Comparing FR with SH

Introduction

In this Article

• Advantages of shorthanded tables
  
• How many tables should I begin with?
  
• Difference between shorthanded and full ring

Why play shorthanded at all?

There are a few reasons:

First: The opponents on most shorthanded tables are significantly worse than those at full ring tables. This is mostly because there is not yet any good literature on this topic.

Second: With worse players you will be in the hand more, so that you'll play many more hands with fewer players.

Third: Not only do you have weaker opponents and a higher expected profit, fewer people can play rounds faster. While a full ring table might see 60 hands in an hour, almost 80 will be played when shorthanded. If I play 4 tables for 5 hours with 1BB/hundred I'll make 12BB at full ring and 16 at shorthanded.

Differences between full ring and shorthanded

(At this point I would like to note that sh is not fundamentally different than fr! Many players make this mistake and think they have to play loose-aggressive. This is wrong! Tight is still right!)

It is important that you begin with the article Pre-Flop Advanced when you are ready to switch to SH. This article is mostly right and is probably the largest demand of switching. If you are unsure, you should be sure to check the starting hand chart before you begin to play experimentally. But it is also important to think more about the blind fence, since SH is played more aggressively and so the blinds are attacked more frequently. This is dealt with in the pre-flop article.

Since your opponents will play much looser, they will have actual good hands less often. That means that your opponents will often bluff or move with a middle/bottom pair. This means you must be more aggressive yourself to catch your opponent's mistakes. A top pair no kicker is a much better hand in SH than in FR. You could even 3-bet it on the flop.

Of course this is very dependent on your opposition, which is my next point. Since you will play against the same players more often in SH (if you play 60 hands in 1 hour at a full ring table with the same opponents it will be 80-100 in SH), it is important that you know how your opponents will play and how you use this to your advantage. For this, you should look through these threads:

[Psychology] Knowing the Enemy

[Strategy] How to play against Rocks?

[Strategy] How to play against Maniacs?

[Strategy] How to play against Callingstations?

There will also be more heads-up play on the flop, since you will isolate more often and repeatedly find yourself in steal-situations. So read this thread.

[Strategy] Heads-Up on the Flop - Basic Moves

Psychological:

Shorthanded is worse for swings, and this is a fact. One should be perfectly clear on this when the change to SH is made. You should get used to downswings of 100BB or so. Swings over 200 BB also occur more what one might call usual. If you haven't encountered a downswing yet, you should prepare yourself pre-emotively and read this thread [Psychologie] Downswing – eine psychologische Betrachtung. You can never be prepared enough for your first big downswing.

When should I switch?

The best time to change is when you feel ready for it. That sounds banal but you will find no better answer since this is a very individual question. If you're good at full ring and looking for a new challenge, or if you don't feel burdened by 4-tabling (but don't want to add more tables), then have a go at shorthand. You can at least see if you like it and whether it's for you. If you're undecided or apathetic (there are those kind, too ), then I advise you to move to shorthanded 1$/2$ as soon as you're winning at full ring $1/2$.

How many tables should I play to begin with?

An essential question for all those interested. To avoid the aforementioned mistake of becoming loose-aggressive, play only a small number of tables at first. A maximum of 2 to get a feel for SH and also to get a read on the right amount of aggression. Be sure to take your time to think in the beginning. If your are sure you have these skills, increase the number of tables if you still feel underworked.

Table and seat selection:

Table selection is not so important for the low stakes areas. There are so many bad players, you hardly have to look for them. Of course, if you're sitting with an extremely tight player (for lower stakes, under 30VPIP), find another table. Real table selection with a buddylist or something similar is really not necessary. This is only effective above 10/20$. The seat selection is more important. There is nothing worse than having one or even more loose-aggressive players to your left. The reason being that you will become isolated by the LAG and will not be able to determine your standing. The 3-bet range of some in these games appear to be any pockets, any ace, and any two facecards. And since these players are often very tricky, it's always difficult to play without position.

BR Management:

I would recommend a tight BR management. Something around 300BB to move up in limit. This is because of the extremity of swings. As previously mentioned, swings of more than 100BB are not seldom and it can also happen that one fails to pay attention to the BR. All at once you've played away half your bankroll because of a streak of bad luck and you're 2 limits down, and it's all the worse because it went so fast (it's really absolutely normal, I can't repeat this enough.) So leave yourself a bigger cushion.