want to open his raising range a little further, too, should the entire table fold before it is his turn to act. And with the stacks as short as they are, blind steals will be more of an issue in Push 'em than in deep-stacked NLHE games.

Player Profiling

While there will be fewer decisions per hand in Push 'em -- with almost all being of the all-in-or-fold variety -- you will still come to notice some players approaching the game differently than others, and thus as in all poker games you should be ready to adapt your game to what others are doing. There will undoubtedly be no shortage of maniacs, ready to gamble with any two cards. There will actually be nits (relatively speaking) at the Push 'em tables, too, who fold more than they should. Take note, and adjust your own decision-making accordingly.

You may even see some trying to limp or make minimum-raises occasionally before the flop. (The limp-reraise with a big hand will prove a popular play for certain players.) And of course for those who are able to accumulate chips and build stacks greater than the starting 5 BB, you may see some even-looser-than-usual calls or raises, or other out-of-the-ordinary plays.

While clearly more of a gambling game than regular no-limit hold'em, Push 'em will provide opportunities to employ some strategy and thus give an edge to players who can smartly play their short stacks and push around not just some chips but opponents, too.

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2011 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship Provides Possibilities

Poker News / Short-Stacked Shamus / 04 March 2011 / Leave a Comment

The 2011 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship gets underway today with action kicking off around noon Las Vegas time in the poker room at Caesars Palace. This is the seventh year for the 64-player tournament, modeled somewhat after the tournament that culminates each college basketball season in the U.S.

As Matthew Pitt reported, invitations were recently sent out to players for the $25,000 buy-in event. Approximately a third of those invited automatically qualified according to various criteria determined by the event's organizers, with the rest of the field being filled out by "at-large" bids.

Among those fulfilling the criteria for getting the automatic invites were those who have performed well in the NBC Heads-Up tourney before (e.g., the five most recent champs, runner-ups for the last two years, and last year's semifinalists were all invited) and those who have enjoyed success at recent WSOPs (e.g., the last three Main Event winners, last year's WSOP Player of the Year, last year's winner of the $10K Heads-Up event at the WSOP, last year's WSOPE Main Event champ, etc.).

Other means for getting automatic invites include being the World Poker Tour POY, winning the European Poker Tour Grand Final, being named POY by CardPlayer or BLUFF magazines, or winning qualifying satellite events.

As mentioned, the rest of the 64-player field are invited based on intangibles which usually include long-term success in poker, previous and frequent appearances on televised poker shows, being a celebrity (often) with some previous association to poker, and other factors usually filed under the hard-to-pin-down heading of "players who make good TV."

Thus while this year's field includes top poker pros like Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, and Phil Ivey, one also finds amateur players like former NFL star Emmitt Smith, film star Don Cheadle, and television actor Jason Alexander in the mix, too.

Such an idiosyncratic selection process ensures that the 64 players making up the field each year for the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship will never perfectly represent the top players in poker. Indeed, every spring when the field is announced, heated debates over who was "snubbed" often follow. That said, there are always enough top pros involved to make the tournament interesting to poker fans, with the heads-up format ensuring lots of intriguing conflicts and storylines along the way.

When I saw the list for this year's field, I found myself thinking not so much about who had been left out as about match-ups I'd like to see among those who were invited. I compiled a list of such match-ups, hoping perhaps at least one might happen as a result of last night's draw to determine the bracket. Sort of like that old Rock'em Sock'em Robots game some of us remember playing as a kid (pictured above), only here you could call it Hold'em Fold'em.

As it turned out, none of my imagined battles will happen in the first round, although theoretically all could still occur should the players involved survive to meet one another.

Here's how the bracket for the 2011 NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship looks (click to enlarge):

Actually one of those match-ups I was hoping to see -- between frequent feuders Daniel Negreanu and Annie Duke -- cannot take place as Duke pulled out of the event this week and thus will not be defending her 2010 NBC Heads-Up title. Nor can Johnny Chan and Erik Seidel reprise their 1988 WSOP Main Event heads-up clash, as Chan also withdrew from the event after being invited. With a Rounders sequel currently in the works, it would have been interesting to have seen those two have a sequel of their own to their WSOP ME heads-up battle, the last hand of which is featured in the original Rounders.

Many possibilities still remain, however.

Both Sorel Mizzi and John Racener are in the field, Mizzi for winning the 2010 BLUFF Player of the Year and Racener for his runner-up finish in the 2010 WSOP ME. Less than two weeks ago those two were in the news when Racener alleged Mizzi had cheated him by dealing from the bottom of the deck in a private Chinese poker game. While that flare-up has died down a bit in recent days, a meeting between these two would certainly reignite the story. As it happens, both are in the Spades bracket and could meet in the quarterfinals if each wins his first three matches.

Justin Young won his way into the 64-player field by winning a $230 buy-in satellite event at the Caesars Winter Poker Open last month. In that event, Young defeated his good friend Eric Baldwin heads-up to take the title. Coincidentally, when Baldwin won the 2010 NAPT Los Angeles Bounty Shootout, he defeated Young heads-up to win. Baldwin is in the field of 64, too, and while these two couldn't possibly meet until the finals, there'd be a lot of intriguing backstory for that battle should it take place.

Frank Kassela and Michael Mizrachi both drew spots in the Hearts bracket for this year's tournament. As you might recall, Kassela edged out Mizrachi for the 2010 WSOP POY this year, Kassela's two bracelet wins in preliminary events and other cashes being enough to overcome Mizrachi's win in the $50K Players Championship, his ME final table, and other deep finishes. I remember, in fact, how during the Main Event both Kassela and Mizrachi were at the feature table when the money bubble burst, with Kassela's cash in that event assuring that he'd at least won a share of the POY, with Mizrachi having to win the ME to tie him (Mizrachi went on to finish 5th). A meeting between these two in the quarterfinals would certainly be an interesting postscript to that story.

Tom Dwan and Phil Hellmuth have some history in this event. While still a relative newcomer on the scene, Dwan busted Hellmuth on just the third hand of their 2008 first-round match. All in before the flop with a pair of tens versus Hellmuth's A-A, Dwan spiked a ten on the turn to send the Poker Brat to the rail whimpering. The two met again the following year in the Round of 16, with Hellmuth avenging the loss by knocking out "durrrr." This year both are in the Hearts bracket and would meet in the second round if Hellmuth beats David Benyamine and Dwan overcomes Don Cheadle.

Speaking of Cheadle, the Oceans 11 star has become a perennial invitee to this event, as has Jennifer Tilly, another accomplished actor who has made a name for herself in the poker world. Whatever one thinks about whether or not both deserve to be among the field of 64, it is clear that when it comes to acting on the silver screen, Cheadle and Tilly far surpass the rest of the field. Both have received Academy Award nominations, in fact, with Cheadle earning one for Best Actor for his performance in Hotel Rwanda (2004), and Tilly a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Bullets Over Broadway (1994).

In fact, way back in 1985 both Cheadle and Tilly appeared in the same film, a so-so comedy called Moving Violations. Starring Bill Murray's brother, John, the movie was a fairly obvious attempt to replicate Stripes or other big hit comedies of the day such as Police Academy. I remember seeing this one and Tilly's starring role in it, although I can't say I recall Cheadle's bit part as "Juicy Burgers Worker." It would be wildly improbable, but for these two to reunite in the finals would certainly make for a memorable story -- more memorable than Moving Violations, for sure.

There are a couple of other match-ups I'd been hoping to see that also cannot take place until the finals. One would be between Vanessa Selbst and Liv Boeree, the top two women earners in 2010. A match between Phil Laak and Antonio Esfandiari -- best friends whose competitiveness versus one another knows no bounds -- would be fun, too.

Finally, Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel, and Phil Ivey are all participating in this event, currently the three top names on the all-time money list. Each are in different brackets and thus none could meet until the final four. What if all three made it through, with either John Juanda (currently 6th on the list) or Scotty Nguyen (7th) emerging from the Clubs bracket to take the fourth spot?

The fact is, nearly all of the match-ups are already intriguing enough. While the tourney will play out to its conclusion this weekend, the first shows will begin to air on NBC on Saturday, April 17th.

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