short handed on the internet.

[ArtieBoomBoom]

Many internet poker sites offer short handed games. 5 or 6 handed max. What is the advantage or disadvantage of playing in a short handed game?

[eMarkM]

It's a big advantage if you're the best player at the table. Poker skills are amplified greatly when short handed. That said, the 5max tables at a site like PP can be pretty tough. At least at 3/6 and up they are. You have a lot of players that only play the s/h tables and they're pretty good.

I usually play fairly well when a full online table starts to break up and gets down to 5 players who often don't know how to handle the situation. But that's not the case in 5max where people go there specifically looking for the faster s/h game. My biggest leak has been getting beat up at these tables that I don't play frequently enough to get a good rhythym. Or maybe it's just saying something about my own poker skills [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[Jason Pohl]

I think a good analogy of short-handed poker for a good full ring player would be that of a stud high school player going to Division I college ball.

The speed of the game is way up, the opposition is tougher, and your mistakes are magnified. But if you have the REAL tools to win, you will catch up, adapt your play and win. Just like the Frosh collegiate player, it can take a significant amount of time to adjust.

Worse, if you don't really have the tools (to adjust, read opponents, and stay fearless,) then you'll never win short-handed against strong opposition. Remember, many ring game players break even or win because they've played a while, have a reasonably tight game and understand the basic probabilities and relative hand strengths. But they can't adjust when they need a looser, aggressive gameplan with a different set of probabilities and relative hand strengths.

If you do have all those tools and get some serious experience to catch up with the different speed and gamestyle...like eMarkM said, you can win a lot of money against those players who don't.

I recommend if you're really interested, start at the $1/2 tables on Paradise Poker, the $.50/1 on UltimateBet, or the other small shorthanded games on credible sites. The $3/6+ games on Paradise are very, very tough at times.

--Jason

[Robk]

Artie, I just thought I'd point out one disadvantage. People often say that they would rather play against weak/passive (bad) players than crazy/aggressive (bad) players. For a variety of reasons you are going to find a lot of the latter and very few of the former on these tables. And then of course you have to worry about the crazy/aggressive (good) players. Expect your variance to be very high at these tables, even if you are beating the game (and it's often very hard to tell if you are).

[tewall]

An advantage is it's very interesting. You're in many hands and the psychological aspects of poker are very important.

[cavalier]

These crazy/agressive weak players are tough in general, until you really know them. Even knowing that they are weak freaks, it can be dangerous to play several of them at a time.

They tend to call & raise everything. With enough of them, pots get huge. The game turns into a stack moving game after 7 cards. They move the pile from one to another and occassionally when your hand actually holds up, it stops at your seat. Hopefully, this happens before 3 or 4 or 5 hands back to back happen that they river ya ( which will happen ). [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Also, like the other guy said, they might be crazy/agressive good players. It can be very expensive to confuse the two!

In a short handed game, the weak players seem to sting a bit more because you tend to loosen up yourself ( or the antes will eat you up). This makes it easier for them to catch you. You have to be able to read the cards and know where you stand much more since you won't always have super strong hands to work with.

As in all games, however, the cream always rises. So, given there will be a few hands that the weak freaks catch cards and win at the river, you can still walk away a winner by beating them up on the ones that they miss at the river.

Good luck

[mobes]

It's just plain more fun. You get to loosen up varying degrees depending on the table. It get boring folding almost every hand preflop, and then almost all of whats left on the flop in the full games......but it is tough if you can't adjust to other players styles fairly well. Most ring players become weak-tight-obvious when they try to play shorthanded. If you are going to try it, move down a couple limits and remember to be aggressive.