Pre-flop shorted handed guidelines (longish)

Dear Forum:


One of the greatest voids in the hold’em literature is the lack of pre-flop guidelines for shorthanded play. I have the 21st Ed. HPFAPs and the Ciaffone& Brier’s (C&B) hold’em book and am disappointed that neither of them go into this issue more in depth. Basic pre-flop guidelines should not be that difficult to mathematically formulate for these situations. Let me just start with Ax opening guidelines. If there is interest in this discussion about openers, I will post more questions later.


C&B give excellent advice for playing in 7 handed games, such as open raising UTG with Ace 10 off. (This will take players off-guard if they do not realize that you have changed gears after a couple of players have left.)


But what about six, five, four, three handed games? How many of you will typically open raise UTG with Ace 9 off with six players, what about with 5 players, etc?

HPFAP says on page 38, that against weak opponents should open/raise on the button when everyone else has folded w/ Ace 6 off. What if you opposition is not weak, regularly plays shorted handed, and knows what you are up to? (I am in particular thinking about a home game where you play with the same players who carefully watch your play and take note of your typical raising standards. Eg. they will notice that you raise on the button with Ace 7 off, and will now tend to reraise on the blind with Ace 10 off)


So in a nut-shell, what are your Ax opening/raising standards as the table gets smaller? Also how many of you would limp with Ace 7 in a 3-handed game when on the button?


I look forward to your ideas.


JB

HEPFAP's guidlines are good to go by in short handed games. Most of the short handed play I have done is LL online 5 or less handed. I tend to open raise any Ace in these games, especially if one or two have folded to me. Ace small might be a bit a bit more marginal being the first one in from the first position, but I still raise it and hope to win the blinds. I am not going to open limp with an Ace in any circumstance, it is looking pretty good to me and I'm hoping to win the blinds, if you don't raise there is no chance of winning preflop. BB is correct in reraising you with AT, that is not an adjustment to your raising standards on the button, that is a standard play. Most of the hands you are going to be open raising are going to seem very thin....most of these you are hoping to win the blinds uncontested, you should be paying attention to how the BB plays against you when you are raising with your thinner hands and make the appropriate adjustments there, I don't think there are any adjustments to make with open raising with your Aces... How you play these after the flop is much more important as this is what is going to define you as a good, average, or terrible short handed player, the decisions after the flop are much more difficult than any of your preflop open raising decisions....A more interesting question might be what are you 3 betting with after the first position player, who you have observed open raising with A2, has open raised and you are next to act after him/her?


Allan


PS....Although I haven't been able to attend in quite a long while you should make an attempt to play in the short handed study group on UB. Monday at 7:30pm EST and Wed at 10 pm EST. Playing against a group of 2+2ers will do a lot of good if you are looking to improve your SH game...


Allan

That's Wednsday (Thursday morning, actually) at 1:00am Eastern for the study group.

Thanks for your ideas Allan.


Opening with something like Ace 5 off UTG five handed sounds like a good move if there is reasonable chance that everyone might fold. (In my home game when 5 handed, all players would fold only about one out of ten times, and I tend to merely limp (or occaisionally fold) here UTG).


I remember that S&M make a special point about raising (even playing) Ace 2 or Ace 3, in that if your lower card pairs on the flop, you automatically have two over cards on the board, and it becomes more difficult to know how to play.


You are absolutely right about making it three bets w/ Ace 10 off against an open raiser on the button, but I would draw the line at Ace 8 or 9, and just call. If an ace comes on the flop, being out of position I will check, and call a bet hoping that I have enduced a bluff, a bet by the original raiser is mandatory here no matter what. I think that I would not raise on the flop against a non-threatening board (no 2 flush or straight), and define my hand for him, because he very likely will drop w/ two undercards, which I might want him to keep semi-bluffing with.


I will try to join the study group game some time soon.


Thanks,

JB