Winning Stacks

Stacking your opponent is the ultimate no-limit hold’em high. There’s nothing more exhilarating than winning a huge pot. But beyond that, stacking opponents is a critical no-limit skill. I’ve noticed that the best players tend to be far more adept than the average player at encouraging opponents to part with all of their money.

Anyone can win a stack on a cooler hand — say, a full house against the nut flush. The trick is to win your opponents’ stacks in less clear-cut situations. You want to win stacks in scenarios in which lesser players would win far less. Here are a few techniques you can try that will help you to stack your opponents:

Bet-Sizing
Bet-sizing decisions play a key role in whether you win a whole stack or just a part of it. Simply put, most live-action $1-$2 and $2-$5 players don’t make large enough bets. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen the following hand play out:

It’s a $1-$2 game with $200 stacks.

Someone raises to $10. Two players call.

The flop comes K 10 6. The preflop raiser bets $20, and one player calls.

The turn is the J. The preflop raiser checks, the caller bets $20, and the raiser calls.

The river is the 7. The preflop raiser checks, the caller bets $30, and the raiser calls.

The raiser shows the K Q, and the caller shows a flopped set of sixes (6 6).

These bets are too small! When you flop a set, it’s a stacking opportunity. If you make tiny bets, you’ll never stack someone. Give yourself a chance to win a stack by making bets that are large enough to win a stack. In this hand, if I had flopped the set, I likely would have raised the flop to about $50. Then, if called, I would have split the remaining money, $140 or so, into two chunks of about $60 and $80, planning to bet $60 on the turn and $80 on the river.

Betting bigger won’t win you a stack every time. Obviously, your opponent often won’t have enough of a hand to stand up to the pressure. But when you flop a set, you should give yourself a chance to win big.

Value-Betting
Another place that players miss stacking their opponents is on the river. I regularly see players make weak bets or take a free showdown on the river when they should be shoving and hoping for a call. Typically, the board appears somewhat scary, and they decide to play it ultra-safe. Unfortunately, in no-limit hold’em, pulling your punches isn’t playing it safe. You’re just setting yourself up to get pummeled when the tables are turned. If you want to be a winner, you have to bet ruthlessly when you have the upper hand. You can’t let long-shot fears get the better of you.

It’s a $2-$5 game with $600 stacks. You’re on the button with the 6 6. One player opens for $20, and you call. Both blinds call. The flop comes K J 6.
Everyone checks to you. You bet $70, and the big blind calls. The turn is the A. Your opponent checks, you bet $180, and he calls. The river is the 9. Your opponent checks.

Shove all in. Do not check it down or make a weak bet. Given the action, there’s no particular reason to believe your opponent has one of the few hands that beats yours, and your hand beats many hands that might call. Sometimes you’ll find out that your opponent was sandbagging Q-10, but more often, you’ll find him with A-K, A-J, K-J, or some other hand that he just can’t lay down. Over time, having the courage to make bets like this one will drastically improve your results.

Preflop Reraising
When used smartly, reraising preflop can be a very powerful tool to win opponents’ stacks. Reraising has two important effects in a hand:

1. It builds pots quickly, advancing the final all-in bets from the river to the flop and turn.
2. It takes many opponents out of their comfort zones, and can make you appear to be a bit of a loose cannon.

I recently watched a friend of mine play the following hand:
It was a nine-handed $2-$5 game. My friend had $2,000 on the table, and his main opponent in this hand had about $1,600. Two players limped in, and then the main opponent made it $40 to go. This player had been making raises like this one very frequently. My friend reraised to $100. He had begun doing this quite frequently, in response to his opponent’s frequent raising. Everyone else at the table folded, grumbling about the two crazy people at the table, and the original raiser called.

The flop was Q 9 2.

His opponent checked, and my friend bet $200. His opponent then check-raised to $500. My friend moved all in, and got called.

My friend showed the K K, and his opponent had the Q 10.

Several observers at the table were shocked that the players had put more than 300 big blinds into the pot on the flop, and neither one had more than one pair. But they shouldn’t have been shocked. Strategic preflop reraising often sets hands like this one up. How does it work?

My friend noticed that the player on his right was raising preflop again and again. This player had to have been making these raises frequently with very weak hands. So, my friend decided to throw in a reraise anytime he had something decent (for example, a holding like the K 9). In most cases, everyone else would fold, and he would be heads up against his opponent. He would have position, could expect to have the stronger hand, on average, and also would likely have the advantage of more playing experience after the flop in reraised pots.

He could basically pick his opponent apart. He’d lose a few $200 pots on the flop, and would also win a few — probably more than he would lose. But, more importantly, he knew that his reraising would frustrate and confuse his opponent. Eventually, she’d make a mistake for her stack. When she made that mistake, he was lucky enough to have the pocket kings needed to take full advantage of it.

While he was lucky to have the overpair, that wasn’t the reason he won such a huge pot. His strategy of frequent preflop reraising laid the foundation for the big win.

Many players could win more stacks with a few simple changes to their strategies. Try these plays in your game and see if you start winning more yourself.

Ed’s brand-new book, Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em, is available for purchase at smallstakesnolimitholdem.com. He is a featured coach at stoxpoker.com, and you can also check out his online poker advice column, notedpokerauthority.com.