Once your stack drops to 30 big blinds and below some fairly stiff rules start coming into play. This is really the core of tournament play as most of the time you'll be competing with stacks of 30 bigs and below. Understanding and applying the rules below will put you in good shape against most of the field, and even good players will have a hard time taking advantage of you as these rules are mathematically based and largely unexploitable when used well. You will still need to play good poker and adjust to whether your opponents are tight or loose, aggressive or passive, whether they call too often or fold too much, but overall, knowing these rules will increase your winnings regardless of who you play.
If you are using pokertracker, BB=2x the big blind, so you are actually winning.50 every 100 hands. I think HoldEm Manager uses 1 BB=1 big blind, so it would be.25 every 100 hands. The terms 'effective stack sizes' or 'effective stacks' are effortlessly thrown around on poker forums and in strategy articles. It sounds like a term that would be a little complex at least, but it's actually the easiest concept you'll ever learn about in poker.
30 Big Blinds
At 30 big blinds, it is no longer correct to three-bet and then fold. When a player open-raises, if you reraise (a three-bet) you will normally be getting better than 2-1 on the rest of your chips if they raise again. With 2-1 odds, there are very few hands that are not worth calling with against a normal opponent's range of possible hands. And if you have one of the hands that should fold, why were you three-betting in the first place?
You can no longer reraise a player you suspect is weak and fold than they show you otherwise, so don't get tricky with your three-bets; have a good hand and be prepared to go all in with it.
16-22 Big Blinds: Resteal & Squeeze Stack
This stack size is perfect for three-bet shoving (raising all in over a raiser you suspect is weak) and squeezing (shoving all in when one or more players have limped. The reason the stack size is good is because you still have enough chips to make opponents fold, but small enough so that the risk/reward ratio is very good—especially if antes have started going in. Once there is a limper or raiser in the pot, you can increase your stack size by a huge percentage just by getting folds. Considering that you will also win a certain number of times when you are called, this play is a very important one to have in your arsenal and is the reason you see people getting so aggressive with these medium stacks.
In live poker, stick to squeezes more than resteals. Live players tend to open much tighter (they play fewer and higher quality hands even when situations dictate looser play) and fold less often when raised. Since this play depends largely on getting folds, if a player won't fold, the play is no good. A limp from live players often means the player is just looking to see a flop cheap and will fold when you deny them this possibility.
Online, players overall are much more aggressive, and you won't get much of a chance to squeeze in the later stages of a tournament. However, that aggression means they're opening much looser and you can take advantage with resteals. You will get caught occasionally, but if a player opens for three times the big blind and the total antes equal one big blind, then you're going to win that plus the two blinds for a profit of five and a half big blinds: a 25%–34% increase in your stack. Not only is that a huge increase, but you'll also note it almost always gets you right back out of the resteal range. This means you'll be going right back to tight 30bb play and you'll continue to have a tight image if you drop back into the Resteal and Squeeze range.
If you're playing in a cash game that's capped, but is described as offering full buy-ins, you may be playing under the '100 BB' (Big Blind) rule. As an example, 100 big blinds in a $1/$2 game is $200, which is often the maximum allowed in this type of game. (Certain games can feature maximum buy-ins of 30, 35 or 40 big blinds, and these are generally referred to as 'short stack' games.) For general purposes this article is for cash games. Please see our article for the 10 bb rule in tournaments.
The 100 BB Importance
What's so important about the 100 big-blind level, and how did it come to be? First, it's easy math, and cashiers and chip runners like their jobs to be easy as possible. Second, and more importantly, a game featuring full buy-ins allows for the full gamut of strategy of no-limit poker to come into play. 100-BB cash-game poker is the complete game, allowing for bluffs, finesses, re-steals, squeezes, traps, and all the other bits and pieces that make poker such a dynamic game to play.
Keep it at This Amount
Because of this, many experienced players reload for another 100 BB in chips any time their chip stack falls below this level. Experienced, versatile (and properly-bankrolled) players perform at their best when they have lots of chips to work with, and at all times they can only win as much from another single player as the amount of chips their own stacks hold. The shortest stack at any given table has the least to lose… but he also has the least to win.
Another way to think of it is like this: If you are better than your opponents, you want to be able to win as many of their chips as possible. Because of this, you want to have all or many of them outchipped at any given time. We'll ignore the opposite for the most part and just note that if you're not better than most of your opponents, you're sitting at the wrong table.
Rule of thumb, Time to Rebuy
Another way to think of it is like this: If you are better than your opponents, you want to be able to win as many of their chips as possible. Because of this, you want to have all or many of them outchipped at any given time. We'll ignore the opposite for the most part and just note that if you're not better than most of your opponents, you're sitting at the wrong table.
Rule of thumb, Time to Rebuy
Bb Meaning In Poker Terms
The 100-BB rule, therefore, is simply a general reminder to good players that it might be time to rebuy and get some more chips into play. Maybe you've taken a bad beat, or two, or three, but if you can avoid tilt and you know your opponents are worse than you, remember that the cards themselves have no memory.
Bb Meaning In Poker Lingo
And go ahead and reload – another 100 BB's should do the trick.
Bb Meaning In Poker Tournament
Author:Joseph Falchetti (twitter)
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