Short handed poker is a beast of it's own. Throughout a tournament you hear laughter, conversations, and nonsense. When the dust settles and the final table is created, players become a different person from what you may have seen on day 1 or 2. Short hand games can be very tricky and have stopped many people from achieving their goal of winning a tournament. The reason being is because so many people don't have fundamentals or enough practice in that type of situation. Here are a few tips and advice to hopefully help increase your chances at winning in a short handed game.
Imagine you are thrown into a cage with 8 other people. To exit the cage you must defeat the others by fighting. You may be the smallest person in the ring but you are going to be ruthless and act as if you carry the big stick with you! You have to have that same mind set when in a short handed game. If you feel like you are already an aggressive player, then you need to multiply it by 10! Green ribbons and hugs aren't given out to the conservative player. Become a brutal player that shows no remorse for the havoc you wreck on the others at the table.
To continue from the previous point, never just limp in. If you limp in, you are for sure just throwing chips away. This tells the other players you have a "meh" hand and more than likely will fold if re-raised. An aggressive player will double or triple the blinds with 7-2 off suit if you do this, just so they can take your chips. Also, limping in to try and trap usually doesn't work.
- Pay Attention to the Chip Stacks!
Some people will say don't worry about the stacks just worry about the cards. Yes and no. More no than yes and here is why. Take the WSOP Main Event Final Table this year. John Hesp was the chip leader and got involved in a hand with Scott Blumstein (2nd in chips) that turned out to be the largest pot of the tournament. Under the gun, Blumstein bet 2.2 million preflop with pocket aces. Hesp calls with A-10h. Flop A-7-5 with both players checking. Turn is 10c. Hesp checks and Blumstein bets 3 million with Hesp check-rasing to 7 million and Blumstein 3-bet to 17 million!!! Hesp goes call in and is drawing dead. Hesp lost 156 million in that one hand.
Now you may be asking, "What does that have to do with anything." Here was an example of two big stacks going at it as the little stacks waited with grins on their faces. As a large stack, focus on getting rid of the small stacks and have their chips add to your arsenal. Once you take down the small stacks, then you have more ammunition against the larger stacks.
Add this to being more aggressive and bend some of your rules a little bit, then you will be a deadly player. Take however you normally play a hand like pocket aces and change it to where you have your opponents thinking you have something like A-2 or K-9 suited. Or vise versa, play K-6 off suit and sell it like you have aces. If in an early position, you normally don't raise, change it up.
If you get in a position where you have 10 BB or less, you can only do one of two things, fold or shove. If you are dealt an Ace and whatever, shove all in. If you pass up on ace-anything, you might not see one again for the rest of the tournament. Also by just sitting and waiting for the perfect hand, you stand a better chance of being taken out by the blinds! If you do get a playable hand, don't limp in! See above......
SNG are the best way of preparing you for a final table because they are just one table. Just like the final table of a tournament, players play different in SNGs. Knowing that it will probably be a short game, players go all in more often so this will give your reaction skills a workout. With the listed help above, you should do just fine in a SNG.
Hope this was helpful. If so, please like, share, and comment. As always, best of luck to you in the poker room and in life!
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