Stack Sizes and Those Pesky Queens and Jacks in No-Limit Hold'em

I got an E-mail earlier this year from my old table tennis comrade Jack Howard, a former runner-up in the U.S. Open Table Tennis Championships and the over-40 singles champion of the United States. Jack sent me questions after reading Tournament Poker, which has been revised and updated. His questions were: How do you quantify short, medium, and tall stacks in terms of blind size and/or number of hands that can be played to the river? For the number of hands to the river, what amount of raising, if any, do you assume when making the calculation?

This is somewhat complicated, but I will do my best to give a general guideline. Anytime you have 30 bets the size of the big blind, you have a big stack. More than 30 bets usually puts you among the chip leaders of the tournament. If you have 18 to 29 bets the size of the big blind, I would classify you as a medium stack, and less than 18 bets would be a short stack. If you do not have enough chips to play more than one or two hands to the river, you are, of course, in serious trouble. As to the amount of raising to figure into this calculation, a general rule of thumb would be one or two raises before the flop and at least a bet and a call all the way to the river, and probably at least one raise thrown in, on average, before you get to the river. If I can play four or more hands to the river, I believe that I am in relatively good shape for that stage of the tournament. Being able to play at least three hands to the river is not bad, and fewer than that is, of course, trouble. It can be a fine line between relatively good shape and trouble, and the bigger the limits, the more quickly things can change on you. Obviously, the more chips you have, the better, and my Tournament Poker book gives lots of good advice on how to survive to the higher limits and what to do when you get there.

I got another E-mail from Kurt Kirner about the play of jacks and queens in no-limit hold'em tournaments. He had three questions: His first one was, how do you play J-J or Q-Q when you are first to act under the gun? My play is to bring it in for a standard raise of three or four times the size of the big blind. If I am short-stacked later in the tournament, I may simply move all in if a standard raise would commit most of my remaining chips anyway.

Kurt's next question concerned what to do with J-J or Q-Q if someone already brought it in for a standard raise. He claims that he has not been successful with his standard play, which is to move in, and now thinks it's best to just call to see if an ace or a king flops, and then move in if neither does. Moving in is very risky with J-J or Q-Q early in a tournament. If you get called, you are usually facing a bigger pair or A-K, which you are only a slight favorite against. In the later stages of a tournament, when either my opponent or I am short- or medium-stacked, I would have a greater tendency to move in, but not in the early stages of a tournament. In the early stages, I might reraise, but not commit all of my chips. For example, say I have $3,000 in chips, the blinds are $25-$50, and my opponent makes it $200 to go. I would consider making it $600, a $400 raise. If my opponent with an equal or greater amount of chips than I have is now willing to move all in, I think it is time to give up. If someone has raised and is called in one or two other places with the same chip situation as described above, I would be willing to treat my jacks or queens the same as deuces; in other words, I would be looking to flop a set before I would commit all or most of my chips after the flop.

Kurt's final question concerned what to do with J-J or Q-Q when an opponent overbets the pot. This is definitely an "it depends" answer. What do you know about the preflop raiser? Does he make an overbet with small or medium pairs, or just big pairs and A-K? Does he ever slow-play his big hands? How often has he been raising? If I think he is out of line, I may take a stand and move in on him. If it is early in the tournament, I may flat-call and decide what to do after the flop. If he overbets only big pairs, a fold is probably the best play. In other words, it depends. You must play the player as well as the situation.

If your jacks and queens hold up, I hope to meet you one day soon in the winner's circle. Good luck.

Editor's note: Tom McEvoy is the author of Tournament Poker, the only tournament book to give specific strategies for each game in the World Series of Poker. For more information, visit www.pokerbooks.com.