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SHORT-HANDED PLAY: DON’T MISS OUT
A majority of poker players shy away from short-handed games. That’s too bad. They miss out on some of the most stimulating and profitable poker there is. Short-handed play calls for more mix in your play, more deception, and often more psychology than ring game play. What’s more, you get to play a lot more hands! In all these ways, short-handed play has more of what many of us feel poker is all about.
MORE PROFIT SHORT-HANDED
I have just suggested that short-handed play can be more profitable than play in full game. If you are in doubt, consider this: A typical ring game may contain a couple of very good players, a couple of fair players, two or three mediocre players, and a couple of really bad players. Clearly, you can profit more from the bad players than from the others. In fact, many experts believe that the bulk of your profit in such games comes from the really bad and, to a lesser extent, the mediocre players.(*That said, I would not argue that short handed play is necessarily more complex, or requires much more skill than play in a full game). So wouldn’t you do better if the fair and very good players were not even in the game?
If you could take everyone else out and just play against the two really bad players, wouldn’t that be best of all? It would truly maximize your opportunities to make better decisions than your opponents. You can have this utopian poker situation – or close to it – when you play short-handed. Of course, you have to be a bit game selective. But in my experience, when games get short-handed, one or two bad or mediocre. But it does highlight different poker skills. Players frequently stay to play, and that’s all you need. If you are lucky you will be left with only a couple of bad players. Sometimes, however, another good player will stay as well. Still, the ratio of bad to good players can make this a good situation for you.
Bear in mind as well that lots of decent ring game players do not play so well short-handed. Also, some losing, loose, aggressive, ring game players do much better in a short-handed setting. Naturally, you factor in these points when assessing who is a “good” player in a short-handed game. Nevertheless, it may take only one weak short-handed player to make the situation worthwhile. On a number of occasions I have played three-handed with one of the best short-handed players I know. Obviously, the profit comes not from the tough player, but from the bad player who has opted to play in this game. Note that here I was in a game in which half of the other players played poorly. Another factor adding to your profit potential in short-handed games is the number of hands played per hour.
Though the pots are smaller, in a short-handed game you play many more hands per hour than in a full game. In which you are surrounded only by bad players, you do not have anything like this. In fact, in such a game you will frequently be sitting out hands, watching bad players trade their money around. Compare that to playing heads-up against a weak player. There you will have one opportunity after another to outplay and profit against a player whose decisions are worse than yours. (Note, however, the caution below about heads-up play). So when your poker game becomes short-handed, look at who is left. If you have been quitting when the game is actually rich in weak players, you’ve been making a bad play.
"The Best Player I' ve Ever Seen " / The Hit and Run Follies / An Illusory Winner /
On Randomness, Rushes, Hot Seats, and Bad Luck Dealers / Bad Beat? Think Again
Why Learn to Beat Tougher Games? / Practicing Game Preservation
Short-Handed Play: Don’t Miss out / How I Learned Poker: Part I
How I Learned Poker : Part II