Hand Standards

By Nick Eisel

Don't be turned off by the title.

This isn't going to be like the chapter of your Sklansky book where everything is laid out for you in tables and you're only allowed to do certain things with certain hands in certain positions. While that approach does serve as an introduction to full table holdem for beginning players, I'm assuming that most of you already know that stuff and like me consider it to be boring. Having a foundation is a good way to start playing poker, but as any good player knows, the "Cookbook" approach generally will make you too predictable of a player.

No hand tables here, I promise.

What I'm going to do instead is go over some of the basic ideas behind preflop play in shorthanded low limit online poker (because casinos don't spread shorthanded games, though this will apply to a live full table that gets shorthanded because too many people leave).

The Bare Essentials

As a general rule, when you're coming into a pot in a shorthanded game, you want to be raising. Obviously there are plenty of exceptions to this, as with anything else in poker, but in most cases you want to come in with a raise. The benefits behind this idea are pretty simple and have been covered time and again in basically any poker book you will read. It's for all the same reasons a full table book tells you to raise if you're opening a pot from middle position; you have a chance to steal the blinds, you gain the initiative in betting by showing strength, and when nobody flops much of a hand you will bet the flop and take it down since you were the raiser before the flop. The only difference here is that aggression is generally rewarded even more in shorthanded play since most people won't play back at you without a hand and you end up picking up a lot more pots than you would at a full game.

The majority of the poker playing population knows that you have to play 'looser' in shorthanded, but they don't know exactly what that means. The idea of playing looser doesn't mean you start chasing gutshots and backdoor flushes without proper odds (which you'll almost never have in a short game), but rather that you start playing a few more hands preflop and betting with slightly lower standards after the flop.

You want to be playing more hands with high card strength since top pair will win lots of pots in shorthanded. High card strength is key, and far more important than being suited or connected in a 6 player game. My basic advice from first or second position would be to raise with any AK to AT along with KQ or KJ suited or offsuit, A9 suited, and pairs from AA to 88. This is the general group of hands that you want to come into the pot with. When you move to the later positions near the button you can start playing something like KTo if the table respects you and is generally tight since even if they call your raise with a naked ace you'll be able to bet them off of it when they don't hit the flop.

You will however have to adapt these standards depending on the type of game you're in.

In a tight game I'd start raising with most hands I'm playing, even KTs, QJs, JTs, A8s, and 77 since you have such a high chance of stealing the blinds. In a loose game, I'd just limp with 88 and some of the other weaker hands like KJ off since when you raise, 3-4 people are going to call and you end up building a pot with a hand that isn't worth two bets in a multiway and while out of position.

The other times you limp are behind two limpers with something like offsuited KQ, KJ, AJ, AT (though I'd still raise with AQ most of the time) and with hands like JT, QJ, and QT suited at a table where the pot isn't getting raised preflop every hand. These last three hands (QJ, QT, JT) aren't really playable in the offsuit variety unless you're in one of the two blinds or the guy in the big blind is exceptionally tight and you think a raise will steal his blind most of the time. You also do this with the understanding that if he does play, you have to be very careful and able to fold a pair after the flop if he plays back at you since you will usually be out kicked. I've seen many players try to steal a tight player's blind, and then whenever he plays back at them after the flop they cannot fold their pair. This is a huge mistake and you'll end up giving back all of the blind money you've stolen from him over the past few rounds plus more.

Something that's important to note is that I'd probably still raise KQ suited and other big suited hands behind two limpers if I knew they were limping in with lots of marginal hands rather than limping with something that has me dominated like AQ (which some players do in fact do). I'll raise out of the big blind sometimes with AJs, KQs, etc for the same reason if I know the people are limping in with less than optimal hands because the hand plays well with multiple opponents due to the added possibility of making a big flush.

I'll also limp with 99, 88, 77, 66 behind two limpers and only raise with 99 behind a single limper if he limps a lot with bad hands.

Most people are too caught up on the suited connectors thing, and they generally are not playable in shorthanded. The only ones I really play are JTs and T9s, and that is more of a way of varying my play or stealing the blinds in a tight game. Don't start trying to steal with 87s or some other trash because if you start to get heat, you really have no hand to back it up unless you hit a perfect flop. This hand is hoping to flop a draw and the fact of the matter is that most shorthanded pots end up heads up or three-handed after the flop and draws just aren't very profitable in that situation. The other hand you make with the connectors is top pair no kicker, which is vulnerable to a better kicker and also to the many overcards left in the deck. With all that being said, these hands still have a place in the blinds and after 2-3 limpers when you're on the button. I see far too many people trying to steal raise with suited garbage though, and it's a costly play especially when you get involved in a raise war with nothing more than a draw and miss.

When stealing the blinds I generally like to have a solid hand unless the blinds fold too much and then basically any two big cards such as a J9 is fine because you're banking on them folding most of the time before the flop anyway and not trying to show something down. If everyone has folded to me, I'll open raise from the cutoff with 66 or 55 in addition to the hands I've already mentioned, as well as sometimes QJ offsuit depending on who is in the blind (strong or weak players). I'll talk more about QJo in my next article though as I believe strongly that it's a terrible hand that will do nothing but get you into trouble.

The general idea behind preflop play in shorthanded is that if you're opening a pot, you want to raise. You still want to be playing good hands for the most part and be concerned with playing stuff that builds top pair. Don't get caught up playing suited cards or low pocket pairs like 33 or 44 as they usually aren't profitable unless you're behind a bunch of limpers. The hand scale also fluctuates as you go down to 4 and 3 handed play, but that's an entirely different story and I'll talk about that sometime in the future. Just remember that you'll still be playing pretty tight, just adding in a few hands that you'd fold at a full table and betting with some things like middle pair good kicker on a safe board that you may also throw away in a full game. Selective aggression is the name of the game in six-handed play.

Questions or Comments?

Feel free to email me at Sun3urst@hotmail.com

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