Short-handed Strategy

BLIND DEFENSE AND STEALS
Defending blind steals: Playing the blinds well against a possible blind steal is very difficult. For one, playing the player is much more important. One of the many benefits of playing shorthanded is you get to improve your reading skills. This will transfer well when you move up limits, which tend to have better players (but still plenty fish in the sea).

If you suspect a steal, call with anything connected, anything suited, ace rag, king good kicker. If you feel like being aggressive, you can reraise with the slightly better hands and bet out on the flop no matter what comes. Most of the time I'll bet out on the flop if I suspect it's a steal. If they reraise, I'll relook at the board and put them on a hand. Playing the blinds against a steal is very dependent on your read on the player, so you just need to be in this situation lots of times before you get good.

Against thinking tight aggressive players I’ll reraise preflop. You may be dominated, you may not be. But the point is when you reraise, even with hands just barely callable, you are telling that player to screw off and not try again next time. Postflop, it is a constant battle of betting, check raising, check calling, reraising, capping, the whole deal. Your reading skills are put to the test!

Against passive players tight and loose, if you like your hand enough then call, and bet out on the flop. Fold to a raise. These players are too straightforward to try any tricky plays. If they call, they are probably on a draw. So bet the turn again if it’s a blank, and they will probably fold. If they call again, bet marginal and better hands. Check/call weak hands. Check/fold high card hands unless it's AK or AQ etc.

Against loose aggressives, well either call down, or go into a raising war. They will often show you crap at the showdown, but that doesn't mean they won't hit 2 pair with 53o. I like to call the preflop bet, and then call down with marginal hands, and fold everything else.

It takes lots and lots of experience to play well against blind steals. And since they happen infrequently, you can’t really assess how good your blind play is until you have a shitload of hands. You expect to break even in the long run…which beats losing all those blinds.

And a further note, heads up, ace high is a pretty good hand, especially if the board is ragged. Your opponents probably raised with face cards. With all unders you can be pretty sure they missed too. AK and AQ are strong hands because they don't run into kicker problems.

Blind stealing: Being in position is a huge advantage when you are blind stealing. You get to see what your opponents are doing. If you flop a monster, and they are defending their blinds, and they bet out, you can wait for the turn, and raise them there. You can take free cards, and do free showdowns. Bet if you think there’s more than a 50% chance they’ll fold or you have the best hand. Take the free cards and free showdowns if you think there is very little chance they’ll fold, and you have a weak hand.

BLUFFING: Most of the time you'll be playing against loose passive players with table selection. Don't bother bluffing at the lower limits, they won't fold. Even with lowest pair they will call you down. However, if you have a read of the player and you think there's a good chance they will fold, then you can bet. I rarely do stone cold bluffs unless it's heads up for a fight over the blinds and I only have ace high. Your success bluffing more than one person goes straight down the drain. Let's say your chances of bluffing one of them is 60%. You will only be able to bluff both of them successfully (0.60)(0.60) = 36% of the time. As you can see, with each additional player your success goes way down.

INDUCING BLUFFS: Say you have middle pair, but with a very crappy kicker. The board isn't coordinated at all. It's 4 handed, and everyone checks the flop. Everyone checks the blank turn. The blank river falls, and then someone early bets for no apparent reason at all. The 2 after him fold, and it's your turn. Since you close the action, you should call. The pot is laying 3:1, so if you think the bluffer is bluffing more than 25% of the time, you're theoretically making money on the call.

Now, switch roles. The bluffer bets, the person after folds, and now it's your turn (so one person after you left). Do not call in this situation, because you do not close the action. If you can only beat a bluff, you should raise to make the person after you fold.

As you can see, doing something like above is what drives the variance up for shorthanded games. You shouldn't attempt it until you have significant experience. But sometimes, you just have that gut feeling, "yeah this guy is bluffing." Call them down. You need to win many small pots as well as big pots. In full ring games you don't give a crap about these little pots because your A2s limping in with 8 other players will pay you off huge when you hit, and it only costs you 1 small bet.

Now this isn't to say you should try and win EVERY pot you're in even the small ones. This situation is special because no one has shown aggression, and then a river bet comes out of no where. If someone early bet the flop, and 2 people called, and you called as well. The turn was no help, and early position bets again, 1 folds, and the other calls. You should fold. With middle pair weak kicker, you probably won't win against an aggressor and a caller.

Free showdown vs Cheap showdown
Some of you may be confused about how I'm describing the "free showdown." I'm not even sure if I am using the correct term. In SSH it mentions the "cheap showdown." This is when you use the free card play, and plan to check behind on the river again if you miss.

I'm describing the "free showdown" as betting/raising the flop, so they check to you on the turn, where you bet again. So this will induce them to check yet again to you on the river, when THEN you can check behind for a "free" showdown.

I personally don't like the cheap showdown because it feels ackwardly weak. It does have it's uses, but I think even betting on the turn with overcards is often still a value bet, and thus you are making the correct move by betting because you have the current best hand.

THE LAST POST: Well..probably the last, I can't think of anything else to post about. About the only thing left is about reading people. I don't think this skill can really be taught. Like Johnny Chan says, you need that poker instinct. If there's anything 6max will do is it will improve your reading skills ten fold. So...just keep playing and let experience take care of training your reading skills.

SUMMARY: Preflop: - play tight early position, play looser late position - almost always raise first in - play very tight against a raise...fold or reraise most of the time (cold call if there are lots of people in the pot and implied odds warrant it). - protect your marginal hands by raising or check-raising - build pots with your strong draws, bet into loose opponents, check call tight opponents - some loose calls are ok if you close the action

Turn and River: - continue betting into callers, just because they call doesn't mean they have anything - don't slow down until raised back, reraise and cap all monster draws - take free cards with weak draws, take free showdowns with stronger draws

Position: - tend to play passively hands in early and middle position - tend to play aggressively hands in late position - if you are going to call in middle position, raise if there's a good chance you can get the button to fold

Hand values: - it takes a lesser hand to win against 2 opponents, and takes a monster hand to win against 5 opponents, so adjust accordingly

Protecting your hand: - bet and raise marginal hands if it will make players after you make unprofitable calls, or fold a better hand - if the pot is big, just call the flop, and raise the turn on a safe card to induce bigger mistakes by your opponents - from SSHE, raising when you should call can cost you one bet, but calling when you should raise can cost you the entire pot.

Blind steals and defense: - take a shot at the blinds with decent hands - defend your BB with anything good, even ace high

Swings: - 300BB is the absolute minimum you should have. 100BB swings up and down are not uncommon

Bluffing: - don't bother trying to bluff more than one opponent - bluff if the chance they will fold is greater than 50% - induced bluffs (ie bets from opponents that come out of no where) you should call with marginal to weak hands if you close the action, and raise if you can only beat a bluff but there are people after you

General: - if they don't raise, my hand is still best - every time you hit the call you should question why you did it...was it a long shot call, or are you just calling to find out what they hold? - how much you start calling is a good indicator if you're playing properly or playing on tilt
- try and adapt a bet/raise/fold mentality, call only when necessary - play aggressively in big pots, passively in small pots - do not fold for 1 bet in big pots, you only need to be right more than 8% of the time, expect to catch a crappier hand or a bluff much more often than that - don't worry about being slowplayed, playing aggressively makes you fall prey to traps...pay off with confidence! You won't get slowplayed enough for it to be a problem. Most importantly, pot size is what drives all your decisions