Let me first give praise to you and all the other posters in this journal as it has shed some light on how good players think - a vital aspect to the game we all love. Here i'm adding my own 2 cents.
Great short essay on short-handed play: I use a similar strategy myself when playing the 6max tables online - but would like to offer a varying opinion/strategy that has worked for me, and I am myself still working on to improve (suggestions encouraged). Short-handed play with less than 6 people.
To me, this is in a different category than a 6-handed table where I believe the strategy you outlined above is optimal. You state above that blind-stealing is not the main profit-center when 6-handed (I agree), but when less than 6-handed (2-5 handed?), focusing on blind-stealing is essential. When there's less than 6 people at the table, my normal/prefarable TAG-image (I hope) is changed to extremely LAG. I make at least 1 attempt, if not 2 in a round to blind steal. Creating this loose image in an attempt to generate action. For me, this puts you in the biggest postive-EV situation when short-handed, which is action on your big hands. You don't want everyone to fold to your raise the few times you get AA and win the blinds and you want to win several BBs when you turn the str8 with 10 8o - you want to get re-raised and jam it. Key to this strategy is relatively tight post-flop play: certainly bet when checked to, but I wouldn't continue position-bluffing anymore than the flop without a draw or made hand. Much more can be discussed on this be there's the prelim.
Please note that I am constently adjusting my strategy in this situation and alter it every session I play in an effort to experiment and find the best way to play when 2-5 handed - which from my experiences has been the majority of winnings from online play. Make this a working discussion and please dissect my views. A great site to check-out talking about this strategy as well is http://shipitpoker.blogspot.com/ great discussions here.
Currently debating whether this LAG-style is better for NL/PL, as opposed to limit. Only time can tell. Looking forward to a response and keep up the awesome posts Bradley.
-- Frankie Guest, a sometimes Riverstreet player = ).
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
My own on-going debate of short-handed play...
Date: 2005-03-04 20:26 (UTC)Great short essay on short-handed play: I use a similar strategy myself when playing the 6max tables online - but would like to offer a varying opinion/strategy that has worked for me, and I am myself still working on to improve (suggestions encouraged). Short-handed play with less than 6 people.
To me, this is in a different category than a 6-handed table where I believe the strategy you outlined above is optimal. You state above that blind-stealing is not the main profit-center when 6-handed (I agree), but when less than 6-handed (2-5 handed?), focusing on blind-stealing is essential. When there's less than 6 people at the table, my normal/prefarable TAG-image (I hope) is changed to extremely LAG. I make at least 1 attempt, if not 2 in a round to blind steal. Creating this loose image in an attempt to generate action. For me, this puts you in the biggest postive-EV situation when short-handed, which is action on your big hands. You don't want everyone to fold to your raise the few times you get AA and win the blinds and you want to win several BBs when you turn the str8 with 10 8o - you want to get re-raised and jam it. Key to this strategy is relatively tight post-flop play: certainly bet when checked to, but I wouldn't continue position-bluffing anymore than the flop without a draw or made hand. Much more can be discussed on this be there's the prelim.
Please note that I am constently adjusting my strategy in this situation and alter it every session I play in an effort to experiment and find the best way to play when 2-5 handed - which from my experiences has been the majority of winnings from online play. Make this a working discussion and please dissect my views. A great site to check-out talking about this strategy as well is http://shipitpoker.blogspot.com/ great discussions here.
Currently debating whether this LAG-style is better for NL/PL, as opposed to limit. Only time can tell. Looking forward to a response and keep up the awesome posts Bradley.
-- Frankie Guest, a sometimes Riverstreet player = ).