Deep Stack Strategy

In any tournament it is often just as important to play well with a deep stack then it is with a shallow stack. Throughout this article we will be looking at how to optimise your deep stack strategy and turn those chips into dollars.

What is considered a deep stack?

Anything over 100bb can be considered as having a deep stack, but it can be situational dependent as to what stage of the tournament you are at.

A starting stack of 100b is not a massive amount and generally the tournament will not be classed as deep stacked. Starting stacks of anything from 200bb plus is more commonly known as a deep stack tournament.

However, 100bb late on in a tournament can often be seen as having a deep stack. When only a hand full of players remain stack sizes will often be varied, with 100bb giving you a fair amount of play left in relation to your stack size and remaining players.

Is it more difficult or easier playing with a deep stack?

Well, this can depend on your game and how well you execute your plays throughout. Having a deep stack can give you options with hands, such as the ability to play more or fewer hands depending on how your table is playing. A smaller stack limits these options as with fewer chips, you have less room to be creative during hands.

In general, it will be easier to play with a deep stack rather than a shallow stack, as we have already mentioned, it gives you more options with your starting hands. A deeper stack lets you play more hands pre flop and also gives you room to barrel (bet the streets) as you have more chips behind.

This can also have a negative effect in the fact that because you have more chips at your disposal, you feel obliged to play more hands, thus entering more situations that can make you venerable during a tournament.

Many Pro tournament players are masters at deep stack play and often can run over tables due to sheer aggression alone by putting their opponents in tough situations for their tournament life.

It’s important to strike a balance, whilst yes you can play more hands, you still need to be selective and one bluff gone wrong, can mean your once deep stack is now a shallow stack and your clinging on for survival.

What hands work well with a deep stack?

As we have mentioned, a deeper stack allows us to open our range and play more hands. But we don’t want to start opening with junk just because we have a lot of chips in front of, so it’s important to stay fairly disciplined still.

Hands such as suited connectors and pocket pairs play much better with a deep stack as the percentage of chips compared to our stack is low, so we are not risking too much when entering pots with these kinds of hands.

We can also look to open pre flop with a wider range of hands such as suited one gapers (e.g. Js9s) and pretty much all of our broad way hands (connected picture cards).

What hands play worse with a big stack?

Even though we have chips, it’s absolutely no reason to start raising hands like 72 off suit or junk type hands like that. We need to maintain our discipline and whilst our range will open with a deeper stack, it’s not going to open to the point of being reckless.

Don’t feel like you have to open every hand just because you have chips in an attempt to run over the table. Keep your discipline pre flop and remain in control. Losing a pot 500bb deep with random junk will not be fun!

General deep stack tips.

Your deep stack will allow you to play more hands, so do so. Do not feel like because you have a deep stack you HAVE to play lots of hands for the sake of it however, so keep a balance on your opening ranges.

Have a reason for everything you do. This can be applied to pretty much every variant of poker, and it applies here also. Have a plan in a hand and go with it.

Stay aggressive in hands. More often than not you will be against opponents where you have a significant chip advantage and if need be could put their tournament life on the line, where it will only be a percentage of your stack.

Make sure you convert your deep stack into a good cash. Far too many times players run up big stacks only to go out before the money in a hand where they shouldn’t have been involved in as they lost concentration. If anything concentrate more with your big stack. If you can maintain it then it could be extremely lucrative for you in terms of monetary value.