hyper's 6max limit guide

As mentioned here...
http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4296

Please post your criticisms at http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5079 so I can update this thread.

Without further ado....
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Just as a counterargument to the 1bb an hour on the main page, it is true that in limit you cannot make as much as NL. However, I find the advantages of limit make in a viable choice over NL for many people. For one, limit is all about making the decision with the most positive expected value at the given moment given all the information you have. You have 3 actions every time: bet, call, and fold. Choosing the best one is the one that maximizes expected value. If you are good at making many little decisions over and over, you will make a lot of money playing limit.

1bb per hour is somewhat underrated. There are many players who sustain even a 4bb/100 at the lowest limits. For the higher limits 2bb/100 is very sustainable. If you are making 2bb/100 quad tabling 10/20 you will be raking in the big bucks.

Also, the last thing to mention is the amount of fish. At the party $25NL there are plenty fish in the sea. As you move up the ranks, the number of fish goes down a lot, so instead of getting paid off with your big hands, lots of times you only get the blinds, which of course sucks. There just aren't many fish that will play at the $200NL tables, and when they do, they bust out fast.

When you move up the ranks in limit, the fish obviously decrease, but there are still lots of them to make it profitable. In fact I find this surprising when Fnord was posting 15/30 hands and the complete crap these people were playing...the same ones at 0.5/1.

And also a prelude to my guide, I am not claiming to know everything about shorthanded games. However, I do believe all of the information I'm providing is correct, to my knowledge. I am also a poker player, and I am also constantly learning. Thus, if you read something, and you disagree I welcome your comments and criticisms so I can learn from my mistakes. So drop in the forum, and give me a PM!

6 MAX LIMIT GAMES

Shorthanded games give the aggressive player the edge, if they know how to play well. However, just because shorthanded games require aggression, doesn't mean you should become loose and aggressive. Those players take massive swings at shorthanded play, and inevitably end up losing in the long run.

Before you should consider tackling 6max, you should be very competent at the full ring game, with enough hands to know you're soundly beating the game. There are many things profitable in full ring that go down in value for 6max. For example, suited aces are very profitable full ring in a passive table, because with such a big pot with dead money, it's worth chasing for that flush. In 6max this will get you burned.

In this guide, you are learning to be tight and aggressive. It’s the only way to play. By tight, I mean you should be seeing 20% of all flops out of the blinds. Unlike full ring, if you see lower than 20% you are missing out on a lot of profitable situations, and that will affect your win rate. When you get enough experience, you can move up to 25% of all flops. 30% is the highest you can play profitably at, and very few players can achieve that.

Also, if you plan to play seriously I highly recommend Poker Tracker. For limit it is essential to analyzing your game, and plugging leaks. Limit is all about the little things. The player with the least little mistakes makes that extra 0.5bb/100.

So I’ve mentioned playing aggressive, mentioned playing tight, and there's one last thing that's very important, in fact the most important. POSITION. Having that button is so crucial that your starting hand requirements change drastically relative to your position from the button.

Now that you have a general idea of what 6max is all about, time to break it down.

PRE-FLOP PLAY

Position is the single most important deciding factor of what hands to play, so I’m going to break it down by position.

UTG
Open raise or fold. You do not want to call here with anything. The only exception is if the table is unusually aggressive preflop, and you hold AA or KK, and you know there's an 80% chance there's a raise behind you, then you can consider limp-raising. UTG is the worst position preflop, limping can be very costly if someone raises after you. You must open raise to try and get as many people to fold after you, or try and induce mistakes by making them cold call.

As a side note now that I mentioned, cold calling is a HUGE leak in many people's games. This goes in full ring, and it applies in 6max. Do not cold call! Exceptions are if you're on the button and 2 people cold called already, and you hold a suited ace, expecting the blinds to call, etc.

UTG+1
Again the situation is very similar to UTG.

CO
This is when you start to get good position. The only time you should call is when UTG or UTG+1 limped ahead of you. Otherwise, if you're going to play the hand, raise. You want to buy the button by making them fold.

Button
Again, like CO, call only when there are limpers before you. If it's folded to you, raise with decent hands if you think there's a good chance the blinds will fold.

Now, I mentioned calling only against limpers. The decision to call vs. raise is often very close. For example, I call with KTo, but I’ll raise with KTs. Don’t get too stuck up on things like this, your decision preflop in situations like this account for a small percentage of your win rate over the long run. Postflop is where all the money is made.

SB
You have awesome odds here, so if no one has raised, call with anything suited, and connectors.

BB
If everyone folds to the button, who raises, don't be a chicken if you have a decent hand. Even A3o is worth calling to tell the button to screw off trying to steal your blind. Having the ace is important though, with K3o the decision is more dependent on your read on the player.

HANDS
Pocket pairs: These hands go up in value shorthanded. Fold the lowest pairs early position. Call with the lower pairs if there are limpers ahead of you in late position, raise the higher ones in all positions.

Suited connectors: There hands are junk shorthanded. Only play 98s or higher, and only in late position with limpers.

Suited aces and kings: Again like all speculative hands, they go way down in value shorthanded. Just like suited connectors, only late position with limpers.

High card hands: These hands go up in value. KTo, weak hand in full ring, strong hand shorthanded. You should not be afraid of open raising with this hand, from all positions.

Powerhouse hands. AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT, AK, AQ, AJ, KQ...these are all hands you should try to raise, reraise, and cap preflop, depending on what type of players your opponents are.

Just a side note, many players do not like raising and reraise with AK. They like to call, and see the flop cheaply, and when they hit their pair they'll bet aggressively, otherwise they will fold. This is TERRIBLE. You are holding AK, the 3rd or 4th best fricken hand! If you aren't going to raise with that what ARE you going to raise with? Limit is all about doing the thing that maximizes expectation. The chances of AK being the current best hand are VERY high. Raise for value.

Since I expect you to know what hands are good and what hands are crappy, the only change you need to make from full tables is you will be raising a lot more preflop. If it's folded to you, raise if you're going to play the hand. Call if callers ahead of you. Reraise and cap all your premium holdings.

FACING A RAISE
Like I’ve mentioned before, cold calling is a HUGE LEAK. Don’t do it. The only time you should even think about cold calling is if it was a hand you would have raised if no one else did. Getting reads are important, if a TP-P raises before you, you can probably safely muck your AQo, knowing you're probably up against AK, AA, or KK. Against a tight aggressive it's a coin flip. They could have AA, or they could have ATo. You should either reraise, or fold. I don't like cold calling. I don't like calling in general. For me I reraise AQ, and fold everything else. TT and higher pairs I reraise, medium pairs 77-99 depends on the opponent to reraise or call, and how many opponents will be in the hand. The only time I cold call is when there are multiple cold callers in front of me, and I have a lower pocket pair or suited connectors.

Basically the overall idea for cold calling, play AS A TIGHT AS A TIGHT ANIMALS ASS. Just to give you a general idea, in the last 1000 hands I’ve played, I’ve cold called 4 times. And that's probably too loose.

In summary; raise or fold. Call with hands too crappy to raise with, but too good to fold (but only after someone else called). Cold call only when necessary...i.e. almost never.

FACING A RERAISE AFTER YOU RAISED
If you raised first, and it gets 3bet and capped back to you, muck your hand unless you hold the goods. Treat this as if you were cold calling.

What if it's one bet back to you? In most situations I will call. You don't want to fold after you raise or people who notice will start throwing extra raises at you. However, if a loose passive reraises your raise, what else will they raise with? Give them credit and fold. If a tight aggressive raises, that's when you gotta decide whether to reraise, call, or fold. This depends on position as well. Being first to act or last to act for the rest of the round against a specific player will change what action you must take. Unfortunately I do not have enough experience in these situations to give any meaningful advice (mainly because I choose soft tables).

You raise a lot preflop for one reason. You are telling everyone after you that you think your hand is worthy of having the button. You are telling them that if they think their hand is more worthy, then they must cold call or reraise you. This is all a set up for what makes you money....postflop play, so you want to go into the flop with the best position possible.

POST-FLOP PLAY

There are many decisions preflop that have little effect on your long term win rate. Bet, raise, fold, call, they all mean relatively little compared to what you do postflop will mean. Your decisions postflop are much more important because they can cost you the pot. Losing a big pot you should win is a disaster! You must prevent that from happening.

In general, you always want to be the one that's betting and raising. Calling is weak, and none of us want to be weak. The only time you should be calling is when you are on a draw, and getting the odds and/or implied odds to call.

The basic run down is this. On the flop you want to protect your hand by getting it heads up, or build the pot with a monster or drawing hand. On the turn is when you need to decide if your hand is good. Very few players are capable of raising you on the turn without the goods. Don't be the sheriff and call down to find out. Trust in your read. If you call down on the turn, you must call down on the river too. All those big bets will add up. Remember, limit is about all the little things adding up. It's just not "one more bet." It's one more bet over and over, causing you to lose money.

Assuming at least 3 handed...

FLOP PLAY EARLY POSITION

Bad Hands:
Lowest pair isn't best too often, you can muck these hands.

Marginal Hands:
Being in early position has the advantage of building pots when you have a monster, and check-raising marginal hands to protect your hand, and increasing your chances of winning. A lot of advice out there suggests you shouldn't continue beyond the flop with less than top pair. Having medium pair is very often the best hand shorthanded. If everyone checks to the button, who bets, you MUST raise here with mid pair. Many people bet on the button with nothing, you may have him beat. Other players after you may have top pair with weak kicker, facing 2 cold, they might fold fearing being outkicked.

Good Hands:
With top pair good kicker, or better hands, I like to bet out to build a pot. I will not slow down on the turn or river until my opponents tell me to (by raising back at me).

Pocket Pairs:
Play it like a marginal hand if your your PP can beat mid pair, muck it otherwise. Play it like a good hand if your pocket pair hits a set, or is higher than the board.

Flush Draws and Open Ended Straight Draws:
You want as many people in the pot as possible. If the table is loose with many people calling to the river with crap, bet out to build the pot. If the table is fairly tight, check with the intention of calling when the button bets, to try and get more callers. If the player after you bets, and people call afterwards, when it's your turn, RAISE. You have nothing now, but no one is going to fold for one more bet. Maximize the pot you can win by raising.

Gutshots
Call if you're getting odds, otherwise fold.

Overcards
These are a bastard to play early position, being you cannot use the freecard and free showdown plays. Needless to say, if the board is very ragged, I will try for a check raise, and bet out on the turn, and hope they fold. If the check raise fails, and the turn doesn't help, then well you're screwed Razz

. Depending on your reads you may choose to bet out, or check fold. If the board is coordinated, I will check/fold, knowing there's too many ways I can be beat.

Backdoor Draws
Not worth playing if this is the only thing you have.

Multiple combination of the above
Again, consider the board, consider the players, and do what maximizes the pot size and your ability to win it. Check raise marginal hands, bet out strong hands and draws, and reraise for value to build big pots.

Assuming at least 3 handed...

FLOP PLAY MIDDLE POSITION

Bad Hands:
Lowest pair isn't best too often, you can muck these hands. Being sandwiched should give you more than enough reason to fold this.

Marginal Hands:
Hitting a marginal hand in middle position is very difficult to play. Here's the problem. You have a marginal hand, so you must protect it by betting. But when you bet, the players after you (1 or 2) can raise! If they raise, you cannot fold because if you fold too much everyone will take extra shots at you. And of course, they have position on you on the turn. If you just check, well the button can also check and you've given them a free look at the river. About the only good thing that could happen is if someone before you bet, allowing you to raise. They are usually betting to build a pot, perhaps on a draw. Destroy their drawing odds by thinning the field.

Good Hands:
Bet them, lesser hands will call, if they fold that's fine too.

Pocket Pairs:
Read above about marginal hands.

Flush Draws and Open Ended Straight Draws:
Keep as many people in the pot as possible. Flushes and straights win big against big fields, so you want many opponents. Call if early position bets to get more callers after you. Check if early position checks.

Gutshots
Call if you're getting odds, otherwise fold.

Overcards
Again these are difficult to play. Basically same ideas as being in early position. If early position bets, either raise (for free card/free showdown) or fold.

Backdoor Draws
Not worth playing if this is the only thing you have.

Multiple combination of the above
Again, consider the board, consider the players, and do what maximizes the pot size and your ability to win it. Check raise marginal hands, bet out strong hands and draws, and reraise for value to build big pots.

All in all, there are not too many differences between early and middle position. Being early gives you the advantage to build your pots with flush draws, and check raise marginal hands. With a weak draw middle position, getting caught between an aggressive button and aggressive blind can be costly, so you should avoid such situations if possible. Bet if you think there's a good chance that it will make the people after you fold, thus "buying" the button. This will allow you to try for the free card, or free showdown. If people after you call, you cannot like your hand much. But they could have a weaker marginal hand then you. Depending on your read you can bet the turn or not.

Assuming at least 3 handed...

FLOP PLAY LATE POSITION

Bad Hands:
If it's checked to you, bet if there's a high chance everyone will fold. Take the free card.

Marginal Hands:
If it's checked to you, bet it. You may have the best hand you may not. Bet to find out. If someone before you bets, raise it to drive other people out. They will often check to you on the turn. You will then have a choice between the free card or free showdown. I prefer the free showdown for 2 reasons. One, betting the flop and turn gives your opponents 2 chances to fold. Also, the free showdown prevents a check raise on the river. But of course, if you think your hand is best, value bet.

Draws
Bet and try to build pots. If someone early bets, and there are 2 or 3 callers, you want to raise your flush and OESD. Your raise is for value, you have a huge chance of winning the pot. Juice it up while you can!

Weak Draws
I like to bet these when it's checked to me, usually for the free card. This applies for gutshots and overcards, although I'll do the free showdown with overcards rather than the free card.

Now if you've read my early position advice, you'll see that being on the button you can be check raised. Fortunately at the lower limits the only people capable of making this play are good players, or stupid players. Find out which type of player they are and adjust accordingly. Unless you have absolutely nothing, call if it's 1 small bet back to you. Then you can fold the turn if you don't improve.

FLOP PLAY IN THE BLINDS

Playing the blinds well is one of the most difficult skills to master. This is one of the more profound differences between longhanded and shorthanded play. The blinds come around twice as fast, and people will take shots at your blinds. You cannot let them bully you around. In other positions you are usually fine because you are playing premium hands anyway. Even if everyone just calls, you have 96o in the blinds, and the flop comes 249, it's hard to know where you are.

In that situation, you can bet out to test the waters. But if someone has A9, they may call it, or raise it. If they raise it you can muck, knowing you're in deep shit. If they call it, you're in deep shit too, because there are a lot of passive players who will call like this. You'll likely end up paying them off if they don't raise.

Going for the check raise is alright too, but most of the time you'll just scare the button into thinking they're in deep shit, and they'll just call down the turn and river bets, and flip over T9.

Playing blinds is difficult because there is no way you can "buy" the button. If you bought it that means everyone folded Very Happy

. Thus, the blinds are really only profitable when you have monsters.

You are expected to lose money in the blinds, you just need to minimize it as much as possible. Be aggressive with marginal holdings. I like to stick with my mantra..."if they don't raise, I have the better hand."

GENERAL FLOP COMMENTS

Playing the flop well is crucial because most of the time, if you are playing the flop, you are playing the turn and river too. You do not want to make it costly to play the later streets. Read the board, and look for possible draws and put your opponents on hands (even the unlikely ones). The reason to be aggressive is because besides winning a bigger pot when you have the best hand, and causing people to fold, you get INFORMATION.

Calling, is not information. To me, calling is "I like my hand." That's it. In fact I've played against players who wouldn't raise even though they hit their set. They held TT...didn't raise preflop. Hit the set on the flop, didn't bet. Turn didn't bet. Even the river they didn't raise it. Being aggressive will make you fall prey to slowplaying. Don't worry about it. Getting slowplayed doesn't happen often enough for it to be considered a problem.

Anyways, most of the time your opponents will just call. If anyone raises you, put them on a hand. Are they fish, or are they tight aggressive? If they are a fish, you can safely muck your hand on the turn if you don't improve knowing they are not capable of raising on a draw or semibluff. Against a tight aggressive, well trust in your read and hope you were right....reraise your best hands, muck marginal hands if the board is coordinated.

If you haven't noticed yet, it is difficult to make the right decision if you are up against a bet or raise. You need to make the decision to avoid folding the possible best hand, or paying off the better hand. You don't want to be in this position very often, that's why you should be more or less playing raise/fold. Be aggressive with a hand you want to play, fold everything else. Let your opponents make the mistakes. Fortunately at the lower limits you can to put your opponents in a situation to call unprofitably WAY MORE OFTEN than it is the other way around.

TURN PLAY

Now you've reach the turn. You like your hand enough to take it to the bigger streets. This is the time to make the laydown, or continue to the river. Never ever call down on curiosity. The turn is NOT the time to make loose calls. Loose calls should be restricted to the flop when it's still relatively cheap. Trust in your read. Don't waste 2 big bets to find out.

Early Position
Fairly simple if you have a monster...bet out. Playing marginal hands is more difficult. Did they just call the flop? Did they reraise you on the flop? Again, if no one else has shown aggression, my hand is best. I like to bet out on the turn with marginal hands good kicker to test the waters, if they raise, I am pretty sure I'm beat. Most players will not raise on the turn without the goods.

Middle Position
Most often by the turn it will be heads up. Sometimes it will end up 3 handed. Anyways, you want a decent hand here because you don't wanna be stuck between 2 aggressive players with a drawing hand. If early position bets, you can try buying the button by raising your marginal hands. But remember, the bet sizes are double now, so you must decide if it's worth risking that extra bet to win the pot. Most players will not bet out on the turn without a good hand.

Late Position
Well, if you bet or raised the flop, most likely they will check to you. You have a choice between the free card and the free showdown. Do the free showdown against weak tight players (because they can make laydowns), and do the free card against calling stations (because they won't fold). If someone early bets, depending on your read, call down or fold. I don't like it when someone else takes the steering wheel, so I'll tend to fold if I can't be the aggressor.

Before I finish up river play, I think I should mention how hand values differ from full ring.

HAND VALUES

monster = top pair top kicker or better
good hand = top pair weak kicker
marginal hand = mid pair good kicker
bad hand = everything else (only the very best players can play mid pair crappy kicker profitably, so don't try it until you have the experience)

As you can see, the monster category is a lot lower than in full ring. Top pair top kicker very rarely wins the pot in full ring. The main reason for this is because in full ring the blinds come very slowly, so you can be VERY selective of what hands you play. Also, often with more limpers and a passive preflop game, longhanded lets speculative hands like suited cards, lower pockets, connectors, etc. to play profitably, and cheaply.

Those hands just don't get lucky enough to be profitable shorthanded because there isn't enough dead money in the pot. Avoid them unless there are multiple limpers with you having the button.

In summary, the average winning hand is a function of the number of players seeing the flop. Most of the time only 3 or sometimes 4 people see the flop shorthanded, and it thins to 3 or 2 on the turn and river. With fewer players, you need a lesser hand to win. However, if you happen to find yourself in a very loose shorthanded table, like 5 or 6 people seeing the flop all the time, move your hand values up. A single pair will not win very often.

RIVER PLAY

You've made it this far. There's almost no folding now. The pots by this time are big enough for you to call down with almost anything. If people were passive through all streets, then you can consider folding (because the pot will be small). However, if someone bets into you, and you only hold mid pair top kicker, what should you do?

I consider a big pot to contain 10BB or more. With 1BB back to you, you are getting 11:1 odds to call. In other words, you only need to beat the bettor 8.3% of the time for this call to be profitable. You CANNOT fold unless you are over 90% sure you are beat. Almost no read is that accurate. Maybe if the board was 4 flush with 4 to a straight you can fold. Otherwise you shouldn't fold. You will be constantly surprised with the crap your opponents are playing.

Early Position
If you've been betting the entire time, you should bet again if the river is a blank. If the river completes many potential draws, you should still bet it. Just because the river card completes flushes and straight draws doesn't mean your opponents hold them. If they are straightforward opponents, they might raise you, allowing you to fold (only if the pot is under 10bb, call if it's big). You spend just as much when you are ahead as you are behind. Check calling the river automatically when a scare card comes will make you miss a lot of value bets. Do not assume the worse. If they shown a lot of aggression on the turn, then I may check call it down.

Middle Position
If you're still at the river at middle position, you must have a pretty good hand. If someone early bets, before you call rerun the hand and see what late position players have done in previous streets. You do not want them raising after you because it will be very costly.

Late Position
Call down scary rivers in big pots. Bet blanks when you have a hand.

Facing a raise
Again, most players will not raise back at you without a good hand on the river. However, before you go psycho and hit the raise button again, put them on a hand. Just today I was dealt rockets. Hit a set on the flop, bet the flop, bet the turn, bet the river, and I got raised. I paused for a second, and I thought no fricken way they have QT for the gutshot on the river. I reraised, and they cap it back. Yep they had QT.

Bet or check behind? Bet out, or check/fold?
Theory of Poker mentions that sometimes you cannot bet because the only hands that will call are the ones that beat you. This is true, but only with thinking opponents. Loose low limit games are filled with players who will call with the lowest pair just to make sure you aren't bluffing them out of the pot with an unimproved AK. Because of this, you should be able to value bet a large percentage of your hands, even the marginal ones. Put a label of tight or loose on the player and adjust accordingly. Tend to be aggressive against loose opponents, and passive against tight players on the river, with your marginal holdings.

A lot of this information is explained in greater detail in Ed Miller's Small Stakes Holdem. It is an excellent book and I recommend it to anyone who wants to excel their holdem game. However, do not follow his preflop charts in shorthanded games for which hands to call. Limping is a money loser shorthanded, don't do it first in the pot. Raise if you want to play the hand.

Now, an important concept...

PROTECTING YOUR HAND

The concept of protecting your hand is trying to make your opponents fold better hands, or make them call unprofitably. Many limit players from the full ring get slaughtered in shorthanded games because they fold too damn much! The fit-or-fold strategy in full ring is a sure money loser shorthanded. They hit top pair, but weak kicker. They will fold sometimes even for one bet on the flop, because the thought of being outkicked is so menacing. They don't know they are folding the best hand more often than not.

So, bet and make those players fold! Now, what about someone early betting, and you raising with mid pair good kicker after they bet? This gives these weak tight players even MORE reason to fold their top pair weak kicker because it costs them 2 bets. Remember, you want overcalls if you're drawing to a monster, or flopped a monster (like a set). You only need to raise to protect weaker one pair hands. Many loose players call, even to the river with low pair. With each additional caller, the one after is getting better odds to call. You want to raise because by making these players fold it improves your winning chances (for the times the turn and river makes their hand into the winner).

People might argue that if you don't raise the flop, you are going to miss bets with the current best hand. This is often wrong. Players will tend to check/call down players who were aggressive the previous street. "Check to the raiser" is very common in low stakes games. That's why freecards, cheap showdowns, free showdowns, etc. work. Because of this, if you raise the flop, you will only get them to call your turn and river bets. If you just call the flop, but raise the turn, since you are now the new aggressor you get at least one extra big bet.

There is an interesting concept when you are playing against multiple bad players, them COMBINED can have enough outs to beat you. So instead of the 1st player having 4 outs, the 2nd player 4 outs, 3rd player 4 outs, you can think of it has 12 outs against you. This is called the "schooling" concept. You should raise to slim it down to 8 or 4 outs against you.

Another reason for betting and raising, is because players tend to check to the raiser of the previous street. By betting and raising you can take free cards and free showdowns.

WHEN RAISING WILL NOT PROTECT YOUR HAND

Even though you can protect your hand by betting and raising, sometimes you are unable to protect your hand. For example, preflop UTG limps (bad! don't do it yourself), and UTG+1 raises. CO folds, and you 3bet your aces. The small blind folds, big blind calls (bad yet again), and the limper calls (bad!). The big blind and limper have done terrible mistakes by cold calling. Be happy if they are doing it all the time because their money will end up in your pockets. Anyways, on with the hand...UTG+1 caps, and everyone calls.

The pot is 16 small bets. There are very few hands that will cap preflop, so you can put UTG+1 on KK or QQ, etc. The flop comes with a 2 flush, and 2 to a straight, medium cards. You almost certainly have the best hand, however, your hand is vulnerable so you should protect it. You probably have UTG+1 beat unless the miracle K or Q comes, so your concern is the blind and limper on a draw. The small blind checks, limper checks, and UTG+1 bets again. You should NOT raise.

Why? Playing poker is all about inducing mistakes from your opponents. There are people that argue that the chances of you having the best hand are TOO great right now, so you must raise for value. However, after you raise, the pot will contain 19 small bets. After your raise, the SB gets 8:1 odds to call, which is the treshold to call profitably for 4 out draws (because of implied odds). The limper gets 10.5:1 odds after the blind calls. And with one bet back, UTG+1 can even call a 2 out draw profitably! Since you shown aggression on the flop, your opponents will likely check to you on the turn. But since you raised it on the flop, on the turn the pot will be 12 big bets. So even if you bet, any 4 out draw (like gutshots) can call profitably getting over 12:1 odds. Thus, in this situation raising the flop will not protect your hand because your opponents can call profitably (and with the pot so big you can be CERTAIN none of them will fold). Your raise does not make your opponents do any mistakes.

Your best chance to protect your hand is to wait for the turn where the bets double, and the turn doesn't help any draws. If you called, the pot on the turn will be 10 big bets. The small blind and limper haven't done much except call, so you can expect them to check to the raiser UTG+1, who will bet, allowing you to raise. Your raise will face the blind and limper with 13:2, or 6.5:1 odds, which is far too crappy for one more card to come. You have just allowed your opponents to make mistakes by calling, thus you gain.

People still argue that they want to win the biggest pot possible by raising the flop and then planning to raise the turn again. However, because the theme "check to the raiser" is so common, you will actually more likely make the pot SMALLER by raising on the flop instead of the turn. Reraising the flop will slow you opponents down on the turn (unless they themselves have a monster). But just calling the flop, and unexpectedly raising the turn will tap them for at least one more big bet, resulting in a bigger pot.

In summary, a flop raise fails to protect your hand when the raise allows your opponents to call profitably (ie big pots). Wait until the turn. With one card left on the river to destroy your hand you are less likely to be taken down. Jam the pot on the turn, and charge the callers more than what they bargained for.

Your opponents' mistakes is money in your pocket. Do whatever you must to make them do the MOST mistakes.

POT SIZE & OPPONENTS

Now before you go raising everything, you need to look at the pot. ALL decisions should be centered on the size of the pot. If the pot is 3 small bets, and someone bets and you hold mid pair good kicker, it's not worth spending 2 small bets to win 4. So fold it.

However, if you have a marginal hand, with a backdoor flush draw, you have some outs to the best hand (such as trips on the turn, 2 pair, flush redraw). If you have the odds (and/or implied odds) to call, THEN that's when you want to raise, to thin the field.

With weaker hands such as single pair, and sometimes 2 pair, you want to thin the field. With flush and straight draws, you want many opponents. Many players make the mistake of betting and raising the crap out of their straights and flushes when they hit on the turn. What they don't realize is they just make it heads up, instead of gaining the 2 extra bets from callers if they didn't raise. Maximize your hand! Straights and flushes are strong enough to take down many opponents, so keep them in and take more of their money.

Fine print:
Just as a warning, playing marginal hands is a HUGE money loser if you do it wrong, so before you raise that mid pair or even bottom pair, ask yourself why you are raising, and what you want your opponents to do when you raise. But of course, if you don't play marginal hands at all shorthanded you'll get your ass kicked anyways. So learn to do it well!

Also, this entire post about protecting your hand is from the material I learned in Theory of Poker and Small Stakes Holdem, so props to the 2+2 authors who awakened me when I first read this.

THE SWINGS

I'm sure most of you have heard of the 300BB rule for full ring. And if you haven't you probably shouldn't be reading this guide. 300BB is the MINIMUM you should have for 6max. Don't even think about playing shorthanded without being properly bankrolled. I've taken 40BB swings up and down playing shorthanded within an hour or 2 (I've heard of people taking 100BB swings as well). Since you're playing many more marginal hands than normal, you'll be going to showdowns thinking you'll only win 60% of the time. Full ring, often you shouldn't go to showdown without being 80% sure you'll win. This amounts to way more swings than usual. Not being properly bankrolled is just asking the poker gods to bust you.

Anyways, on to more strategies...

BLIND DEFENSE AND STEALS

Defending blind steals:
Playing the blinds well against a possible blind steal is very difficult. For one, playing the player is much more important. One of the many benefits of playing shorthanded is you get to improve your reading skills. This will transfer well when you move up limits, which tend to have better players (but still plenty fish in the sea).

If you suspect a steal, call with anything connected, anything suited, ace rag, king good kicker. If you feel like being aggressive, you can reraise with the slightly better hands and bet out on the flop no matter what comes. Most of the time I'll bet out on the flop if I suspect it's a steal. If they reraise, I'll relook at the board and put them on a hand. Playing the blinds against a steal is very dependent on your read on the player, so you just need to be in this situation lots of times before you get good.

Against thinking tight aggressive players I’ll reraise preflop. You may be dominated, you may not be. But the point is when you reraise, even with hands just barely callable, you are telling that player to screw off and not try again next time. Postflop, it is a constant battle of betting, check raising, check calling, reraising, capping, the whole deal. Your reading skills are put to the test!

Against passive players tight and loose, if you like your hand enough then call, and bet out on the flop. Fold to a raise. These players are too straightforward to try any tricky plays. If they call, they are probably on a draw. So bet the turn again if it’s a blank, and they will probably fold. If they call again, bet marginal and better hands. Check/call weak hands. Check/fold high card hands unless it's AK or AQ etc.

Against loose aggressives, well either call down, or go into a raising war. They will often show you crap at the showdown, but that doesn't mean they won't hit 2 pair with 53o. I like to call the preflop bet, and then call down with marginal hands, and fold everything else.

It takes lots and lots of experience to play well against blind steals. And since they happen infrequently, you can’t really assess how good your blind play is until you have a shitload of hands. You expect to break even in the long run…which beats losing all those blinds.

And a further note, heads up, ace high is a pretty good hand, especially if the board is ragged. Your opponents probably raised with face cards. With all unders you can be pretty sure they missed too. AK and AQ are strong hands because they don't run into kicker problems.

Blind stealing:
Being in position is a huge advantage when you are blind stealing. You get to see what your opponents are doing. If you flop a monster, and they are defending their blinds, and they bet out, you can wait for the turn, and raise them there. You can take free cards, and do free showdowns. Bet if you think there’s more than a 50% chance they’ll fold or you have the best hand. Take the free cards and free showdowns if you think there is very little chance they’ll fold, and you have a weak hand.

BLUFFING

Most of the time you'll be playing against loose passive players with table selection. Don't bother bluffing at the lower limits, they won't fold. Even with lowest pair they will call you down. However, if you have a read of the player and you think there's a good chance they will fold, then you can bet. I rarely do stone cold bluffs unless it's heads up for a fight over the blinds and I only have ace high. Your success bluffing more than one person goes straight down the drain. Let's say your chances of bluffing one of them is 60%. You will only be able to bluff both of them successfully (0.60)(0.60) = 36% of the time. As you can see, with each additional player your success goes way down.

INDUCING BLUFFS

Say you have middle pair, but with a very crappy kicker. The board isn't coordinated at all. It's 4 handed, and everyone checks the flop. Everyone checks the blank turn. The blank river falls, and then someone early bets for no apparent reason at all. The 2 after him fold, and it's your turn. Since you close the action, you should call. The pot is laying 3:1, so if you think the bluffer is bluffing more than 25% of the time, you're theoretically making money on the call.

Now, switch roles. The bluffer bets, the person after folds, and now it's your turn (so one person after you left). Do not call in this situation, because you do not close the action. If you can only beat a bluff, you should raise to make the person after you fold.

As you can see, doing something like above is what drives the variance up for shorthanded games. You shouldn't attempt it until you have significant experience. But sometimes, you just have that gut feeling, "yeah this guy is bluffing." Call them down. You need to win many small pots as well as big pots. In full ring games you don't give a crap about these little pots because your A2s limping in with 8 other players will pay you off huge when you hit, and it only costs you 1 small bet.

Now this isn't to say you should try and win EVERY pot you're in even the small ones. This situation is special because no one has shown aggression, and then a river bet comes out of no where. If someone early bet the flop, and 2 people called, and you called as well. The turn was no help, and early position bets again, 1 folds, and the other calls. You should fold. With middle pair weak kicker, you probably won't win against an aggressor and a caller.

MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS

Free showdown vs Cheap showdown

Some of you may be confused about how I'm describing the "free showdown." I'm not even sure if I am using the correct term. In SSH it mentions the "cheap showdown." This is when you use the free card play, and plan to check behind on the river again if you miss.

I'm describing the "free showdown" as betting/raising the flop, so they check to you on the turn, where you bet again. So this will induce them to check yet again to you on the river, when THEN you can check behind for a "free" showdown.

I personally don't like the cheap showdown because it feels ackwardly weak. It does have it's uses, but I think even betting on the turn with overcards is often still a value bet, and thus you are making the correct move by betting because you have the current best hand.

THE LAST POST

Well..probably the last, I can't think of anything else to post about. About the only thing left is about reading people. I don't think this skill can really be taught. Like Johnny Chan says, you need that poker instinct. If there's anything 6max will do is it will improve your reading skills ten fold. So...just keep playing and let experience take care of training your reading skills.

SUMMARY

Preflop:
- play tight early position, play looser late position
- almost always raise first in
- play very tight against a raise...fold or reraise most of the time (cold call if there are lots of people in the pot and implied odds warrant it)

Flop:
- protect your marginal hands by raising or check-raising
- build pots with your strong draws, bet into loose opponents, check call tight opponents
- some loose calls are ok if you close the action

Turn and River:
- continue betting into callers, just because they call doesn't mean they have anything
- don't slow down until raised back, reraise and cap all monster draws
- take free cards with weak draws, take free showdowns with stronger draws

Position:
- tend to play passively hands in early and middle position
- tend to play aggressively hands in late position
- if you are going to call in middle position, raise if there's a good chance you can get the button to fold

Hand values:
- it takes a lesser hand to win against 2 opponents, and takes a monster hand to win against 5 opponents, so adjust accordingly

Protecting your hand:
- bet and raise marginal hands if it will make players after you make unprofitable calls, or fold a better hand
- if the pot is big, just call the flop, and raise the turn on a safe card to induce bigger mistakes by your opponents
- from SSHE, raising when you should call can cost you one bet, but calling when you should raise can cost you the entire pot.

Blind steals and defense:
- take a shot at the blinds with decent hands
- defend your BB with anything good, even ace high

Swings:
- 300BB is the absolute minimum you should have. 100BB swings up and down are not uncommon

Bluffing:
- don't bother trying to bluff more than one opponent
- bluff if the chance they will fold is greater than 50%
- induced bluffs (ie bets from opponents that come out of no where) you should call with marginal to weak hands if you close the action, and raise if you can only beat a bluff but there are people after you

General:
- if they don't raise, my hand is still best
- every time you hit the call you should question why you did it...was it a long shot call, or are you just calling to find out what they hold?
- how much you start calling is a good indicator if you're playing properly or playing on tilt
- try and adapt a bet/raise/fold mentality, call only when necessary
- play aggressively in big pots, passively in small pots
- do not fold for 1 bet in big pots, you only need to be right more than 8% of the time, expect to catch a crappier hand or a bluff much more often than that
- don't worry about being slowplayed, playing aggressively makes you fall prey to traps...pay off with confidence! You won't get slowplayed enough for it to be a problem.
- most importantly, pot size is what drives all your decisions

Credits:
- me! hypermegachi Razz

- David Sklansky's Theory of Poker
- Ed Miller's Small Stakes Holdem
- the limit players of FTR: Fnord, mike4066, elipsesjeff, Lonnie, gutshot, and more...
- honourable mention: soupie, ripptyde, a500lbgorilla, radashack
- others: if I forgot to mention your name, it belongs here Razz

- and most importantly FTR itself for providing me with such a great online poker community!

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