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It’s a dirty job but someone has to do it, particularly when playing in poker tournaments; this is removing short stacked opponents. In a tournament every player benefits when an opponent is eliminated. If you are already in the money, you move up a place, in fact everyone left in the game moves up a place. So, there is a lot of incentive to removing an opponent if and when the opportunity arises. But there is more to it, than just getting players out of the game.

This doesn’t necessarily mean getting rid of players to get you closer to the prize, particularly in the instance of pay tournaments. It actually depends very much on how that opponent is stacked. If they are short stacked the general consensus is to get them out if you have the opportunity and other opponents will encourage you to do so.

This doesn’t mean changing your strategies, as early on in the game eliminating opponents is not a big deal, and it can be expensive. You have to make sure that the timing is right and you are doing this for all the right reasons. It is a bad poker concept to believe that knocking out your opponents early is the only way to play.

In an attempt to eliminate a short stacked opponent, some poker players will play hands that they shouldn’t be playing. By making eliminations the focus of your game and betting or raising where you wouldn’t normally, your own game may suffer; no matter if the other players get annoyed with you or not. If they want an opponent out of a tournament and you have a different strategy, let them get him out.

If you think about the fact that there is often more to lose than to gain in getting an opponent out, think about it this way. For every eight to ten time you try to get an opponent out you may on average succeed once. This costs you valuable chips! Elimination should only occur when there is a major advantage involved, if you have a garbage hand, why waste your stack? In actual fact this may offer the short stacked players more opportunities to climb up the money ladder and beat you to the final table.

It doesn’t matter if you have a big stack, you should never call merely for the sake of it and just think, you will still be in a similar position – there are remaining competitors. Sacrificing your poker stack to get someone else out is like cutting off your nose to spite your face if your hand is shaky.

In the later stages of a tournament, there will be a lot more benefit to intentionally removing your opponents. Just be wary because a short stacked poker player is often a desperate player and they may have something up their sleeve to beat you. Particularly if you are obvious about eliminating them! Simply look for the opportunities to isolate them and be careful if the tournament allows re-buys. You just never know if they have someone waiting in the sidelines to provide them with a new stack of chips.