Death by Short Stack by Texter

Two times in the last two days I've made the same boneheaded play. Since I can't get money into poker sites due to the Neteller situation my funds are severely limited, so instead of dropping down to a lower level I decided to buy in at the minimum.

So I actually win a few small pots, when I get dealt JJ in the middle position. No one has come into the pot yet and I raise it 3.5x the Big Blind. Everyone folds to the Big Blind who calls my bet. The flop comes down 8-6-2, and the big blind bets out approximately half the pot. I decide to raise to see where I am so I bet about 3x his raise. He then proceeds to go allin.

This is where buying in at the minimum is a huge mistake, I now only have about 1/10th of the pot in my stack so I'm committed to calling, even though I am 95% sure that I'm beaten. Sure enough he had QQ and I'm busted. If I had bought in at the max I could've easily folded, but I basically cost myself due to the stubborness in not going down a level.

Then like a total dummy, I bought in short again the next day, get KJ in the BB, call a 4x preflop raise, flop comes J93, and get busted in exactly the same way...this time by AA.

Well, it wasn't too expensive but I've certainly learned my lesson. For most players, buying in short is a bad bad idea.