Shorthanded Theory

Introduction

In this Article

• How to play Shorthanded
  
• 3-bets thin Isolation
  
• How to maintain and overtake the initiative
  
• Some tips for pros

General

Shorthanded is not different in principle from full ring games. You handle a shorthanded game like a full game where the first few players folded.
==> Therefore, there is no reason to play particularly loose-aggressive in SH games.
Play just as you would normally, tight, aggressive and solid.

Pre-Flop

Correct preflop play can be found in the advanced pre-flop article. At SH pay attention to the following principles.

• 1st-In Pre-Flop Raise or Fold
• 2nd-In Pre-Flop Raise or Fold
• 3rd-In Pre-Flop mostly Raise or Fold

These are only good for your first action pre-flop.

When should you raise?

A hand that can be raised must satisfy 2 requirements:

1) The hand is listed in the open raise chart for the corresponding position.
2) Your equity against the range of opponents before you is above average.

The first requirement ensures that your hand is profitable, on average, against the hands of the players behind you.
The second requirement makes sure that your hand is profitable against the players in front of you.

To find your average equity, count all the opponents who have gotten in the hand before you. If N opponents have already joined the game ahead of you, the average equity will be (100/(N+1))%. For a raise the equity of your hand must be above this average value.

One exception is when you're playing in the small blind against a lone raiser. A 3-bet here will only cost 2.5 SB and not the full 3 SB. There's a good chance of knocking out the BB and getting 1 SB of dead money in the pot. An equity of 40% will be enough in this case.

When should I just call?

A call pre-flop theoretically only comes into question when one of the following conditions are fulfilled:

a) 2 or more opponents have limped before you.
b) You're in the SB
c) You're in the BB against a raise.
d) The pot has been raised once but three or more opponents are already in.

a) Applies when your hand does not have the required equity to beat the average according to conditions 1. and 2., but is still profitable in a multi-way pot because of implied odds. All middle and small pairs, suited aces with weak kickers and middle suited connectors. It's basically hands which would have a „call 2“ entry in the late position on a classical starting hands chart.

b) Occurs because you can get into the hand for much cheaper as the SB – namely, for half price. The danger of being caught in a bad position with a weak hand puts some off from this strategy. Low-playability hands, i.e. Ones where it's difficult to tell where you stand after the flop, are especially difficult. For this reason, only use this in the small blind on hands with equities at least 75% of the average equity. Of course, raise all hands over the average equity.

c) The situation is similar to b). You could get in for half price here, too. Your implied odds are not as good against a raise as in b), but you'll have mostly just one opponent and therefore much better semi-bluff chances. At if you hit the flop, you can guarantee a check-raise is on the way.

d) The same principle as in a) applies. You play hands whose equities are not quite enough but are profitable because of good implied odds. Because of the expected action on the flop and because a raised pot reduces your implied odds, your hands must be stronger. These are the „x/call 3“ hands from the classic starting hands charts.

What will my PokerTracker stats look like if I play this way?

If you play this system, your VPIP will still be dependent on how many opponents you usually play with. A good rule of thumb is 18 for a 10-man table and 23 for a 6. Your PFR should be roughly 2/3 of your VPIP value. If your VPIP is 24, your PFR should be around 16.
Your „folded BB to steal“ value should be between 40 and 55.
Your „folded SB to steal“ value should be between 80 and 85.
Your „attempt to steal blinds“ value should be between 30 and 35.

Pimp my Pre-Flop Play – tips for pros

First a warning: the tactics ahead require perfect boundary conditions and excellent post-flop skills. Used incorrectly, they will bring more disadvantages than they're worth.

Passive BB-Defence

The premise:
You're in the BB.
You're playing heads-up against a raiser and no other player is in the pot.
The raiser is post-flop aggressive. He always bets when you call the pre-flop and check the flop.
You have a good sense for flop textures. You can recognize the flops that you can pressure even without a usable hand.
Your opponent is relatively tight.

The idea:
Since your opponent bets every flop you check after calling the pre-flop, you can use a 3-bet pre-flop and a flop bet or just call the pre-flop and check-raise the flop if that's what he wants. You'll make him invest at least 3 SB. But if the flop is a disaster for you it's easy to step out with a check-fold having lost only 2 SB.

Problems:
You lose the chance of a pre-flop cap. But this is exactly what you want to attain with strong hands like AA-TT, AK-AQ. It would be annoying if your opponent would have capped your 3-bet but couldn't because you only called the pre-flop. You run the danger of folding the best hand on the flop. Suppose you have 77 and your opponent has 66. He raises and you call from the BB. The flop is AKQ. You logically play check-fold but have given up the best hand. With a 3-bet pre-flop and a bet on the flop, you would have won the pot.
If the flop is a disaster for your opposition too, you'll win your 3-bet pre-flop and bet flop back when you win the pot. If you call pre-flop and check the flop your opponent will usually win.

Solution:
The problem is easy to solve. You 3-bet all the hands you want to have capped. The hands where you would rather not see a cap you simply call.
The other two problems are more difficult. One might say that you should simply make a bluff donkbet on the flop sometimes instead of check-raising. The problem with that is it doesn't do anything the first time. To make your donkbets believable, you have to bet your strong hands as donkbets too. But you then lose exactly the advantage we sought in the first place with the call pre-flop and check-raise flop: the guaranteed bet on the flop!
The only solution then is the following: you must use excellent hand and opponent reading so that you can make room for some opportune check-raise bluffs. For this to work, your opponents must be relatively tight.

Aggressive Blind Stealing

Prerequisites:
You're on the button.
The BB is too tight, „folded BB to steal“ >65 over at least 500 hands.
The SB is not a maniac.

The idea:
Since the BB folds too often, you'll get extra value on your typical steal hands. Even some hands that would normally not be profitable steal hands become profitable this way.
Suppose that the SB defends in 15% of all cases and the BB in 35%. The chance that both fold is 55.25%! So 55.25% of the time you win .75 SB. In 30% of the cases you have to pay 3 SB against a 3-bet, and in roughly 15% of cases you will pay 2 SB (against the SB call). If we calculate the gains from the steal, we're good for .9 SB on average. That is, if we could make .9 more than usual in the case that one of our opponents defends. Against players who defend their blinds there is also the same advantage, but it is much lower than .9 SB. We can steal much more liberally against tight blinds than we can against those who defend them. In the above situation, we can just steal thoughtlessly on every hand that we would also raise on the SB 1st in.

Warning:
This concept is dangerous. You must be sure that the blinds really are tight. You either need a lot of hands in PokerTracker or very good reads. If you are in doubt, turn to the open raise chart to decide when to steal.

Thin Isolation 3-Bets

Prerequisites:
You are in late position.
A tight-aggressive opponent raised before you, but he isn't a maniac!
Except for the raiser there are no other players in the hand.
The SB and BB are not maniacs.

The idea:
Normally we only make 3-bets in this situation with hands that have an equity of at least 50%. But There are two important aspects to consider from the late position: First, a 3-bet usually guarantees us a heads-up pot against the raiser since we have position on him. Second, the SB and BB will probably fold. Hence, we'll get our equitable share of .75 SB dead money in the pot. Because of these two points we don't need the full 50% for a 3-bet. We can move the line down to 45%. If the raiser is tight and predictable post-flop and the blinds are particularly tight, we can even go down to 40%.

Warning:
If the blinds or the raiser are loose-aggressive, this strategy is counterproductive. The risk of a cap pre-flop is too big and our fold equity with failed hands is too small post flop.

Post-Flop

Once again the most important lesson: Shorthanded is not different in principle from full ring. You must still fold your weak hands. You should not convince yourself that your opponents are bluffing all the time and also „don't have anything.“ A solid tight-aggressive game is the way to shorthanded success.

3-Handed Situations on the flop and turn

The fundamental principle: elimination of enemies!

Your objective in almost every 3-handed situation is to knock out at least one of the opponents on the flop, provided you have a playable hand. This is good for both made and drawing hands. With drawing hands you might even win the pot without a showdown. Made hands, meanwhile, are more protected.

If you are the pre-flop raiser, a simple flop bet is usually enough.

If one of your opponents was last to raise pre-flop, you can use this to help knock out the other one. Since we have 3 players, let's just call them EP, MP, and LP for early- middle- and late position. If we're in EP and the pre-flop raiser is in LP, we can put the most pressure on MP with a check-raise. If we're in EP and the pre-flop raiser is in MP then we just bet straight into him and hope he raises to knock the LP out. From this you can derive other scenarios.

If we have a monster we can also try to trap a passive third player between ourselves and the pre-flop raiser. If we're in EP and the pre-flop raiser is in LP and we have a monster, we bet directly and hope that MP calls and LP raises so that we can 3-bet. Depending on the position a check-raise could achieve the same effect.

Heads-Up Situations on the flop and turn

The meaning of initiative

Whoever placed the last raise or bet in the previous round has initiative.

In situations with only one opponent on the flop the pre-flop initiative is critical.
Should you have a strong hand on the flop, protect it with a bet.
If you have a weak hand on the flop, you will often win the pot automatically with a bet, namely when your opponent doesn't have anything either.
Even with absolute monster hands you should bet and not try for a slow play. A check in this case is so suspicious that hurts more than it helps.

If you have initiative on the turn, you should usually bet.

There are only 3 rare exceptions

OOP: Check-Fold on the turn if ...

• you are probably not leading
• your opponent will probably not fold
• your conscience won't mind folding one bet directly

In brief, hands with some outs, showdown value, or bluff chances should be bet on the turn.

Example: You raise pre-flop from the SB with QTo against a tight player. The flop is A72 rainbow. You bet and he calls. The turn is a 2. Here you can easily play check-fold.

IP: Check Turn, Fold River unimproved

• You are probably behind.
• Your opponent probably will not fold.
• You won't be bothered folding at the river unimproved.

In brief, hands with some outs, showdown value, or bluff chances should be bet on the turn.

Example: You raise pre-flop from the SB with QTo against a tight player. The flop is A72 rainbow. You bet and he calls. The turn is a 2. Here you can check-behind on the turn and fold unimproved on the river if he bets.

IP: Check Turn to induce a Bluff

• There is a chance that you're leading but it isn't big enough to bet.
• If you are ahead, your opponent doesn't have good outs against you.
• Your opponent will hardly ever call on the turn with a bad hand.
• Your opponent will not fold a better hand on the turn.
• Your opponent is tight-aggressive.

This is the so-called „way-ahead or way-behind“ situation. It is very rare! An example will clarify:

The hero is at the button with KQs. The BB is a solid player.

Pre-Flop:
Hero raises, SB folds, BB 3-bets, hero caps, BB calls.

Flop: K 2 2 Rainbow
BB checks, hero bets, BB calls

Turn: A
BB checks, Hero ???

We should check here. The BB will normally have an A, pocket pair

OOP: Maintaining initiative

If you have a playable hand it is critical to seize the initiative on the flop if you are OOP. If you bet on the flop and your opponent raises and you have a playable hand, you should usually 3-bet the flop and bet the turn. At least, if you have a halfway decent made hand or a good semi-bluff. Only with hands which you would check-fold unimproved on the turn should you not 3-bet on the flop raise.

The reasons:

If you have a good semi-bluff hand, you'll get a high fold equity with your 3-bet flop and bet turn. Additionally, you will hinder a check-behind from your opponent.
If you have a made hand, you're guaranteeing maximum value.
If your opponent has a better hand you'll usually only lose 1 SB extra since if you check on the turn your opponent will value bet you, so you won't save anything on the turn. Sometimes you even save money because after a 3-bet flop and bet turn you can fold more easily to a turn raise or, if your opponent caps the flop you can check fold on the turn.

Example:

The hero is in the SB with 99 and raises 1st in. The BB calls, the flop is Js 8s 2h. Hero bets, BB raises. Here the hero should certainly play a 3-bet on the flop and a bet on the turn for the reasons listed above.

Overtaking the initiative

Let's assume a heads-up situation on the flop. Your opponent has the initiative. He will almost always bet on the flop if you check. If he's OOP and you call the flop, he will almost always bet the turn. But if he's in position on the turn and you only called the flop, he'll often take a free card with a check-behind.
We will give a standard answer to this standard tactic:

OOP: Check-Raise Flop, Bet Turn

If we are OOP and have a playable hand we should check-raise the flop and bet the turn. If we have a drawing hand we can guarantee a high fold equity on both the flop and the turn. With a made hand, we can usually get the maximum value from it and prevent our opponent from taking a free card on the turn.

IP: Call Flop, Raise Turn

This strategy will get us a high fold equity with drawing hands and high value with made hands. It also enables us to use the free showdown effect. In most cases our opponent will not 3-bet our turn raise, so that we end up in position on the river. Then depending on the river card and the situation, we can either value bet or check. We create the perfect situation for ourselves on the river by raising the turn.

An interesting point:

I hope it has occurred to many of you that we do not distinguish between drawing hands and made hands. This is because the typical shorthanded opponent is a semi-loose and semi-aggressive player. Against such a player the optimal value and semi-bluff sequences are the same!

The optimal standard sequences will change against uncommon types of player. It is also common for value and semi-bluff sequences to differ from one another in this case.

Fitting the bet-sequence to the opposition

Bet sequences in heads-up situations can pursue three different goals:

1.Maximization of value.
2.Maximization of fold-equity/cost relationships.
3.Capitalizing on special situations („way-ahead-way-behind“ and so on)

The first goal is self explanatory. Suppose you flop a monster. Now you want to play in the way that will bring you, on average, the most profit. You want to get your opponents to invest as much money as possible before the showdown.

The second goal is more complex. Here you are trying to get your opponents to fold. The relation between the fold equity generated and the cost of the betting sequence is decisive here.

Goal 3 is a collection of all the special situations that do not fall under 1 or 2. Such situations are difficult to discuss in general; they must be solved case-by-case and are beyond the scope of this article.

Let's focus on goals 1 and 2 for different types of opponent. We'll assume that the board is neither scary nor draw heavy.

Goal 1: Value

Maniac

OOP: Check-Call Flop, Bet/3-Bet Turn

IP: Call Flop, Raise/3-Bet Turn

LAG

OOP: Bet/3-Bet Flop, Bet Turn

IP: Call Flop, Raise Turn

Calling Station

OOP: Check-Raise Flop, Bet Turn

IP: Raise Flop, Bet Turn

Rock (Tight-Passive)

OOP: Check-Call Flop, Bet Turn

IP: Call Flop, Bet/Call Turn

TAG

OOP:Check-Raise Flop, Bet Turn

IP: Call Flop, Raise Turn

For scary, drawless and draw heavy boards:
On scary and drawless boards you should not raise the tighter opponents but call so that you can get a further bet on the river.
On draw heavy boards you should play more aggressively with tight opponents.

Goal 2: Maximizing fold equity/costs

Maniac

Forget it! It is basically not profitable to get maniacs to fold. Play your strong draws check-call.

LAG

OOP: Check-Raise Flop, Bet Turn or Check-Call Flop, Check-Raise Turn

IP: Call Flop, Raise Turn

Calling-Station

Caution: you need more outs to make a semi-bluff profitable against passive calling stations.

OOP: Check-Raise Flop, Bet Turn

IP: Raise Flop, Bet Turn

Rock (Tight-Passive)

OOP: Check-Raise Flop, Bet Turn

IP: Raise Flop, Bet Turn

Against TAG

OOP: Check-Raise Flop, Bet Turn

IP: Call Flop, Raise Turn

Fitting your semi-bluff frequency to the opponent

The following principle must be clear as crystal: the less likely your opponent is to fold to your semi-bluff sequence the better your draw must be. Against rocks, for example, you can raise draws that have almost no outs or even an absolutely worthless hand, if the board is right. Against calling stations you will need at least 6 discounted outs for a semi-bluff to pay off. Against total maniacs who hardly ever fold you don't even need to try a semi-bluff.
Concretely, this means that you would, for example, check-raise a gutshot straight draw against a TAG on a passing board but that you might even check-fold against a maniac.

Heads-Up at the River OOP

Correct play on the river OOP is difficult and heavily dependent on the adversary. With an average made hand the most frequent moves OOP on the river are check-call and bet-call. Let's list the pros and cons for these moves.

Explanation:

Every entry gives the cost or gains for the move. Sitting OOP, you have the choice between bet-call and check-call. The first column shows whether you will have the worse hand at the showdown (yes/no) and how your opponent will react to you. The units are big bets. „P“ is the pot.

+P2 means that your move will win you 2 BB in addition to the pot. -1 indicates a loss of 1 BB in addition the pot (which you would have lost anyway) in comparison to a check-fold.

Now the question is how the two columns should be weighted. This depends on how likely the different cases 1) to 12) are and how big the difference is between bet/call and check/call. For cases 5) and 6) the difference is severe. Case 3) has a high probability when the opponent is a TAG. 4) is more likely in a passive player. A maniac has a high probability of bluffing.
At first glance we notice that if we are confidently in the lead, a check/call is out of consideration. The question then is more like bet/3-bet or check/raise. If we are almost surely down, it's still not worth considering a check/call. This would be between check/fold or bet/fold. The difference between bet/call and check/call only comes into play with hands about which we are unsure. What we are sure about is that our opponent would not fold any better hands.
In this situation, the most important factor is 10). We're betting for value, since our opponents keep calling on the river with hands that they should have checked. Depending on the situation and opponent, 1), 3), 4), and 11) are also important.