Shorthanded Archetypes

Here’s good news: Many poker players are so routine and predictable in their style that beating them is just a matter of keeping track of what works. This is especially useful in shorthanded play, where pattern recognition and manipulation is the key to success. Here, you will find a short list of player archetypes of my own creation. I encourage you to add inventions of your own to this list. It’s easy and fun, and gives you a reliable handle to put on your most predictable foes.

Tighty Tighterson: As the name implies, a Tighty Tighterson is a fairly tight player who carries over his habits of selective, hit-to-win fullhanded poker into his shorthanded games. He fails utterly to realize that aggressiveness is the key to shorthanded success, and his lack of aggressiveness is your key to controlling and defeating him. Simply take his actions at face value. Check-raising with a monster is about the limit of his deceptive capabilities; big bluffs are beyond him. With this in mind, feel free to attack him whether you have a hand or not, for he’ll play back at you only when he really has the goods.

Cally Wally: A Cally Wally is out of his depth in a shorthanded game, because he knows that he has to play a lot more hands, but he doesn’t quite know how. Timid by nature, he becomes weak-loose in shorthanded play. Recognize Wally by the infrequency of his raises. Like his Tighty cousin, he’s a “get the goods, bet the goods” type who shouldn’t give you too much trouble. Weirdly, they are often preflop loose, post-flop tight. They’ll limp with almost anything, but fold when they don’t connect with the flop (which, of course, most of the time they won’t). Against such a player, simply dial up your post-flop pressure. He’ll contribute dead money in hand after hand after hand.

Serial Dater: A Serial Dater is a blend of Cally Wally and Tighty Tighterson — a slightly more aggressive version of the former preflop, and a slightly looser version of the latter post-flop. They have a problem with commitment. They’ll splash around in a lot of pots when it’s cheap, but when the price gets too high, they’ll head for the hills. If they don’t head for the hills, you can be sure that they’re in there with something — and that they’ll likely overvalue just how strong that something is. For example, while it’s true that middle pair, top kicker is a strong hand shorthanded, your typical Serial Dater might do you the favor of betting that hand, and betting it again, into your top-pair holding. To beat him, either put pressure on him to drive him off his bad hands, or let him bet into you with his fair hands when you’ve got something strong.

Location Station: A Location Station loves position. Preflop, you’ll find him surrendering his blinds and folding when under the gun, because he hates to play hands from out of position. On the other hand, his raising requirements are very liberal when he has the button or is in the cutoff seat. To compete effectively against this player, consider his early-position bets to represent strong hands, and his late-position bets to represent pure cheese. Attack his blinds liberally, since he hates to defend, and defend your own blinds more often than you would against, say, a Tighty Tighterson. Since the Location Station believes that position trumps card strength, he’ll frequently get out ahead of his hands when in position. If you call along from the blind and hit your hand, you can check-raise his continuation-bets, and either take down the pot right there or get him on the hook for more chips on later streets.

Dr. Overbite: Ah, the good Doctor, how he loves to overbet the pot; not just overbet, but overbet big. This move tends to work quite well — right up until it catastrophically fails. Dr. Overbite will open-raise for something like eight or 10 times the big blind, knowing that most foes will fold most hands. The trouble is, eventually someone wakes up with a hand, and then the Doctor’s office is closed. The way to beat Dr. Overbite is to get inside his head. Since he knows that his grandstand overbets generally force folds, he’s very respectful of reraises, and very suspicious of flat-calls. You can bluff him successfully, just by using these moves so infrequently that he credits you with a real hand. Fortunately, the size of his overbet is so large that you can afford to surrender lots of blinds, mix it up with him only rarely, and still come out way ahead. Of course, you also can trap him with your hidden big hands, but that’s just gravy. Most of your profit comes from the fact that he over-invests in the pot and can be made to surrender in the face of real or apparent strength.

BenBux: BenBux is the toughest foe you’ll face. He’s aggressive, creative, and unafraid. He loves to play in big pots, and loves to use big bets to put other players’ feet to the fire. He doesn’t play his cards as much as he does his opponents. He reads patterns, and constantly adapts and adjusts. Strong, smart, and attentive, he’s an altogether dangerous foe — really the only one you have to watch out for shorthanded. But do watch out! Once a BenBux has you in his sights, he’s a difficult opponent to outthink and outplay. His one Achilles’ heel is his tendency to overestimate both his skill and the strength of his hands. He’s so used to having his way at the table that he leaves himself open to occasional traps. Trapping, therefore, is your best defense against a BenBux. Limit your aggressiveness and let him bet into you when you have the best of it. Sometimes, the best thing to do against BenBux is get out of his way altogether. Go find another game, one filled with Wally and Tighty types, and leave Ben to his business. There’s no shame in leaving a game when you’re outclassed, and if you’re up against a BenBux, you will be, unless you’re also a BenBux.

Well, there you have it, a quick overview of the types of foes you’ll face in shorthanded play. To defeat them, simply combine your analytical skills with their revealed weaknesses to build an appropriate strategy.

Caveat: There’s a real danger in seeking to categorize your foes too firmly. Try to put everything into pigeonholes, and all you’ll end up with is a bunch of squished pigeons. It’s quite possible, for example, to find someone who’s a Cally Wally preflop, but a Tighty Tighterson from the flop forward. Also, of course, people will shift gears according to their mood, stack size, level of tilt, or phases of the moon. So, analyze and categorize your foes in order to play against them most effectively, but don’t let your analysis blind you to what’s real. That’s worse than no analysis at all.

John Vorhaus is the author of the Killer Poker book series and the new poker novel Under the Gun, in bookstores now. He resides in cyberspace at vorza.com, and blogs the world from somnifer.typepad.com. John Vorhaus’ photo: Gerard Brewer.