If you have played much poker, you have probably heard the expression, "All you need is a chip and a chair." It is part of poker mythology that this expression was coined after the greatest comeback in the history of the World Series of Poker: The main event victory of Jack Strauss in 1982. It was early in the second day of the big game that year when Jack was dealt a hand he liked and pushed all his chips into the middle. He got one caller and lost the hand. As Jack got up to leave he discovered that hidden under his napkin was a $500 chip he missed, and since he had never actually said "all in" the tournament directors agreed he could continue to play with the single chip. Jack then went on an incredible rush and ended up winning the tournament.
Many tournament players just give up when they get far behind in their chip counts. It's like they no longer really believe they can win, so they just start playing mediocre cards hoping to get lucky. What you should do when you find yourself short stacked is conserve your chips because you are looking for a spot to double up. If you are down to $1000 and the big blind is $100, don't limp in with speculative hands like suited connectors or medium pairs because you will not want to go all-in with these hands if someone raises you. Even if you see the flop you most likely won't hit it and again you have to throw your hand away.
In ring games, chips have absolute value. A $100 chip is worth $100. In tournaments chips relative value. A $100 bet represents 10% of the stack of someone with only $1,000 in a tournament and should not be made with anything less than a premium hand, whereas to the tournament player with $20,000 a $100 bet is a threat to less than 1% of their stack, so it may be okay to take a chance with a range of speculative hands. As a short stack you can make this work to your favour by waiting to get a good hand to play, knowing a big stack might call you with a lesser hand because those chips are not worth as much to them.
The rule of thumb I've heard the professionals use is that once your stack is down to ten times the blinds (i.e. you have $1,500 and the blinds are 100/50) it is time to start looking for hands to go all in pre-flop with. By doing this one of three things will happen and two of them are good. (1) You get called and lose (bad). (2) You get called and win (good). (3) Everyone folds and you get the blinds (good).
What hands are good to go all-in with in this situation? Well, you can't be too picky but you definitely do not want to make your all in move with pocket 8's or lower. Even though your stack won't cripple anyone, in my experience people will only call a pre-flop all in with either a decent pocket pair or Ace with a face card. So by going in with small pairs you will either be called by a larger pair (which makes you a terrible underdog) or by the big ace, in which case it's a coin flip. So you will probably lose more often than you will win in this situation.
AK is the perfect hand to go all in with. If you get called by a weaker ace, then you are a big favourite. If you get called by a smaller pair, you still have nearly a 50% chance of hitting an ace or king by the river. The important point is that you will see all five board cards because you went all in. If you don't go all-in, then if you miss the flop (likely) you have a tough decision to make if you are raised. Better to just pot-commit yourself with the all-in.
Big pairs? Should the poker gods smile and deal you AA or KK, you may then want to play the odds that you will probably still be ahead after the flop. Do not go all in, but make the largest bet you think will be called. Then, depending on the texture of the flop and your opponents, you can decide to try to extract more money with a value bet or protect your lead and push them out.
QQ? JJ? 10-10? I'm usually all in pre-flop. I might not shove with 10-10 if I think I'll be up against two or more opponents because I'm probably up against three or more overcards, which makes me an underdog.
Of course this is very general advice. What you decide to play will depend a lot on your position, but what you must be thinking is that any hand good enough to play is good enough to go all in with at this point.
No matter how short stacked you are, never, never, never, never give up. I promise that if you commit yourself to being the best short-stack player you can possibly be you will achieve some amazing comebacks. Being a great short-stack player is the difference between being a losing tournament player over the course of your life and being a winner.
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