Push-Fold Strategy: Short Stack Tournament Play

## Short Stack Push-Fold Strategy When your stack drops below 10-12 big blinds in a tournament, you enter push-fold territory. At this point, you either shove all-in or fold — there is no room for standard raising and postflop play. Mastering push-fold is essential for tournament success. Push-fold decisions depend on your stack size (in big blinds), your position, the cards you hold, and the tendencies of players yet to act. Nash equilibrium push-fold charts provide optimal shove ranges for every situation. At 10bb, shove approximately 25-30% of hands from the button and small blind. At 6bb, widen to 40-50%. At 3bb, shove nearly any two cards from late position because the blinds and antes represent a significant percentage of your stack. ## Tournament Rakeback Reminder Tournament buy-in fees count toward your rakeback tier at most rooms. When evaluating tournaments, factor in the effective discount from your rakeback percentage. A $10+$1 tournament at 40% rakeback effectively costs $10.60 after rakeback — a meaningful savings over thousands of entries.