Advice for adjusting pre-flop play when you're suddenly shorthanded?

[Sandsifter]

I have a problem that comes up quite often while playing .50/1.00 at Empire Poker. Any advice woould be appreciated.

I'm slowly learning to judge whether to stay or fold based on my openers and position. I'll be doing okay (which means breaking even or slightly up for me) in a 10 player game, and then 4 people leave the table. This is when my game seems to fall apart.

Is it best to just play really tight until the table fills up again, and lose more blinds, or should I start seeing a lot more hands and hope for a good flop? The charts I use as a guideline (from Small-Stakes Hold'em) assume a full table for my decisions

Thanks in advance,
Sandsifter

[PaultheS]

You're going to have to loosen up your starting hand requirements when the game become shorthanded, simply because with less people there is a lower chance someone has a better hand. Also, the blinds come around more often so you will quickly have your stack wittled down if you only play premium full ring hands. That being said, short-handed is a whole different game, and I'm not very good at it myself... Usually I'll try to adjust as best I can but if the game stays that way I'll stand up and find another full table.

[btspider]

Preflop, the quick and easy way is to just pretend the first 4 players folded. Also watch for players who turn up their aggression. Postflop, you will have more heads-up and 3-way situations, so you'll have to loosen up a little bit. It takes some practice.. but these are good situations to learn since others may not be confident about their short-handed play (vs those who seek out 6-max games).

[Sandsifter]

Thanks for the quick replay PaultheS.

Would you happen to know of a list, perhaps compiled from an online site, which shows the average winning hands from tables with 10/9/8..etc players. I've looked around, but haven't been able to find anything like that. Thanks

Sandsifter

[rjc199]

Here it is.web page

[helpmeout]

Just be more aggressive with high cards and play much more hands but dont go crazy.

[Sandsifter]

You guys are great! Thanks.

I'm so glad I discovered this forum. I figure a year of study here and I'll be ready to quit my day job [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]


Sandsifter