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Shorthanded Strategy - Texas Hold’em
What to do:
1) If you want to play shorthanded, you need to learn to bet and raise, so you control the table as much as possible.
2) If you are in doubt what to do – then bet. If your hand are worth a call, its worth a bet.
3) Try do get a good read on your opponents, what betting patterns they have, and react according to this.
4) Make check-raise an important part of your game, so your opponents don’t try to run you over, especially on the turn.
5) Look for soft games. Too much raising is not good, unless you are the raiser. If people limp in, and call much, join the game.
6) Remember that values on drawing hands are decreasing in short games.
7) Mix up your game, all the time.
8) Never be satisfied with a win if your opponent is on a tilt - it’s moneymaking time! Go to bed when you tilt yourself, instead.
9) Find your opponents tendencies, and try to make money on all of them.
10) Find the players who will fold to very aggressive play. Some players adjust their starting hands requirements to shorthanded play, but fold too often to aggression.
11) Try always to be the last player to act, you can do this by re-raise instead of calling, and raise instead of call, when first in. You can much better control the game from the latest position.
12) Use continuation bets most of the time when you showed aggression before the flop.
13) Evaluate you game, and try to figure out if you have some betting patterns, which people can use against you.
14) Play the people, not the cards. This is how the best HU players win their money.
15) Be prepared for big swings on your bankroll compared to full table poker.
16) Try to use value betting more than normal, you will often get paid off from a worse hand, and you will get experience in this, and will get better and better results.
17) Don’t be afraid to bluff in shorthanded games, that’s a part of the game, and necessary if you want to make money.
What to avoid:
1) Don’t slowplay. People will pay you off anyway, and you will not get enough good hands to justify slowplaying or tight play.
2) Don’t be too predictable. If you use the same patterns, your opponents will immediately benefit from this.
3) Calling too much from small blind can be expensive. You are always out of position.
4) Playing too many small cards, especially suited connectors, can be dangerous.
5) Be careful with small pairs, don’t overplay them.
6) Don’t play your draws without getting the right odds. Be sure you have over-card possibilities as well, when you play these hands.
7) Don’t bluff the calling stations.
8) DON’T limp with big pairs.
9) Don’t cold call a raise. If you want to play the hand, its worth a raise, and you will be the one controlling the play.
10) Don’t make fancy plays too often.
11) Don’t get scared of the board if heads up. Your opponent don’t like these cards either
12) Don’t play too tight or you will slowly lose your money.
13) Don’t stay in the game, if you have the feeling that other players run you over. Quit and use your money better.
Now it's YOUR turn - please share your information, knowledge, theories - anything you might know about this thread's topic!
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This article was written either by poker player(s) within the BankrollMob team or external writers, not by the 'Administrator'.
Edited by Administrator (22 January 2010 @ 16:35 GMT)
Joined: Jan '10
Location: United States
Age: 59 (M)
Posts: 410
Shorthand stragedy is every players own book, no set rules to plays like someone says, If everyone plays by the book then the pros will kock them off, but that is my opinon
Most of the points listed here can apply to most poker in general. The SSS is under attack by several online sites due to the high rake u can generate as well as it's a perfect strategy for clearing bonuses.
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Australia
Age: 40 (M)
Posts: 6483
mm.. i love short handed poker. I almost never play FR. And I love the fact that on levels under nl100 everyone reads all this FR strategy and calls you a donk etc when you take their money with aggression. In nl50 & nl25 people try and play like total nits and there's only 4-6 people on the table. Easy $
just be careful playing nl$2 and above. People there rarely play TAG. Mostly LAG and it's much harder to get a read, a LOT more creative people playing mid stakes short hand than the nits you can exploit on the lower stakes..
top advice in this thread.
Edited by jessthehuman (23 January 2010 @ 14:05 GMT)
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Australia
Age: 40 (M)
Posts: 6483
Posted by DaneMitic: jess ur speechless?
lol my internet broke. I'm shaped atm and sometimes when I post it get's an error, normally it posts nothing at all, but sometimes posts blank.. I'm in the habit now of copying all the text i type before I submit post, because otherwise it all goes to oblivion..
Joined: Jan '08
Location: Croatia
Age: 47 (M)
Posts: 1308
Posted by GabeKaplan: Shorthand stragedy is every players own book, no set rules to plays like someone says, If everyone plays by the book then the pros will kock them off, but that is my opinon
I agree and you took words from my mouth with that
@JESSTHEHUMAAAN (read it with jamaican accent) shsshh
Joined: Apr '08
Location: Argentina
Age: 45 (M)
Posts: 748
Posted by psycokiller: Most of the points listed here can apply to most poker in general. The SSS is under attack by several online sites due to the high rake u can generate as well as it's a perfect strategy for clearing bonuses.
Honestly, I don't think they even care about this...they have a good flowing amount of rake getting in, and I don't think that would change much because of SSSers. In fact, I think sometimes SSSers generate bigger pots than they would with a big stack, hence more rake for the house...
WHy do people assume that poker sites get more rake of SSS players than anyone else. Thats utter nonsense..
THe rake is the same if you have 10 BBs or 50 BBs. And the fact you are short stacked means you are far more seective about what hands you play so are less likely to commit to the pot. Whereas if you have a larger stack you are more inclined to take a risk with a marginal hand because it doesnt make such a dent in a large stak as it does a small one.
And whats laughable is that people say the poker sites dont like it because it generates too much rake.. HELLO.. MCFLY !!!! Thats how poker sites make their money......
The reason pokersites dont like SSS is because it puts people off playing. People who are prepared to play with the max buy in are looking at a table full of shorstacks and thinking "I am expected to go play there and win pennies.... "
Thats why poker sites are trying to get rid of SSS because proper poker players are refusing to play because theres too many Short stack players... Thats why Ipoker have done what they did, because Ipoker was full of SSS players and all the players that wanted to play with proper money not pennies, were going elsewhere...
So whoever came up with the idea that rake has got anything to do with why poker sites dont like SSS is living in cuckoo land.. The more rake a site generates the happier the owners are..
