how does strategy change with fewer opponents?

[Navers]

Normally in a 10-handed game, you can play pretty tightly as the blinds won't hurt you and you can maintain a certain level of aggression. I started playing games that were 7 or 8 handed, so how much would I loosen up? is there a huge difference, or am I going to play hands that can be dominated a little more like Q10o from early or middle position?

[MikeGuz]

I really think the texture of the table dicatates hand selection a bit more then number of players. I consider 6 handed a threshold where I losen up a bit more. Again the Table dictates my selection.

[benfranklin]

One general guideline is to play a 7 or 8 handed pot just like a 10 player pot where the first 2 or 3 players folded. Think of it in terms of how many players still have yet to act after you.

The problem with EP in holdem is not knowing what those in later positions will do. If you are UTG+1 in a 10-player game, there are 8 people still to act after you. In a 7-player game, there are only 5 still to act. You can probably play any hand here that you would play in MP at a full table.

I learned starting hand evaluation using Abdul Jalib's strategy from posev.com. One of the things that I like about it is that rather than using general position terms like middle or late, it focuses on how far off the button you are. That automatically compensates for short tables.

[Louie Landale]

The 2+2 starting charts take this into account: playing 7 handed is almost identical to playing 10 handed after 3 players fold and raising on the button in a 3 handed game is the same as in a 10 handed game after 87 folds. There is a bunching factor but it isn't very significant.

Tight-is-right works for full games since there the winning hand is typically reasonably strong: you need a better hand to beat 9 than to beat 1, no duh. But what that means for short handed games is that you don't need a very strong hand to win a show down nor to bet. 3rd pair CAN win contested heads-up show-downs whereas it would have almost no chance in a full game.

This means that you tight-is-right folks are going to get beat up pretty bad against reasonably assertive folks short-handed: you cannot show down 2nd pair and they know it.

Ignoring big-implied odds multi-way hands, you should go with the 2+2 starting hands figuring to usually show-down the hand when you make a pair.

- Louie

[Navers]

good points. I guess I can start thinking of my position as how far I am away from the button vs. early, middle, or late. I guess I can maintain more aggression at a big table if I'm up against few opponents since it's virtually like playing at a short-handed table.