Weakness in Three-Handed Play

[DerFleischmeister]

I play in a low-limit home game every week. It is a typical mix of relatively solid players and "calling stations", and the game usually has anywhere from three to seven players, but most of the time, that number is usually 3, 4, or 5. I normally stick to Sklansky's strategy for short-handed play, with some variation thrown in every now and again to keep them guessing. I consider myself a decent player, able to beat weak players with some regularity, but would probably get my head handed to me by most 2+2ers.

Here is my question: All the way down to four players, I have a relatively good success ratio, but when the number gets down to three, I will normally lose fairly big. I will stick with the short-handed strategy I'm used to, but invariably, one of the following happens:

-I go into a rock-like shell, and the blinds eat my stack, or:

-I play aggressively, loosening up my starting hand standards a little bit, even from regular Sklansky short-handed play (example: I will often play suited Queens or unsuited Kings from any position), and am often just plain beaten (as opposed to getting "sucked out on".)

Can anyone provide any insight in to playing three-handed (or, for that matter, heads-up, as I seem to have trouble there, too)?

Thanks.

[jbc]

Fleisch,

No specific tips, but if you want to work on short handed/heads up play against a good player for free, check out Poki Poker at:

http://games.cs.ualberta.ca/webgames/poker/

It's an attempt at an optimal poker bot done by the computer science folks at the U of Alberta. It will let you get a lot of hands in against a good opponent for no $.

Play well,
jbc

[Tommy Angelo]

Don't think so much about styles and approaches and all that. If you are getting consistently beaten by the same few guys, time and time, my guess is that all too often, you are calling when they have a pair, and they are not calling when you have pair. Maybe if you trust your preflop game a little, you'll have some extra power to spend on figuring out when they have a pair, and then figure out how to fold. Maybe you are using "shorthanded" as an excuse to payoff. Many do.


Tommy

[DerFleischmeister]

The thing is, it's the same people that I do well against, when playing four or more way, that it turns around against when it gets down to three. An example is, last night's game. It started three-way, with one tight/aggressive, but fairly straightforward, player and one about average in the loose/tight, aggressive/passsive realm. I'm down 25 BB in 2 hrs. A fourth (calling station) shows up, I make back about 10 BB in the next hour. The average player leaves, bringing it back down to three-way, and I'm down another 25 BB in 1 hour (about half of this as a result of getting a boat rivered by a bigger boat, so really consider it about 15 BB.) I know when I go on tilt, and this did not occur last night, so it wasn't a result of that. I would go to the river with TPTK, no possible straights or flushes, board not paired, and nobody showing any real aggression but me, only to be shown a flopped two pair.

The thing I want to know is, is the strategy different when there are only three at the table, as opposed to, say, six (where I usually do fairly well), and if so, how? One thing I've noticed is, my hand reading becomes less accurate three-way, but I don't make the typical short-handed mistake of overestimating someone's hand...I UNDERESTIMATE them.