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Basic differences between full ring and shorthand No Limit Holdem

The development of ‘fixed-short’ tables online [usually 6 player maximum tables] has really increased the popularity of shorthanded play, especially in no limit. Some people prefer fewer opponents, some feel short play is more creative and interesting, some just like seeing more hands an hour; for whatever reason, the 6 max NL tables at Party often outnumber the full ring tables. While 6 players doesn’t constitute a shorthanded game in the strictest sense of the term, the drop from 10 players to 6 or 5 still opens up the game tremendously. While the variations are probably close to endless, this article just focuses on a few key differences for the player wading into shorthanded games for the first time or the regular shorthanded player who is still using their full ring strategy.

1) Top pair on the flop is almost always worth something. In full ring NL, you learn to distrust a lone top pair, especially if it is a 10 or below; in a short No Limit game, especially in an unraised pot, top pair on a relatively safe board is frequently the best hand and should be bet as such. A mistake that a lot of full ring players make is to undervalue hands like:

Your Hand:
Board:

The key of course, is fewer players, meaning a lower chance that your kicker is an issue and also, a lower chance of all the possible draws being held by your opposition. Bottom line – the hand is more likely to be good on the flop. Bottom line part two: you don’t have to be worried as much about the hand’s ability to hold up, because your opposition is less likely to have enough good reasons to try to chase you down.

2) You can be more aggressive with your draws, even the non-nut ones. A smaller field on the flop means a greater chance that someone will try to pick up the pot just by betting position – leaving you with a great situation to checkraise your draws with the confidence that your misses will be covered or exceeded by your opponent’s folds on the flop. You can also feel more comfortable overbetting your draws on the flop because of the reduced likelihood that someone will have a hand strong enough to call, let alone to come over the top of you with. To boil this concept down to a simple idea: to bet and raise draws profitably, you have to be reasonably sure that you frequently can take down the pot with a bet. The less players in the hand, the better your chances.

3) You can steal and semi steal a whole lot more from the last position. If you’re playing against average players who aren’t sharp enough to keep you in line with resteals here and there, you should abuse position to pick up pots fairly often. Also, the semi-steal with middle or bottom pair often is actually a value bet in shorthanded no limit. For example, in a full ring game if you hold 6h7h last to act with this flop:

Your Hand:
Board:

If five or more players check to you, it’s hard to believe you’re betting the hand for value. But as the number of players in the hand drops down to 3 or so [as it commonly does in 6 handed games], bottom pair is often good and should be bet as such.

4) Preflop position just isn’t as important. Calling loose UTG in a full ring is scary because preflop, 9 players behind you could still raise and once the flop hits, as many as seven players are between you and the button. Obviously in short handed there’s a smaller chance of a raise behind, but there’s also a really good chance in a tight game that UTG preflop will be the button or one off once the flop hits, as there are only 3 players in between you and the button. Raising UTG with a variety of hands is also a workable strategy, since the chances of someone waking up behind you with a re-raising hand are greatly diminished. Bottom line: you don’t have to play as tight UTG because the risks of loose play are lower.

5) It’s a little easier to target individual players and ’set them up’. Shorthanded, you’re just going to butt heads with any given player more often than you would in a full ring. This makes it easier for you to make setup plays, as you can establish patterns quicker and have a greater certainty that a player notices [and gets pissed at / confused by] your patterns. For example, in a full ring you might checkraise player A with a draw and show when he folds, planning to checkraise the next time you have a lock hand, but the next time you’re going to be in a heads up confrontation with that player in a full ring is potentially a long ways off. By the time it comes up again, the player may have a) forgotten your ‘play’, b) not seen you do it enough to form a strong conclusion about what your particular bets mean, or [most likely] c) his ego has healed a bit with the passing of time and he’s no longer looking to ‘get you back’.

This article barely scratches the surface of the unique strategy required for short no limit play, but it’s a good conceptual start from which you can start to develop your own strategies.

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