Shorthanded Play (2-4NL and higher)
I play alot of 2-4NL shorthanded online, and I am a winning player at this level. As soon as I go to 5-10NL (the highest stakes NL at the site I play at), I'm dog meat... it seems like any sort of consistent preflop aggression, even with position and decent hands, gets me cleaned out. [BTW, by shorthanded, I mean 5max, average of about 4 players.]
What are the common differences in successful play between full-table and 5max at high-stakes? What are the common differences in successful play between 2-4NL 5max and 5-10NL (or any second-highest stakes game versus the highest-stakes game)?
Is the shorthanded high-stakes NL about slowplaying big hands? I don't seem to need to do that at 5max 2-4NL... but obviously the players are worse.
The quandary I seem to find myself in is, when I'm too selective with hands preflop, I don't get enough action on my big hands... obviously it will allow me to buy a few more pots in position. But overall, this is not a winning formula, since in 5max you just don't get enough playable hands to make money this way, especially when your big hands are getting no action. The other problem is, suppose you take the opposite approach and put in small (1/3rd pot-sized) bets with your decent hands... you're always giving odds to the drawers! You bet the pot with top pair... you'll only get called by someone who flopped two pair or a set or whatnot. On top of that, the moment you start laying down top-pair to raises on the turn, you're a sitting duck. Conversely, the moment you call someone's big bets down with just top-pair, you're a sitting duck! (They wait for a set, and pull the same move.)
Basically, any tips on playing these trickier high-stakes guys short-handed would be great. One thing that would probably be really helpful is the percentage of times certain hands win at showdown, given 4 or 5 players (is this available anywhere on the net???). Also, GENERALLY, what types of starting hands do you play at 5max high-stakes NL?
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