How to Play Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em Properly

Position Even More Important

It should be pretty apparent that position is the most important factor in poker. If that isn’t obvious to you, stop reading this article and go read this one:

• How Not to Suck at Poker: Play in Position

Position becomes even more ridiculously important when the stacks are deep.

If your decisions were hard out of position before, just wait until the pot is 150 BBs on the turn, you both have 300 BBs left in your stack and you are out of position.

That decision is going to be very difficult. And that’s just it: playing in position makes everything easier for you.

You get to have the final say whether you want to raise, check, bet or call.

When you’re out of position, you’re left guessing. And when you’re left guessing with deep stacks, you’re going to end up making mistakes.

When you make mistakes, you lose money. It’s as simple as that.

Deep Stacks Change Hand Values

Deep stacks change the value of hands drastically. With a 20 BB stack, a hand like A-J can be very strong.

When you hit a flop, your opponent will likely call off your small stack with a potentially worse hand. And when you’re behind, you only lose that same small amount.

When the stacks are deep, your opponent is not going to want to put in a lot of money with a one-pair hand that you can beat. So when you win, you win small. When you lose, though, you lose big.

Try playing three streets on ace-high boards with A-J. The times you win, it will be a small pot. Those times you lose, you’re going to lose a boatload.

Top Pair Hands Go Down in Value

That being the case, top pair hands go down in value in deep-stack poker. But that doesn’t mean you should stop playing them.

They’re still valuable – you just need to play smart, exercise pot control and of course maximize your time playing in position!

If top pair hands go down in value, which hands go up?

Big-pot hands do – hands like suited connectors and pocket pairs. Hands that make sets, straights, flushes or full houses all drastically rise in value.

With deeper stacks there’s just more money to be won with big-pot hands.

In deep-stack situations, implied odds are through the roof because betting on the turn and river is almost guaranteed.

So in reality, a hand like 8 9  is more valuable to you on the button than A 10  would be from early position.

Putting It All Together

The “secret” is to put those two concepts together.

You want to play your big pots in position with big-pot hands.

You want to control the size of the pot when you have one-pair type hands, and you want to build big pots with big hands in position.

Let’s look at a few examples.

Why Deep Stacks and Suited Connectors Go Hand in Hand

This hand is a great example of why deep stacks and suited connectors go hand in hand.

When you hit, you have the potential to win huge pots. When the stacks are deep, hand value normalizes.

It becomes less about the cards and more about how you play them – skill is put back into the game.

When the stacks are deep you also have room to get creative with a wider range of hands because there is such a huge upside.

Weak Ace Out of Position is Doomed From the Get-Go

As for your opponent’s play? Well, he was doomed from the get-go. Playing a weak ace from out of position with deep stacks is always a recipe for disaster.

Also, he got married to his hand and you put him to tough decisions the entire way down. Out of position, it’s difficult to know where you stand and deep stacks worsen the situation.

If the stacks were a shallower, say 100 BB or less, chances are the money would have been in on the turn.

Because the stacks were deeper he was forced to call that would-be all-in bet on the turn and yet another larger river bet to see if his hand is good.

Now let’s look at a top-pair style hand.

Example #3

$1/$2 NL Full Ring. Effective stacks $600.

UTG limps. You make it $8 with A Q . He flat-calls and you take a flop heads-up. $19 in the pot.

Board comes A 7 8 . He checks and you bet $13. He flat-calls.

$45 in the pot now. The turn comes 2 . He checks, you check behind.

The river comes 6 . He bets out $35, you flat-call.

He shows 7 7  and his set rakes in the $115 pot.

By being in position you control everything. You eliminated the turn as a round of betting and only allowed him to get one real street of value in. You have the last say in everything.

He, on the other hand, is in a tough spot. Out of position, he chose to slow-play the flop and once you check the turn the pot is small. He can’t very well bet $200 into a $45 pot so he is forced to bet a reasonable amount.

An amount that, thanks to your expert pot control, is easily callable.

I know what you’re thinking: If I play all my top pair hands super weak and all my big hands strong, won’t I be easily read by my opponents?

They’ll just fold when I bet big and call when I bet small.

True, if you always play that predictably.

Of course you should always mix up your play – so occasionally you will have to bet three streets for value with TPTK or run up a three-barrel bluff.

This is just a rough guide on how to play deep stacks.

It is not a cover-all, push chart. For deep-stacked poker, no such chart exists. Deep-stacked poker is an art that needs to be played by feel.

The only thing that can truly help you master deep-stack strategy is experience and the willingness to learn.

If you put in the time to review your hands played and constantly try to come up with the optimum way to play hands, you’ll be unstoppable.

What to Remember for Deep Stack Poker

The more you put your opponent to tough decisions and the more you avoid tough decisions yourself, the more time you’re going to spend stacking chips and the less time you’ll spend second-guessing yourself.

Calculating Risk and Reward in Multi-Street Pots

One of the most challenging aspects of deep-stack play is determining when to push your edge and when to remain cautious. From a theoretical perspective, analyzing ranges on every street becomes critical. Many professionals today employ game theory optimal (GTO) principles to remain balanced, ensuring that their range is not overly skewed toward bluffs or nut holdings in any situation. However, an exploitative mindset can still be profitable when you identify opponents who deviate significantly from GTO norms. If someone is folding too often to big river bets, you can increase your bluff frequency. Conversely, if you see them paying off large bets with marginal hands, you should open up your value-betting range.

Equally important is bet sizing. In a deep-stack environment, carefully chosen sizings can manipulate the pot’s growth to your advantage. Underbetting the flop might lure an opponent to call with hands that become dominated by the turn or river. Conversely, a healthy overbet on the river can force opponents into hero-calling or making painful folds. By consistently evaluating the pot odds and potential implied odds, you can plan your line from pre-flop onward, funneling the action toward a final street that maximizes your expected value.