Short-handed Strategy

GENERAL FLOP COMMENTS:
Playing the flop well is crucial because most of the time, if you are playing the flop, you are playing the turn and river too. You do not want to make it costly to play the later streets. Read the board, and look for possible draws and put your opponents on hands (even the unlikely ones). The reason to be aggressive is because besides winning a bigger pot when you have the best hand, and causing people to fold, you get INFORMATION.

Calling, is not information. To me, calling is "I like my hand." That's it. In fact I've played against players who wouldn't raise even though they hit their set. They held TT...didn't raise preflop. Hit the set on the flop, didn't bet. Turn didn't bet. Even the river they didn't raise it. Being aggressive will make you fall prey to slowplaying. Don't worry about it. Getting slowplayed doesn't happen often enough for it to be considered a problem.

Anyways, most of the time your opponents will just call. If anyone raises you, put them on a hand. Are they fish, or are they tight aggressive? If they are a fish, you can safely muck your hand on the turn if you don't improve knowing they are not capable of raising on a draw or semibluff. Against a tight aggressive, well trust in your read and hope you were right....reraise your best hands, muck marginal hands if the board is coordinated.

If you haven't noticed yet, it is difficult to make the right decision if you are up against a bet or raise. You need to make the decision to avoid folding the possible best hand, or paying off the better hand. You don't want to be in this position very often, that's why you should be more or less playing raise/fold. Be aggressive with a hand you want to play, fold everything else. Let your opponents make the mistakes. Fortunately at the lower limits you can to put your opponents in a situation to call unprofitably WAY MORE OFTEN than it is the other way around.

TURN PLAY: Now you've reach the turn. You like your hand enough to take it to the bigger streets. This is the time to make the laydown, or continue to the river. Never ever call down on curiosity. The turn is NOT the time to make loose calls. Loose calls should be restricted to the flop when it's still relatively cheap. Trust in your read. Don't waste 2 big bets to find out.

Early Position: Fairly simple if you have a monster...bet out. Playing marginal hands is more difficult. Did they just call the flop? Did they reraise you on the flop? Again, if no one else has shown aggression, my hand is best. I like to bet out on the turn with marginal hands good kicker to test the waters, if they raise, I am pretty sure I'm beat. Most players will not raise on the turn without the goods.

Middle Position: Most often by the turn it will be heads up. Sometimes it will end up 3 handed. Anyways, you want a decent hand here because you don't wanna be stuck between 2 aggressive players with a drawing hand. If early position bets, you can try buying the button by raising your marginal hands. But remember, the bet sizes are double now, so you must decide if it's worth risking that extra bet to win the pot. Most players will not bet out on the turn without a good hand.

Late Position: Well, if you bet or raised the flop, most likely they will check to you. You have a choice between the free card and the free showdown. Do the free showdown against weak tight players (because they can make laydowns), and do the free card against calling stations (because they won't fold). If someone early bets, depending on your read, call down or fold. I don't like it when someone else takes the steering wheel, so I'll tend to fold if I can't be the aggressor. Before I finish up river play, I think I should mention how hand values differ from full ring.
HAND VALUES:
monster = top pair top kicker or better
good hand = top pair weak kicker
marginal hand = mid pair good kicker
bad hand = everything else (only the very best players can play mid pair crappy kicker profitably, so don't try it until you have the experience)

As you can see, the monster category is a lot lower than in full ring. Top pair top kicker very rarely wins the pot in full ring. The main reason for this is because in full ring the blinds come very slowly, so you can be VERY selective of what hands you play. Also, often with more limpers and a passive preflop game, longhanded lets speculative hands like suited cards, lower pockets, connectors, etc. to play profitably, and cheaply.

Those hands just don't get lucky enough to be profitable shorthanded because there isn't enough dead money in the pot. Avoid them unless there are multiple limpers with you having the button.

In summary, the average winning hand is a function of the number of players seeing the flop. Most of the time only 3 or sometimes 4 people see the flop shorthanded, and it thins to 3 or 2 on the turn and river. With fewer players, you need a lesser hand to win. However, if you happen to find yourself in a very loose shorthanded table, like 5 or 6 people seeing the flop all the time, move your hand values up. A single pair will not win very often.

RIVER PLAY

You've made it this far. There's almost no folding now. The pots by this time are big enough for you to call down with almost anything. If people were passive through all streets, then you can consider folding (because the pot will be small). However, if someone bets into you, and you only hold mid pair top kicker, what should you do?
I consider a big pot to contain 10BB or more. With 1BB back to you, you are getting 11:1 odds to call. In other words, you only need to beat the bettor 8.3% of the time for this call to be profitable. You CANNOT fold unless you are over 90% sure you are beat. Almost no read is that accurate. Maybe if the board was 4 flush with 4 to a straight you can fold. Otherwise you shouldn't fold. You will be constantly surprised with the crap your opponents are playing.