Six appeal

Let’s face it – nobody plays poker to fold hand after hand for hours on end. But in full ring games it’s nearly always correct strategy to do so, as most of the time there are better hands out there. In short-handed games, though, playing lots of hands and winning a number of pots is not only recommended, it’s imperative – just to stay even!

Short-handed games (typically six-max) are a dream for good poker players for a couple of reasons. First, with a lot more hands per hour there are so many more great opportunities to own opponents. Secondly, weaker players (often gambling types) get drawn towards the games seeking action, aggression and big pots!

Short-handed is not for the faint-hearted, though, and you’ll need to tweak, hone and adapt your usual playing style in order to succeed at the faster format. Follow these 10 tips and apply them carefully and you will quickly become a shark in your new and frenetic waters.

1 POWER OF POSITION

Position is the most important consideration in short-handed poker, simply because you get to see what the other players do before you act. It enables you to control the pot size, keeping it small with marginal hands, and building a big pot when you’re sitting on a monster. When playing out of position always ensure you’re playing with stronger hands to make up for your positional deficiency.

2 HAND SELECTION

Common errors in short-handed games include playing too tight or too loose. The most profitable players tend to play around 20-25% of hands, tightening up in early position and loosening their game on the button and in the cut-off. In early position you should look to open the pot with any pair, any big Ace, and maybe K-Qs and K-Js. As you move closer to the button you can open up your starting hand requirements. Providing you’re first to enter the pot, or there has been just one limper, you should open with anything playable on the button (see hand range chart above). As you can see this is anything that figures to be the best hand against the blinds, or has a lot of potential.

3 BE THE AGGRESSOR

Whenever you enter a pot in short-handed cash games it should be with a raise. This will enable you to take down a lot of pots uncontested and stop the blinds seeing a free flop with their trash hands. The button and the cut-off will be your most profitable positions so play them both aggressively.

4 CONTINUATION BETS

If you raise pre-flop you’ll often have control of the pot post-flop, as players will usually check to the pre-flop raiser. A decent-sized continuation bet of around 70 percent of the pot will win you the hand on the flop more often than not. If you find yourself being check-raised or check-called, you should often slow down and reassess the situation on the turn. Remember, your opponent will only hit the flop around a third of the time so this play will be profitable in the long run.

5 PLAYING THE BLINDS

The blinds are the most unprofitable positions at the table, so avoid playing too many hands from them. Defending with a re-raise is the strongest move to make, as you want to take the pot down there and then; calling will just give you problems as you’ll be out of position for the rest of the hand. If you do decide to call make sure it’s with a hand like K-Qs, as late position raisers will often have worse hands and make continuation bets on flops that come King- or Queen-high.

6 TARGET THE WEAK PLAYERS

Identify the weak players and try to get into pots with them. It won’t take you long to find these players as they make the same mistakes time and again. They will often limp and play hands passively by checking and calling on many streets. Exploit them by using your position and aggression to force mistakes, and make sure you figure out their tendencies. How do they play their draws? How do they play their big pairs? What does it mean when they check-raise?

7 RE-RAISE SIZING

When re-raising out of position from the blinds it’s important you size your bet correctly. The last thing you want to do is allow a player in position to call you with their marginal holdings because you’ve given them pot odds to do so! If you’re playing a $1/$2 no-limit Hold’em game and the button has raised to $7 you should be looking to re-raise to around $23-$25 (or about four times their bet). This will give them insufficient odds to call you with anything but the goods. When re-raising in position you can get away with raising less (around three times their bet) as you will have position on the original raiser for the rest of the hand. It’s important to create pots in position and to try to take pots down out of position. The deeper-stacked you are the more important this becomes.

8 BLIND WARS

Inexperienced players often make the mistake of limping in the small blind when it’s been folded to them to try and see a cheap flop. Playing the small blind is often very situational. If there’s a tight player in the big blind, don’t be afraid to raise to try and take the pot down there and then. Conversely, if there’s a loose player in the blinds, tighten up your hand requirements and raise less frequently. When you’re the BB and there’s a habitual limper in the SB punish that player by making a 4x raise with a wide range of hands. This will often lead to him folding, or playing a large pot out of position.

9 PSYCHOLOGY

Short-handed play can be fast and furious and you can frequently find yourself in tough situations. As a result dramatic swings occur more often than in full ring games, so don’t be shocked to find yourself three or four buy-ins up or down in one session. You have to be aware of this so that you don’t end up going on tilt!

10 BANKROLL

You’ll find that in short-handed games there will be a lot more marginal situations; making the right decisions in these spots can increase your win rate in the long run, but can also increase the variance in the short-term. Often you’ll find yourself all-in with an overpair or two-pair against a combo draw, which you could easily lose. Therefore it’s advisable to have a bankroll of at least 30 buy-ins to cover you for the most treacherous of downswings. So if you’re playing a $1/$2 no-limit Hold’em game and buying in for $200 each time, you’d need a $6,000 bankroll to play comfortably.

Tools of the trade

Pokerstove is a great analysis tool to use after a poker session. Let’s say a tight-aggressive player has raised under the gun, it’s folded to you on the button, and you’re holding A-J offsuit. Pokerstove enables you to compare how much equity your hand has against the range of hands the raiser may be holding. As you can see (right), in this spot you are probably behind the range of the under the gun raiser – 44.6% vs 55.3% – so you’d be better off folding the hand since you have no money invested in the pot. Pokerstove is a useful tool to play around with and compare hands against each other. What’s more, it’s free, so there’s no excuse not to use it. Go to www.pokerstove.com to download the program.