At any poker online table there is one position that no player ever wants to be in. That position is that of the short stack. The number of inherent disadvantages with being the short stack is numerous and it can have a very negative impact both because it limits your options but also because it is a psychologically damaging place to be. Getting out of being the short stack requires a lot of work and a bit of luck but you can claw your way back into play at the table if you do what needs to be done.

The first thing that you have to do to get out of the short stack is to do whatever you can to avoid confrontation with the deep stacks at the table, unless the confrontation is very much in your favor. So, depending where you are sitting at the table, you should try to play as many of the hands you can play from late position when they are not participating in the hand. The players with the deepest stacks have the biggest advantage over you, the short stack, so trying to play against people who have stacks that are not too much larger than yours is ideal. It helps to even the playing field, which is exactly what you need.

The next thing you have to remember is that every single chip counts. Every chip that goes into your PokerStars stack and every chip that leaves are important and, because of its relative size to your stack, more important to you than it is to players with more chips. Stealing those blinds is a lot more enticing a proposition when you do not have many blinds left in your stack. By that same token, getting into pots with hands that do not have a good chance of a positive return is disastrous because you cannot afford to lose those chips.

As the short stack, you cannot afford to lose hands and take risks that have chances to lose hands for you. When sitting on a short stack, you should be playing as tight as you ever play because that tightness is what is going to claw you back from the abyss and having to rebuy. If you can win a pot, win it right there. Do not sit around trying to squeeze out potential chips, or let your opponents get cards. If you think you can take it right there, do not hesitate. As the short stack, you, ideally, want to win every single hand that you have chips at stake in and avoid hands that might cause you to get into trouble.

Getting out of the short stack can be daunting and problematic for a lot of poker players but it is something that every good player learns how to do. It is a hard position to find yourself in, staring down big towers of chips when you only have a few in front of you, but if you can learn to get yourself back in the game, you will spend a lot less money on rebuys.