A while ago I talked about playing in shorthanded SNGs, and what a different game it is, and the same is very true for cash games as well.

The most popular ring games online are by far the 6-max NL Hold’em Cash Games.  For this reason, they seem to be filled with inexperienced players who have no business playing in them due to their ignorance of the differences between 6-max and full ring game play.

This is great for players who DO know proper strategy for shorthanded games, because it allows them to fully take advantage of inexperienced players’ mistakes, and profit from it.

Many players sit in the 6-max games for the wrong reasons some of which are:

• They are playing on a short bankroll (This is awful because the swings can be bigger and faster in shorthanded games due to the marginal situations a player is often faced with)
• They want to play more hands (You have to play more hands in these games or else you won’t get action when you do get a hand, but playing shorthanded and playing more hands because you are not patient enough to wait for good hands in a full ring game, is a recipe for disaster)

The reality is that shorthanded cash games require a certain set of skills in order to be successful, which usually includes being able to play a LAG (loose-aggressive game) at some point in your sessions, so that you are able to get big hands paid off when you do get them.

Don’t just jump into 6-max without reading and learning about how to adjust to it.  Do your homework, and it will pay off when your bankroll starts consistently growing.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 11th, 2008 at 7:01 pm and is filed under Poker Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.