Texas Holdem Strategy - Shorthand Limit

Shorthand (tables of 6 or less people) is very popular on the Internet; in fact, most of the higher-limit games are played shorthand.

Type of game you should play

One of the most important skills at playing poker is simply playing the right game. Unless you just want to practice, there's no reason to play against other pros! The best way to tell is to watch how much betting/raising is happening.

If there is a lot of raising and folding, stay away! If people tend to limp preflop a lot and then just call bets, join! Shorthand is about aggression, so passive players tend to be losers.

Preflop Starting Hands

Hand values are relative, so a hand can be good under some situations and total trash under others.

Remember, hand values are relative, so always think about what the other guy has and guess if you have the better starting hand than him before going in.

Hands to raise with, non-raised flop: Paired cards, A10+, KQ,KJ, QJ, J10s

Hands to call a raise with: high paired cards, AQ, AK, AJ(maybe), KQ, KJ, AT(maybe), JQs.

Hands to re raise a raise: This depends on the raiser. Re raise a maniac with any pair or A9+ because you'll probably be winning at the flop.

Otherwise, re raise with made hands like JJ, QQ, KK, AA (although you may want to smooth call with JJ). You should consider just calling with AK because it does very well 4 handed because there is a good chance you have someone dominated if you hit.

Hands to call and hope to build a pot with (early position) high suited connectors (i.e. 910s), only do this in late position if others have limped too. In general, in shorthand there is going to be a raise preflop to knock out these hands.

Flop Tips

When you have a made hand, bet it. If one calls, then you have a decision to make, if you think he's drawing, continue to bet at him.

If he's the type to call with the second best hand. Maybe check to him to see if he bets (he probably has a pair too, it just matters if it's ace low kicker or king lower kicker or a pocket pair).

When you pair but it's not the top pair, decide. If the guy is a maniac, consider just calling him down. IF the player is passive, either raise or fold. Find out where you are on the flop. If you just flat call all the way down, that's a total of 5 small bets.

If you raise and he comes back firing, you can probably fold on the turn and have saved yourself a big bet (two small bets). But only do this is the guy is very passive. IF the guy calls your raise, consider checking the turn or betting if you think he is on a draw.

If you check the turn and he in fact has top pair, you just saved yourself a small bet (2 bets on flop instead of a bet on the flop and turn) and also earning yourself a free card on the turn. IF he is on a draw, then you charged him an extra bet to see another card.

Drawing hands and pot odds: Always know your number of 'outs' i.e. number of cards that will make you a hand that you are pretty sure will win. Number of outs X2 + 2 is the percentage of hitting at the next card. So divide the pot by that number and if the bet is smaller than that, call.

When calculating the pot size, it is generally best to remember future bets.

Bluffing

You need to remember the general rule of bluffing, it doesn't work until $5-10 or higher.

There is semi bluffing too, and this means that you can bet when you don't have a made hand yet. For example, let’s say you are betting on a flush draw: flop is A64, you have KQ suited and there are two of your suit on your board. Go ahead and bet. Semi bluffing is only effective at higher levels, because at lower levels you are just value betting because people will call you.

Then you can try some pure bluffs, but keep in mind that these bluffs don't work too well at limit, but they do work at times. At higher levels, if the flop is kind of scary, say AQ9, if the action is passed to you and there aren't many in it, go ahead and bet at it if you had shown strength preflop.