The strategy you utilize in Heads Up will be different depending on the amount of chips you have as opposed to your opponent. This article will be about if you are the short stack.

Playing Heads Up with the short stack is not the end of the world. The biggest thing you have to be aware of is the blinds and that you must ratchet up your aggressiveness.

Blinds are not a problem
If you have an M (amount of the money you have to the starting pot) of 15 or more then you have time and can wait for some better cards. You still want to be aggressive but you don’t have to go all in if you don’t feel you have the best of it. You should be raising any face card, and any pair, calling with everything else, and reraising with premium hands and medium pairs. Remember you only have to double up one time, or possibly twice, to be right back to even with your opponent.

If your opponent has 1,000,000 in chips and you have 350,000 (amount of chips in a 45 man SitNGo) and the blinds are 500/1,000 with an ante of 100, just one double up will put you back to even. You can take your time because the level of the blinds aren’t going to affect you. If he has 1,150,000 in chips and you have 200,000, the blinds still will have no effect on you and after two double ups you will be even. You still have plenty of time to fold, raise and reraise to keep your opponent off balance.

Blinds are a problem
If you have an M of less than 15 then you are running out of time to make many moves. You really have to hype up the aggression and the all in may be your best play. When you play a short stack your big bets come preflop and on the flop. Avoid all marginal calls and drawing hands that can get you in trouble and can make you lose chips because you really can’t afford to take another loss. You want hands that make decent hands quickly and often, namely big pairs and big cards.

With 10BB, most of the money is going in preflop. You need high percentage preflop hands. Those are big pocket pairs, aces and kings, and other big-card hands. Throw your small cards away. Your goal is to get as much money in preflop as you can, then bet the rest on the flop.

Just because you are the short stack doesn’t mean that you can’t come back and win all of the chips. You must tailor your game to your stack size to get optimal value.