Secrets of the Amateurs

When you're short-stacked, another important factor is your position. How many players are still to act behind you. Each extra player is another player who can wake up with a hand, or decide to be the hero and call just to knock you out. Most players will adjust a little to a raise from the button or the small blind, but generally not enough, and there are many who don't really care where the raise came from, they'll call if their hand is better than a certain fixed minimum.

This will become more apparent when I do the Maths in more detail (soon - be patient !). Even if I'm short stacked, I don't like to move in with more than 4 people still to act unless I have a real hand (at least AJ for a non-paired hand, except when I'm so short that I have to move this round). In one of Richard's comments below, he says that many players will move in with "any ink on their cards" with four people still to act - and no doubt they do, in the smaller comps, but I don't recommend it. The more players still to act, the more chance someone will find a good hand. And there is exponentially more chance that two people can find hands behind you, which can cause you to be almost dead pre-flop (for example with A8 against AQ and TT).