Player's Stories

Short-handed Hold'Em: Preflop Play (Part I)
By Jason Pohl

Mainstream poker literature often includes popular charts or groupings for hand rankings, created to measure the relative value of hands in a full ring game. Unfortunately, these helpful tools cannot be used effectively in short-handed hold'em, because they were not written to assume a short-handed structure.

The two main differences between full and 5-person games are known to most advanced players, even if they are not fully understood. First, the relative value of big offsuited cards goes up, and the relative value of drawing hands go down. Second, the blind structure forces more action. Blinds come too often, and a good player cannot just wait for a premium holding. In Part I of this article, we will focus on the first distinction.

There are three main reasons that hand rankings change so drastically when the number of players drops.

Implied Odds are reduced.
Drawing hands are often overvalued by many novices of short-handed games. For example, suitedness earns a considerable payoff by hitting a flush, but that only occurs about 3% of the time. A hand like Kx suited will flop a four flush or flush about 1/8th of the time. With a four flush on the flop, the player will only end with a flush 1/3rd of the time.

These improbable odds mean the suited hand needs to get in cheap and have multiway action to earn profit. Shorthanded poker fits neither requirement. Preflop play in 5-handed games very often involves a raise, meaning a player must pay two bets to even see the flop. On the flop, the contest is often heads-up, and the four flush loses money on every additional bet to the pot. Hence, suitedness is worth considerably less in a short-handed game. The same logic can be applied to all drawing hands. The probability of hitting a very strong hand (such as a set, straight, or flush) stays the same in both a shorthanded and a ring game, but the compensation in a short-handed pot is often inadequate.

Big cards win small pots.
It has been stated in many mainstream books that a hand like AKo has value because it can win unimproved in a heads-up match. But this concept is not just limited to hands like 'Big Slick'. There will be many hands that feature two drawing hands, and the big cards will take down the pot when both miss.

Example 1:

• Player 1: A 5 {small blind}
• Player 2: J T {big blind}
• Flop: 4 3 K. {4 small bets in the pot.}

Player 1 bets, Player 2 raises. Player 1 calls.

Turn: 6.
Player 1 checks. Player 2 bets. Player 1 calls.

River: Q.

Both check, and the A5o takes down the pot.

Neither player makes a mistake in the scenario above. With 7 bets in the pot already, Player 1 was correct to call on the flop with at least 6 known outs and a backdoor flush draw. Player 2 might have checked the turn, but it's not particularly pertinent to this scenario. Also, a bluff might work on the end here, but it depends on the skills of both competitors.

The bottom line is that the bigger card took down a pot unexpectedly, and Player 1 is several bets richer. It is hard to overvalue the extra small pots earned by the high card; it happens far too often in heads-up and shorthanded play to ignore.

The other advantage of big cards is that they upgrade guesswork into value bets and semibluffs. The following scenarios better illustrate the advantages allowed by high cards.

Example 2:

• Player 1 has K 9. {small blind}
• Player 2 has 6 5. {big blind}
• Flop: J 3 8. {4 small bets in the pot}

If you are Player 1, you cannot be sure what you are up against. A bet here is a percentage play, but it's still a guess, because you cannot be sure the King-high is currently winning. Player 2 is forced to fold.

Example 3:

• Player 1 has 6 5. {small blind}
• Player 2 has K 9. {big blind}
• Flop: J 3d 8. {4 small bets in the pot}

Player 1 bets. It's a complete bluff. If Player 2 plays back, Player 1 is in trouble and will likely muck. If there is even a 25% chance of an immediate fold, Player 2 would be correct to raise. (Note: This is true regardless of what Player 2 holds, but the next scenario will illustrate why holding big cards makes this raise even more profitable.)

Example 4:

• Player 1 has 6 5. {small blind}
• Player 2 has K 9. {big blind}
• Flop: J 5 8. {4 small bets in the pot}

Player 1 bets. It's a value bet with 3rd pair. If Player 2 plays back, they're making a mistake. But it's not much of a blunder, because Player 2 still has 6 immediate outs if a King or Nine hits, and there are several cards (Ten or any heart) that give Player 2 a strong draw on the turn.

It's easy to dismiss the choice of Player 2 because it is a -EV play, but that's an error. In short-handed poker, you will misstep sometimes. Yet, there is tremendous value in big cards because they minimize the impact of inaccuracies.

Example 5/6:

• Player 1 has 6 5. {small blind}
• Player 2 has K 9. {big blind}
• Flop: J 5 T. {4 small bets in the pot} OR
  Flop: J 5 9. {4 small bets in the pot}

Player 1 bets, again believing it's a value bet with 3rd pair. However, Player 2 is the favorite on both flops. In both scenarios, Player 2 will win approximately 80% of the time. Obviously, Player 1 is in trouble.

K 9 is plainly a superior hand to 6 5 heads-up. But reality shows that many losing short-handed players leak money heavily by overplaying small cards. 6 5 is a group 5 hand in Sklansky's Hold'Em hand rankings. K 9 is a group 6 hand. But the examples above clearly demonstrate the original hypothesis: Hand rankings for full ring games do not work for short-handed strategy because they were not intended as short-handed strategy.

Hand domination is a much smaller factor.
Hand domination occurs when one starting hand causes apparent outs to be counterfeited in another starting hand, resulting in a very powerful advantage for the superior holding. Examples include (AA vs. AK), (AK vs. AQ), (A 5 vs. K 4), or even (KQ vs. Q9).

In a ring game, a hand such as K9 has a fairly significant chance of being dominated, even if the flop includes a King. With nine opponents (and a King on the flop), there is a 10% chance an opponent holds a KT, KJ, KQ, or AK. Against any of these combinations, K9 is drawing very slim or virtually dead. More importantly, there are no Kx hands that a normal player would hold in a full ring game, so the K9 will not earn good pots with top pair. Overall, it is a clear loser.

In a short-handed game, K9 becomes profitable in many cases. Players will often not give you credit for top pair, so top pair with any kicker goes up in value. In addition, many players will play Kx suited or will play King with a small kicker fast from the blinds when a King hits. Moreover, the chances that an opponent holds KT, KJ, KQ, or AK is greatly reduced (less than 5%), further mitigated by examining if the opponent raised or reraised preflop.

The Role of Deception
Everything up to this point has indicated that hands like 65 are highly overrated in short-handed poker. However, there are two good reasons to demonstrate strength with small cards.

First, stealing pots is a necessity in many short-handed contests, and waiting around for big cards means missing a lot of excellent stealing opportunities. If you know an opponent folds too often, it is profitable to challenge them with a wider range of hands. If you raise with 65, your opponent will typically fail to comprehend that your real motivation for raising was to steal the pot. On the other hand, if you raised and eventually showed down a hand like J2, your opponent would likely begin calling or reraising more often, neutralizing your advantage by correcting their play.

Second, it is important to not be too predictable. If you only raise with big cards, your opponents will begin bluffing at you when rags hit the flop. Or, they will simply fold marginal hands since they know you would not raise without a strong holding. So, mixing up your play is critical. Raising with small suited connectors becomes a semibluff. You wouldn't mind if your opponent folded, but you would be just fine winning the pot with a surprising straight or two pair, which can rake in a larger pot because the flop appears harmless. In addition, mixing your play will slow down the opposition in the long run and force them to pay off your big cards more often, since they must give you credit for a wider range of potential starting hands.

In the next article, we can examine the effect of the blind structure more thoroughly, now that we can gauge the relative strengths of different starting hand combinations. If you have any questions, or comments, please feel free to email me at jason@pokerpages.com. Until next article, good luck!

Previous Article | Article Listing | Next Article

Comments? Please post them in our Poker Forum.