ITH Poker Forum

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Short Handed and Heads Up Hold'em FAQ

Welcome to the short handed and heads up hold'em forum on ITH! The short handed forum is for posts about limit hold'em. For posts about short handed no limit hold'em and short handed tournaments, please see the no limit and tournament forums respectively. This guide describes the forum guidelines and contains a list of poker books and classic ITH threads.

Table of Contents
1. What Does Short Handed Mean? Why Play Short Handed?
2. Short Handed Forum Guidelines
3. Classic 6-max Threads
4. Poker Books, DVDs, and Articles

1. What Does Short Handed Mean? Why Play Short Handed?
Tables with six or fewer players are considered short handed, and short handed and 6-max are often used as synonyms. At 6-max tables, it is easier to isolate weak players because many pots will be heads up or three way on the flop. These tables often see about 100 hands per hour. If you play full ring, playing short handed will improve your hand reading and postflop play. If you play short handed, you'll find that playing heads up will once again improve your postflop play.

2. Short Handed Forum Guidelines
If you're posting a new hand history, please use a hand converter to make your post easier to read. Cybrarian's hand converter is excellent and can be found here. You must register an account.
Here are some useful links related to forum rules and jargon:

• ITH Forum rules
• Poker acronyms
• Poker glossary

3. Classic 6-max Threads (compiled by janeg)

Starting Hands and General Play

• Moving from full ring to 6-max
• 6 Handed Starting Hands - UTG - good discussion on which hands play well UTG along with general advice on playing 6-max
• Starting Hand - AQo, Ed Miller, Matthew, & 6 max - good general discussion of difference between 6-max and full ring centered on playing AQo
• Any mistakes in this straight play? - Bugsbunny discusses playing trap hands and the importance of folding equity in SSH play
• VP$IP Short Handed - and comments from Bugsbunny on blind defense
• old RGP post outlining Heads Up strategy - useful for SB vs BB situations in 6-max
• Preflop Play in Shorthanded Games - link to an Ed Miller article on SH play
• a recent discussion I had - discussion on aggression and SB play

Position Strategies

• More aggressive from CO than Button - advantages to playing aggressively in CO
• dinky little hand - 6 max - playing BPTK out of position
• A typical Button vs Blinds example - playing against a Button steal with high cards that miss the flop
• should I call the river lead more? - playing 2nd pair HU on the river
• Should I be stealing from the SB? - good response from Matthew
• Raising, instead of overlimping, with borderline hands - discussion on hands to limp/raise from MP if there's already one limper
• 34s in the SB - check/raising draws with small cards

Playing Draws/Overcards

• Pursuing draws headsup - it's not always a question of pot odds
• help on draws at shorthanded tables - playing a set on a board with a flush draw
• AKo o out of position, default - AK overcards against an unknown
• Need post flop play with unimproved AK
• What do you do, and why? - Bugs walks through playing a flopped 4FD+GS

River Play

• UB 6-max Hand - inducing a river bluff on a paired board
• Inducing a bluff on river - HU and checking the turn on 3 suited board to setup a check/raise on the river: risky? does betting the turn protect your hand?

4. Poker Books, DVDs, and Articles

Books

• Winning in Tough Hold 'em Games by Nick "Stoxtrader" Grudzien and Geoff "Zobags" Herzog - Right now this is the definitive short handed book. It includes great sections on semi-bluffing and blind defense.
• Internet Texas Hold'em by Matthew Hilger - You may have heard of this one! The New Expanded Edition (2009) has two new chapters focused on short-handed play.
• Small Stakes Hold'em by Ed Miller, et al. - Just like ITH, this book isn't tailored to short handed play. Miller's book still comes in handy when playing at a loose table.
• Weighing the Odds in Hold'em Poker by King Yao - King Yao's book contains a great chapter on short handed play.
• The Mathematics of Poker by Bill Chen and Jerrod Ankenman - MoP is a very tough book to digest, but it's chock full of great theoretical discussion, including exploitative vs. optimal play.

DVDs

• Dave Fromm's Short-Handed Hold'em
• Byron Jacobs Heads-up Hold'em

Articles

• PDF Collection of SH articles assembled by Kjell
• Adjusting From Full-Ring to 6-Max Limit Hold’em by Ed Miller
• Shorthanded Hold’em: An Introduction to Preflop Play & Part Two by Entity

[Last updated on May 8, 2007.]