‘Short stacking’ is a controversial tactic which is mainly found in online poker, where a player will join a table with very few chips before then trying to quickly double their money. Although the tactic is not strictly against any rules, it is hugely unpopular amongst most players, who look to enjoy a friendly, competitive and skilful game of poker. Due to the tactics involved in short stacking, the practice almost exclusively takes place in No Limit Texas Hold’em.

Whereas most players will buy into a ring game with enough big blinds to ensure that they will be able to play multiple hands without necessarily winning, short stackers will only buy in for the minimum amount of a couple of big blinds. They will then fold hand after hand until they are dealt a good starting pair of cards, such as a pocket pair or a strong ace, and then commit all of their chips to the pot. If the short stacker wins the hand, they will usually sign off from the table and take their winnings or continue to try to double up.

Short stacking takes place almost exclusively in online poker rooms for two reasons. Firstly land based poker rooms often have much higher minimum buy-in levels than virtual rooms, and secondly the tactic is so frowned upon players who short stacked in a live game would be removed from the table in most rooms. In order to combat the problem, many leading online poker rooms offer cash tables with high minimum buy-in levels.