[Buzz]

As you suggest, I think there is a distinction to be made between short-handed and one-on-one play.

And there's a huge distinction between starting out short-handed and starting out at a full table where you soon end up short-handed, presumably playing against the better starting hands dealt to a larger number of opponents.

When you start out one-on-one, I think you want a hand with a couple of high cards plus a couple of low cards. Aces reign supreme. A pair of aces with any low card, even an eight, is probably a favorite over almost anything you'll likely encounter, one-on-one. With a better low card than an eight, especially a low wheel card, even better. I don't like four high cards much for one-on-one play. (I like it better than three high cards plus one low or middle card, but that isn't saying much). When you have four high cards, low is more likely to be enabled on the board than when you have some low cards.

The quality of the low cards matters more as you have more opponents. One-on-one, any two low cards can take the low half of the pot, but with just two opponents, especially when you started out with more, at least one of your opponents is very likely to have a very nice low holding.

Lastly, "high hand" and "high cards" don't mean the same thing.

Just some random thoughts.

Buzz