how much looser should you play in short handed games?

Hi all,

I am a fairly new player. I have been playing limit hold-em for money for about 1 week. ($2/$4). I do well (i win more than i have lost) in 9-10 seated games by playing really tight. I also win more than I lose in 2-3 handed games but seem to lose in 4-6 handed games. Generally, I am losing money in these games because I play so few hands that I can't make up for the blinds and rakes. Is there any thing similar to the Small Stakes Hold 'em book that is geared towards smaller tables.? Any advice on how to play 6 handed games would be appreciated as there seem to be more of these tables than the 10 seaters at the online site where I play?

In the mean time you many wanna play the 10 handed 2/4 games at party poker. TONS of tables there.

[Yads]

in a 4 handed game just imagine that the first 6 people have folded. So what this means is you want to steal more and raise more marginal hands that you likely wouldn't raise unless you were first in in a 10 handed game from the cutoff or button (like A5, 44, etc. or even any hand if you feel that you'll be able to steal the blinds) Also if your opponents make the same adjustment by raising a larger variety of hands then you'll want to defend much more. Other than that there aren't too many adjustments you need to make. Just be more aggressive with your marginal hands and defend your blinds more.

[NickRegino]

yea remember in a 6 handed game if you feel you are playing way too tight, you might just be better off playing full. Also on a note, about defending your blinds: against a LP raiser Button or CO if only one of them is in you can reraise out of the SB with hand groups 1-6(Small Stakes Hold'em for advanced players grouping chart), in the BB if the same thing cept the SB fold u can call with groups 1-8, I usually don't reraise out of the BB for reasons I don't wish to go much in detail for. That is a basic blind defense in a 6 handed 2/4 game, or really any game as long as the types of players allow you to do so, these plays take some experience and I'm sure you will geta hang of it.

[DavidC]

Believe it or not, folding actually reduces the amount of rake that you pay, and therefore is a good thing.

However, as you've seen, folding too much means that the blinds eat you alive (and that you won't get action on your great hands, because people know that you fold too much). It's a double-loss there (though you DO pay less rake).

That's all I can really contribute, so I'll read the rest of the thread now. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[NickRegino]

btw to answer your question, you play a lot looser. 6 handed is in between long and short, so just tweak your game to fit it. try to play like you do in a long handed game but be more prone to steal blinds with speculative hands such as T8s from the button if noone else is in.

I liked the articles written by Jason Pohl:
http://www.pokerpages.com/articles/a...index.htm#pohl