Texas hold’em – Shorthanded & longhanded

With shorthanded means a table where 5-6 players sit and concerning longhanded it’s a table with 7-10 players. 

In the latter case you need to play tighter. Not at least in pre flop: even if only three players have checked before you are the quality of their hands are likely better than three random players hands on a shorthanded table. This is for the obviously reason that the more contenders there are the chances of some having excellent hole cards increase. 

One of the most significant differences between short- and longhanded tables is that the value of starting hands are shifting. Some starting hands win and loose attraction depending on the numbers of opponents. I will here explain for you some of these categories.

On a table with about nine contenders you aren’t going for knock outs. If you try this the risk is big that you will be swinging against several opponents on the same time and no hand can give you 90% in an pre flop all in-situation against three players! This doesn’t mean that you should play defensive with power hands, but be more conscious about the decreasing of the hands value per player.

Categories well-suited for longhanded games are speculative hands like connected and suited cards. That’s because this kind of hands can beat many players. Now you say: “Yes, but I think these hands can beat a few players in a shorthanded game also”. Yes, I agree, but the whole thing is: the size of your win on a straight or flush hand is depending on how many players you beat. Because of this it’s more motivated to play speculative hands often in longhanded tables, cause the times when you win it will pay back more non-success attempts then it will do at shorthanded tables.

This doesn’t mean you should throw away a 9-8 suited connected playing shorthanded, but you shouldn’t always answer a raise with it. One more thing: if cards are playable or not according to amounts of players it’s just one of many circumstances that inflects the outcomes. You will get familiar with more circumstances while continue reading.

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