Playing Shorthanded

By "shorthanded," I am referring to situations with five or fewer players. Many people think that good players should seek shorthanded games because of what they hear and read about poker. They see high-limit games that are frequently shorthanded. They read about the big tournaments in which one player is heads up with another player and thousands of dollars are at stake. To people who are not really familiar with poker, it seems natural that the better the player, the more he should want to play shorthanded, since his advantage should be larger. But to understand why shorthanded play is a mixed blessing to a good player, we need to understand why a good player has an advantage over a bad player.

One of the biggest edges that the good player has is his preflop play. The good player does not play very many hands, especially from early position, before the flop. The bad player does. Consider a hand like K-10 offsuit. In a full game, the good player rarely plays this hand. Unless he can limp in from late position, steal-raise from late position, or is playing out of his blinds, he will usually muck this hand. But the bad player thinks K-10 offsuit is a real hand, and will play it from any position, and even cold-call raises with it. Now, the good player makes money from the bad player because of this phenomenon. When the bad player comes in with K-10 offsuit and a good player is involved, the good player will frequently have A-K, K-Q, or even K-J. Since the good player normally doesn't play K-10 offsuit, the reverse hardly ever happens when the bad player happens to have a bigger king. But suppose the game is reduced from 10-handed to fivehanded. It turns out that K-10 offsuit becomes a more playable hand. So, the good player adjusts his play and starts coming in with this hand, but the bad player is already playing this hand. In other words, the bad player, who plays too many hands before the flop, is actually playing correctly in many cases because the game is shorthanded. So, for many hands, both the good player and the bad player are playing the same. Therefore, that particular edge that the good player had over the bad player becomes dissipated in a shorthanded game.

There are some other problems when playing shorthanded. Suppose you are in a 10-handed $30-$60 game. Let us assume they deal 35 hands per hour. Every 10 hands, you are putting up a $20 small blind and a $30 big blind. So, you are putting up $50 in blinds each round. This averages roughly $175 per hour that you are putting up in blind money. Now, reduce the game from being 10-handed to fivehanded. You are now putting up $350 per hour in blind money. If you play as tightly fivehanded as you did 10-handed, you will probably not win enough pots to keep from blinding off your money. This means you have to start playing weaker cards. When you have to play more marginal holdings, two things happen, both of which are bad. First, as stated previously, your preflop play starts to look like everyone else's. Second, once the flop comes, you will find yourself thrown into more marginal situations. You may have to play middle pair or bottom pair with or without a good kicker because of the pot size and the fact that you cannot be as confident that you don't have the best hand. It may be harder to tell whether you are leading or chasing. There is a big difference between dealing in 10 players to start with and having three of them take a flop vs. dealing in only five players and having three of them play. The three who took a flop from a population of 10 will, on average, have better starting hands than from a starting population of only five players. Furthermore, many players will start raising with hands they only limp with in a full game. A-10 offsuit is usually a limping hand. It becomes a raising hand in a shorthanded game. This means that more pots are getting raised. So, in a shorthanded game, you have the double-barreled impact of having to play more hands in raised pots. Having to put up more blind money, playing weaker cards, and paying multiple bets to take a flop all mean that you are gambling more and incurring higher fluctuations. This is why most experienced players at the middle and lower limits simply avoid shorthanded play.

Nevertheless, there will be occasions when you will find yourself having to play shorthanded for a brief period of time. Perhaps the following hands will provide some guidance on how to adjust your play.

Hand No. 1 ($20-$40 game): It's a fivehanded game. You open with a raise under the gun with the K 10. The other two players call and the blinds fold. There is $150 in the pot and three players.

The flop is K 8 7, giving you top pair. You bet, the next player raises, and the other player calls. You call. There is $270 in the pot.

The turn is the 8. You check, the flop raiser bets, and your other opponent calls. What should you do?

Answer: Call. Just as you adjust your hand values preflop in a shorthanded game, you must adjust your hand values post-flop, as well. You still have top pair with a playable kicker, so your hand may be good. The flop raise could have been done on any king, and the third player could easily be on a flush draw or a straight draw. In fact, both players could be drawing. In a full game, you expect anyone with a king who cold-called an early-position raiser to have a bigger king than yours. But this is often not true in a shorthanded game. Some players will cold-call a raise with any suited king in a fivehanded game, and some unsuited kings, like K-9. Some players will also semibluff more with drawing hands in a shorthanded game, so someone on a flush draw or even a straight draw will frequently raise a flop bet.

Hand No. 2 ($20-$40 game): The game is fourhanded. You are in the big blind with the Q 5. The first player opens with a raise and the other two players fold. You call with $70 in the pot for another $20. You are calling because of the pot odds you are getting, the fact that about one-third of the time you will flop a pair that can easily end up as the best hand in a shorthanded game like this with only one opponent, and the fact that you will flop a flush draw about one-seventh of the time, allowing you to play on. Furthermore, the raiser in a fourhanded game might well have just about any pocket pair, any two connected cards that are suited, and so forth. There is $90 in the pot and two players.

The flop is 8 3 2, giving you a flush draw with an overcard. What should you do?

Answer: Bet, or check with the intention of check-raising. You have a strong, playable hand in this fourhanded game against one opponent, and you must play it as such. In most cases the preflop raiser will bet, so checking and then raising is the best course of action. Your opponent may decide to fold a better hand, such as pocket sevens, fearing that he is playing two outs, or he may fold overcards. It is imperative that you be aggressive in these shorthanded games and give yourself a chance to win without having to always make a hand. Much of your earn in these shorthanded situations comes from being aggressive and simply betting your opponent out of the hand. If he stays with you, you have nine flush outs and possibly three overcard outs with two cards to come.

In the actual hand, the player merely checked and called the flop bet and the turn bet. The river was a blank and his opponent won with a bare ace – a ridiculous outcome. Had he check-raised the flop and bet the turn, his opponent probably would have folded, having no pair, no draw, and no hand. Instead, he put himself in a check-calling mode, allowing an unimproved ace to take the money. People who play this way should avoid shorthanded games like the plague.

Hand No. 3 ($15-$30 game): It's a fourhanded game. You are on the button with the Q Q. The first player limps in, you raise, the small blind reraises, and the big blind makes it four bets. The first player folds, you just call rather than cap the betting, and the small blind calls. There is $195 in the pot and three players.

The flop is A 8 3, giving you second pair. The small blind checks and the big blind bets. You call, fearful of the ace, and the small blind calls. There is $240 in the pot and three players.

The turn is the 4. Both of your opponents check. What should you do?

Answer: Bet. Your hand is probably good if no one has an ace, which is quite likely given that both of your opponents have now shown weakness by checking. With a large pot like this, you must protect your hand and avoid giving free cards. In a shorthanded game, players will frequently pound the pot preflop with less than premium hands, but then back off on the expensive street.

In the actual hand, a funny thing happened. The player bet. The small blind thought awhile, and reluctantly folded after observing that the big blind was about to call. The big blind called. The river was a blank and it was checked down. The player's pocket queens won, as the big blind showed pocket jacks. The small blind left in a huff, muttering something about having pocket kings and playing two outs.

Hand No. 4 ($20-$40 game): It's a fivehanded game. You open with a raise under the gun with the A J. Only the blinds call. There is $120 in the pot and three players.

The flop is A 7 3, giving you top pair, decent kicker, and a flush draw. Both blinds check. You bet and they both call. There is $180 in the pot.

The turn is the 8. Both blinds check, and you bet. The small blind raises and the big blind folds. What should you do?

Answer: Fold. Even in a shorthanded game, when the board flops all of one suit and you get check-raised on the turn, it almost always means you are up against a flush, especially with a third player in the hand. You have a draw to a flush, but it is only to the third nuts, meaning that if your opponent has a king-high or queen-high flush, you are drawing dead. When this is the case, you will go on to lose additional money when a fourth suited card appears at the river. If your opponent has two clubs and would play random cards from the start, the probability of one of them being the king or the queen is more than 40 percent, given that there are nine clubs unaccounted for. For math types, the calculation is straightforward. It is 1 – [(7/9) (6/8)]. So, about half the time, if he were just playing any two clubs, you would be drawing dead. But now consider the fact that most players don't call preflop raises with just random cards like the 8 2, for instance. If he has two clubs, most of the time he will have the king or the queen.

Hand No. 5 ($20-$40 game): It's a fivehanded game. You open with a raise under the gun with the A K. Both blinds call. There is $120 in the pot and three players.

The flop comes K 9 2, giving you top pair, top kicker. The small blind bets, and the big blind folds. What should you do?

Answer: Call. In a full game, you should raise with top pair, top kicker when the pot has been raised preflop and there are two-flushes and cards in the playing zone like K-9. But in a shorthanded game, the likelihood of your lone opponent having a drawing hand is less than normal. Your top pair, top kicker is a powerful holding in a shorthanded setting like this. Furthermore, this is now a heads-up situation, so there are no other opponents to eliminate by raising. Plan on pulling the trigger after he bets the turn.