Tips to Handle Shorthand Poker

Short handed poker (six handed or less) is quite different to free play (eight handed or more) so after the surviving the trials and tribulations of free play you must adjust your play (changing gears) to suit the new conditions. The fewer opponents you are playing the wider the range of cards are playable and the classic hands we would play during free play become power hands and should be played much more aggressively.

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 I find that breaking tourneys into basic segments helps to keep track of where you are during the game allowing you to make finite adjustments to your play on the fly which is a key to playing strong poker, this also assists with post game analysis which allows you to isolates whether the mistakes that lead to your elimination were yours or your opponents. So the basic structure of a pub poker tourney is as follows:

1: Which is comprised of the first several sets of blinds usually up to some sort break in the game. During this period survival and observation are your two primary goals, the information that you glean here will increase your ability to grow your stack and out play your opponents in later parts of the game. Coin flips for all or large percentages of your stack must be avoided at all costs at this time.
2: Free play is the section of the game where the blinds are starting to get to be reasonable 200/400 or better and there is still usually 50% or more of the field in play. This is the time to go to work growing your stack using the information gathered in the first period, but be careful to avoid overplaying hands in this period because a crippling mistake this early can be tough to come back from.

3: Final two tables: During this section of the game it is important to be able to adjust your play to cater for an ever declining field. Caution is best as it’s very frustrating to make this far in a game only to give it away because you weren’t able to make the best of the spots available to you. Remember short stacks will be trying to grow their stacks for the final table so let them come to you and it is also a great time for trapping and applying pressure to the short stacks because of their increased activity at this time.

4: Final Table: If things have gone your way then you’ve arrived here with a fair stack and good starting position. First order of business is to note that all tourneys of this nature will have their prize and or points spread skewed heavily toward the deepest finishers so patience is key early on. As your opponents reduce in number and the prizes become larger it is time to open up a little, always noting the essentials like position, style of play, recent opponent behaviors, poker table betting patterns, pot value etc.

Remember player’s knowledge is power. Good Luck