Poker News

Ashley Adams

It was Thanksgiving night at Foxwoods. I played short-handed $20/40 stud for a few hours. My experiences there might prove instructive for you. The house cut the rake down to $2.00 maximum instead of the customary $4.00. Even so, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to play. My game is built around extracting profit from bad players. Were the other three players who remained bad enough for me to make a profit?

I determined that they were. Even so, my general strategy had to change. Moves that make sense at a full table don’t make sense short-handed - and vice versa. Let me share the differences with you here.

A full table is largely a practice in patience - as you wait for the very strong conventional hands. You bet those strongly - exploiting the tendencies of your bad opponents to call along with lesser hands - chasing with lower pairs or flush draws primarily. They catch sometimes and you lose. But more often you win. The difference is, generally, a profitable hourly rate. You need to throw in a bluff every now and again because stealing the antes and bring-in can be profitable. And you need to bet with sub-premium hands from time to time lest your opponents figure you out as a rock and refuse to give you action.

Short-handed is different! You cannot just wait for the same high quality starting hands - the premium pairs and trips. But you do not bluff more either, though many think that this is correct. They are wrong. Let me explain.

You should bluff less because stealing the antes and the bring-in is less profitable as a tactic. Unlike hold ?em, the size of the initial pot is smaller, the fewer players you have. A full $20/40 game has $29 in it to start ($3 in antes per player plus $5.00 bring-in). A four-handed game has only $17. Your ante steal will win you only about 45% less in the short game - making it less worthwhile.

But you will be playing many more hands than in a conventional game. This is because you will be betting more hands for value. You can raise, for example, with your medium pairs like 9s and 8s and 7s - especially when they have big kickers like Kings and Aces. If you are in late position and it is folded to you, you can also raise with any pair, regardless of your kicker (though a kicker bigger than your opponent’s hand is always a plus).

You also need to be more aware of the specific tendencies of your opponents. In a full game, this is usually less important, as having the large number of opponents makes each of them relatively less important. But with only three opponents, you have many more opportunities of exploiting each of their weaknesses.

For example, some players will bluff more frequently when it is short-handed. Play back strongly against them if it’s just you and he. Many players will fold to any counter pressurewhen they are on a bluff.

You may also be against players who haven’t adjusted at all to the short structure. Bet aggressively against them as well - bluffing more to take advantage of their ultra-tight play. Be careful, of course of the other people still left to act. But be willing to push around those who are too tight for short play. Some players refuse to play in anything but a full game.

With some adjustment to your play, however, these shorthanded games can be even more profitable than a full game - because of all of the extra hands an hour you will be playing.

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