Top 5 Reasons to Play Short-handed Hold’em Poker

The latest craze in poker is participating in short-handed cash games, and there are some logical reasons for the games popularity, which you will see after reading this article.

• You see more hands

With less players there are less decisions being made: And with less decisions being made the game moves along at a faster rate, so you will inevitably see more hands in a short-handed game than a full 9-10 person table.

And as any serious poker player knows, the more hands you see, the more money you will make.

• You get to play more hands

With fewer players you will have to loosen up your starting hand range for two reasons:

First off, the blinds come around that much quicker, so if you are playing in a 6-handed $5/$10 game it is costing you $2.50 per hand in blinds. Conversely in a 10-handed game it’s costing you only $1.50 per hand.

Secondly, playing in a short-handed game is in essence taking early position out of the equation. So, if you are ‘Under the Gun’ in a short-handed game you would play the same way as if it was folded to you in middle-position in a 10-handed game.

In addition to the extra profits, getting a chance to loosen up will also alleviate boredom, which can cause you to play less than optimal poker.

• Bad players are involved in more hands with you

Just like you, bad players will be involved in a higher percentage of pots. More importantly, because you are also involved in more pots you will be banging heads with bad players more often. In a 10-handed game you would only have a few instances where you went head-to-head with a total donkey.

The more hands these bad players are involved in the more mistakes they will make -since mistakes is what makes a bad player.

• It increases your rakeback

Playing in a short-handed game will skyrocket your rakeback totals. Imagine if $3 is raked from every pot you play: In a 10-handed game your share would be $.30; in a 6-handed game it jumps to $.50. If you are receiving 30% rakeback you’ll make $.09 per hand in the 10-handed game and $.15 per hand in the 6-handed game. I know what you’re thinking, “you’re talking about pennies!” But, if you play 10,000 hands a month -a pretty below average amount for a semi-pro type player-you’ll make $600 more in short-handed games –$1,500 compared to $900!

• Short-handed play rewards aggression

The final reason to choose short-handed games is that if you are an aggressive player the game will suit you perfectly. Most pots will be two or three-handed and in those situations the aggressive players always come out on top.

On the flip side, tight/passive and tight/semi-aggressive players just get run over: They wait too long for hands and the blinds chew them up, and when they finally do play a hand they either get trapped, or their opponent folds, so they are not maximizing their wins; they win very little when they have the best hand, and lose a ton when they are behind.