Shorthanded Games - Part II

Last issue I discussed shorthanded games and talked about how to play before and on the flop. In this second and final installment, I'll talk a bit more about how to ensure you're making the right plays on the flop, and then examine the turn and river.

In a shorthanded game the flop's texture is important, and every good shorthanded player is skilled in determining whether the flop has hit or missed his opponent. That's not quite as critical in a full game. If there are five callers, for example, and the flop does not hit you, it figures to have hit someone, regardless of whether small or big cards fall. But that's not the case in a short game, particularly when it's played heads up.

An ace, especially an ace with a good kicker, is a hand you can value bet and even raise with if the flop seems to have missed your opponent as well as you. Even if you're uncertain as to whether you have the best hand, the best course of action is to bet and to keep right on betting until your opponent plays back at you by raising. If he does raise, you'll have to decide whether he has the goods or is practicing larceny, and knowing your opponent is the best way to accomplish that. If you have no read on an adversary's play, particularly when you've been raised on the turn, you should usually release your hand. Even when heads up, the majority of players don't have a check-raise bluff in their arsenal.

Although offering a free card to an opponent is seldom the problem in a short game that it is in a full one, showing weakness can prove to be disastrous just because there's such a premium on aggressive play. Because successful shorthanded play requires aggression, betting most drawing hands – and betting all of them if you are confronting a tight, timid player who will release marginal hands in the face of aggression – is almost mandatory.

If you've got a high-powered hand, that's an exception, and you might choose to back off a bit and let your aggressive opponents bet for you. You'll have a chance to raise once the betting limits double on the turn, so for now, just let them keep swinging away in blissful ignorance about the strength of your hand. If you've been able to pound your opponent with a few good hands, you might even slow him down a bit, and that may allow you to see a free card when you check a mediocre hand.

If you've gotten the feeling that betting is the key component to shorthanded play, you're right. If you check and your opponent is even the least bit aggressive, you can almost count on a bet from his direction.

Remember, while aggression is critical to successful shorthanded play, many players are too aggressive in these situations. When you sense that your opponent has crossed that Rubicon, you can check-raise early and often with hands like top pair, or even with a good draw. In fact, by check-raising frequently, you may even be able to check weaker hands if your adversary is gun-shy from your relentless check-raising and be able to get a free pass to the next betting round as a result. But please don't feel obligated to continue on with weak hands. Because you'll frequently be check-raising your better hands, you can afford to check and fold weaker hands without creating a weak, passive image.

Unless you've got a huge hand and believe your opponent will come out betting, don't check the turn merely because the flop missed you. It probably didn't hit your opponent, either, and a bet may pick up the pot right there. Betting and forcing your foe to make a decision about the strength of your hand is certainly preferable to checking and then having to decide whether to call or fold to a rival's bet.

On the other hand, if you checked the flop and your opponent checked behind you, you can come out betting on the turn regardless of the community cards' composition. After all, it will look for all the world as though you planned to check-raise the flop and are now betting a good hand on the turn.

If you're first to act and have a good hand, you can always try to check-raise the turn. You may gain an extra bet, or your opponent might fold right there and concede the pot. Even if he doesn't, you can come out betting on the river and put him to the test once again.

On the other hand, if your opponent is tough enough to begin check-raising the turn with good drawing hands, then bets the river regardless of whether his draw pans out, you might want to consider another game on another day if all of your rivals are that tough and tricky. When you play against opponents who are this cagey, you might have to make it three bets on the turn, then bet out if the river card does not appear to support any legitimate draw that someone else might be chasing. Remember, this play should be used only against astute players. Against an adversary who is blissfully unaware of the messages you are sending him, save your money and put on the pressure when you have the goods or it appears that he doesn't.

What if you checked a drawing hand on the turn and your opponent checked behind you? That's a wake-up call you can respond to by betting the river regardless of whether you make your draw or not. After all, if you hold one big card, that card alone may be sufficient to win the pot if your adversary is the kind who calls to keep you honest.

When you've raised or even reraised your opponent on the turn, you can certainly check and call if a flush card jumps up on the river. That allows you to save a bet if beaten, while offering your opponent a golden opportunity to err by bluffing with a hopeless hand. However, if your opponent is cautious enough to fold some pretty good hands on the river – hands that might even be stronger than yours – betting is the way to go. That scary river card may even look more ominous to a cautious opponent than it does to you. But if this kind of opponent raises when you bet, it's an automatic fold.

The general rule you can extrapolate from this specific situation is that you ought to bet any hand you'd call with if you checked and your opponent came out betting – but be prepared to ditch it when you're raised.

Shorthanded play tests a player's skill and heart. You need to be very selective and very aggressive, too, more so than you would in full games. That means bluffing with greater regularity, semibluffing much of the time, betting rather than checking – unless you're setting up a check-raise – and either folding or raising instead of calling. If that sounds like good advice for a full game, you're right. But it's even more apropos when the game is short. Checking and calling – usually a dicey strategy in most games – is particularly weak when the game is shorthanded. After all, in a shorthanded game, you can't wait around in hope of catching cards in order to win the pot; you have to manufacture winning hands by the force of your will, and that's usually expressed through selectively aggressive play and an implicit understanding of how to walk that fine line between courage and foolhardiness.

But you can do it, and you'll love it if you do. Take my word for it: A little bit of experience can make you really love those late-night situations in which the only other alternatives are to wait and hope for new blood to stagger into the room at the hour most of us are sound asleep, or get up and go home ourselves. And when it comes to choosing between sleep and poker, believe me, sleep is overrated.

My newest book, Internet Poker: How to Play and Beat Online Poker Games, is available at www.ConJelCo.com, and all of my books can be found at major bookstores and online at www.Amazon.com.