8. Do not routinely play hands with a 2, 3, or 4 in them. That's like playing with only one card, because you'll always get overcards. Again, think ahead.

9. Don't forget to gear it up a notch. Call when you might normally fold with that marginal hand. Raise when you would ordinarily just call. Reraise a little more liberally. Check-raise more often. Call more often on the river with what would be a weak or second-best hand in a full game.

10. Ask for a rake break and a single blind. If they say you can't play for the jackpot when the rake is reduced, tell them, "Great!" As you may recall from the chapter on jackpots, the odds are really against hitting the jackpot in a short-handed game. Why give a dollar per hand to the players in the full game who will hit the jackpot? A single blind helps you because it keeps you from having to play garbage hands as often.

11. Being able to play well in a short-handed game is a must-have skill if you're going to be a tournament player. If you're going to place high in a tournament, you'll eventually have to learn how to play when the table is short-handed, so it's worth developing this skill when you have the chance.
12. Before you play in any short-handed game, truthfully and honestly evaluate your short-handed skills. Compare them to those of your potential opponents.

13. Gaining skill at short-handed play will definitely help you in your usual full game. Many times almost everyone will fold in a full game. At that point it's as if you're playing short-handed, especially if you're in late position. Consider what you know about playing in late position, stealing the blinds and reading players.

If you decide to play in a short-handed game, it should usually be for one of two reasons:
1. You know you'll be one of the best players in the game, so you think you'll have a positive hourly rate.

2. You know that you won't one of the best players in the game, but the other players aren't that much better than you are, and you see this as a good opportunity to gain some experience without risking too much.

If you can't meet one of those two criteria, wait for a better chance to put your money in action. In either case, don't play unless you know what you're doing.

Practice playing in short-handed games according to the guidelines I've mentioned in this chapter. Keep separate records of your results in these games, and if possible, name the other players in your notes. This will help you more accurately evaluate your prospects when faced with future short-handed playing opportunities. Good luck.

• Poker – Short Handed Games Part2 (0)
• Reading Poker Hands Part3 (0)
• Reading Poker Hands Part2 (0)

If this happens in your usual game, and you're playing against your usual opponents, then those hands before the game breaks up provide an excellent opportunity for you to practice your short-handed skills, particularly if you feel that the other players' short-handed game is not much better than yours, and especially if you think that they don't even know of the differences between a full and a short-handed game. Do what you can to keep the game from breaking up so you can take advantage of this chance.

Here's a list of points to keep in mind if you find yourself in a short-handed game:
1. Players whose usual style of play is loose and aggressive will unknowingly be playing a good game when it's short-handed. Short-handed play is characterized by continuous, unrelenting betting and raising, so players who already play that way will have a leg up on the game.

2. You should change your playing style from tight-aggressive to mostly loose-aggressive. If you play your usual tight game, the blinds will eat you up, and you'll be folding before the flop too often.

3. Big cards are worth more. AK, KJ, and OJs will win without much improvement against three players more often than they will against nine players.

4. Because big hands win more easily, you can raise preflop with many more hands than you would in a full game. If you have a good handle on the other aspects of a short-handed game, you can usually raise preflop any time both of your cards are an 8 or above.
5. Because there's a lot of preflop raising when it's short-handed, you should always raise before the flop when you hold AA, KK, QQ, AKs, and other big cards. Since players expect that you'll raise anyway, the raise actually helps disguise your strength.

6. Forget that your cards are suited, if they are. It doesn't take a flush to win every time. In fact, you don't have to try to make flushes or straights, because two high cards will often be enough to win. Usually, you won't be getting the correct odds to draw to a flush or straight, but that's no problem, since you're really betting on just the high rank value of your cards.

7. Because most pots will be raised before the flop, small pairs and suited connectors go way down in value. It costs a lot of money to call a raise with 7^64, flop a draw, and pay to draw, only to miss the draw or make a pair of 6s on the river. Think ahead.

• Poker – Short Handed Games Part3 (0)
• Reading Poker Hands Part3 (0)
• Reading Poker Hands Part2 (0)

A short-handed game is one that has either three, four, or five players. If you're watching a short-handed game in progress for the first time, it will look like a wild and crazy mess, with the calling, betting and raising not making any apparent sense at all.

If you see the players in a short-handed game raising all the time with questionable cards, calling with even worse cards, betting with nothing, giving their opponents no respect, and being extremely proud of their ace-high or pair of 4s at the end of the hand, you know you're watching a game that is full of players who are experts at short-handed play.

The ability to play in a short-handed game and maintain a positive hourly rate, especially over a long period of time, is one of the most difficult achievements in hold 'em.

Short-handed play is a very advanced skill that requires an extensive knowledge of game theory, backed up with countless hours of real-life playing experience. Short-handed games are not made for beginners. If you're contemplating taking a seat in a short-handed game, the very most important thing you need to know is exactly what the skill levels are of the players already in the game.

I've already mentioned the saying: "Poker is not a game of cards played with people; rather, it is a game of people played with cards." It's very true. You're not playing against cards, you're playing against people. So take a minute to look at the people that you're considering playing against.

When you play in a poker game, you're really pitting your decision-making abilities against those of all of your opponents combined. When you play in a short-handed game, you'll be playing a lot more hands than you would in a full game. You might even be playing almost every hand. With all those opportunities to make a decision (and therefore possibly a bad decision), you might lose your bankroll in short order.

There's one time when you might find yourself in a good short-handed situation: if you've been playing in your usual game and the other players start to drop out, one by one, without more players taking their seats. Perhaps it's getting later at night, and there are no names on the list.

Often what will happen is that the game will become seven- or eight-handed, one of the players will say, "I don't want to play if it's only seven-handed," and he'll leave. His departure will trigger the same reflex in another player and the game will suddenly be five-handed. After a few hands, the game will often break up, because three other players will each say, "I don't want to play five-handed."

• Reading Poker Hands Part3 (0)
• Reading Poker Hands Part2 (0)
• Reading Poker Hands (0)

The next time you play in your usual game, pay attention to those times that a player bets and is called on the river. It doesn't matter if you're in the hand or not. If you've been following the action from the beginning, and you've been trying to read that player's hand, I want you to come up with an educated guess of what his hand might be.

It will help you if you decide at the beginning of the hand to use that hand as part of this assignment. I want you to tell yourself exactly which two cards the player might be holding. For example, if the board is Q4J4J¥6^24, and you think he has a full house, don't just say, "I think he has a full house." Instead, say, "I think he has pocket 6s," or, "I think he has Q^J*."

When the player in question is called on the river and he reveals his hand, you'll see that your guess will, of course, fall into one of three categories:

1. You'll have guessed that his hand is worse than it is.
2. You'll have guessed that his hand is better than it is.
3. You'll have been right on the mark.

Be prepared by having these three categories already written in your notes, and make a mark in the appropriate category. If you have time and space, also try to jot down why you think your guess was too high or too low. Review your notes later, when you have time to reflect on what you wrote. Hopefully, you can learn a bit more about reading hands from these notes. Your goal, of course, is to have more and more of your guesses be right with each passing playing session.

Don't be too hard on yourself. If the board is 9*8V7*2*2¥, and you think the player has 8s full of 2s, I would count it as a correct guess if he in fact held pocket 9s or 7s instead of the 8s. However, if you think he holds 9*2£ to make the full house, and he actually has pocket 8s, I'd count that as guessing too low. Remember, it's his pocket cards you're trying to guess, not just his final poker hand.

• Reading Poker Hands Part2 (0)
• Reading Poker Hands (0)
• Poker – Short Handed Games Part3 (0)

Of all the skills required to be a good hold 'em player, the ability to read hands is one of the most time-consuming and difficult to master. It requires that you play or watch many, many hands, and that you expend the mental energy necessary to work through each hand, so you arrive at correct conclusions.

It also requires that you pay attention to the game and the players in progress even when you're not in the hand, which is something that the average low limit player doesn't usually do. And all of this assumes that you started with a good, solid, practical and theoretical understanding of all of the other aspects of the game.

If you already play in a regular game, the good news is that you already have some practice reading hands, even if you're not yet an expert at it. You already know about all of the possible combinations of questions you can ask about the play of a hand, and about the many different situations that can arise. Fortunately, many of these situations and questions are so similar that they can be reduced to a manageable number that will give you a satisfactory conclusion most of the time.

Because of the huge number of variables involved in reading hands, the impossibility of covering every feasible combination of events in the play of a hand, and the fact that this is intended to be a beginner's book, I'm going to help you learn how to read hands by asking you to accomplish the following assignment.

There's a principle in teaching that says that if you're going to teach someone something, one of the very first things you have to do is determine what the student already knows about the subject. This ensures that the student and the teacher are "on the same page," and that they begin the lesson in the appropriate place.

In this lesson, you get to decide exactly what your level of competence is, and we will start at that point.

• Reading Poker Hands Part3 (0)
• Reading Poker Hands (0)
• Poker – Short Handed Games Part3 (0)

Maybe you've noticed that most of my advice on how to play relies on your having an idea of what your opponents are holding. By now you're probably asking, "How can I know what they have with any certainty?" Don't worry. It's possible to figure out what they have, and sometimes their hands will even be quite obvious, but knowing your opponents' hands usually requires you to take in a lot of different information correctly and quickly and arrive at a conclusion in time to play your hand without holding up the game.
If you're trying to read another player's hand, some of the questions you might ask yourself are:

1. What do I already know about this player?
2. Has he played a hand like this before?
3. What position is he in?
4. Is he in the blind?
5. Did he raise before the flop?
6. Did he call a raise before the flop?
7. Did he check-raise on any round of the hand?
8. Did he call a check-raise?
9. How does he react to other players' bets and raises?
10. Have I picked up any tells from this player?
11. Statistically speaking, what are the odds that he holds the hands that I think he might hold?
12. Why did he raise before the flop, on the flop, or on the turn or river?
13. Why didn'the raise before the flop, on the flop, or on the turn or river?
14. If I put myself in his place, and I played the hand the way he has from the beginning, what would I have?
15. What are his pot odds?
16. What does my common sense, experience and logic tell me he might have?

These are a lot of questions to ask and answer in a short amount of time (in the heat of the battle, no less!), and they're only a sample of the many questions that could be asked. Fortunately, many hands are similar in the way that they're played, and the fact that you might play hundreds of hands per playing session will give you plenty of practice reading similar hands.

• Reading Poker Hands Part3 (0)
• Reading Poker Hands Part2 (0)
• Poker – Short Handed Games Part3 (0)