playing short handed

[NLTHGB 0]

every tourney i seem to play in, i bust out in 2nd or 3rd place out of 8. never have i placed any lower. yea, i win here and there, but i always seem to have trouble going deeper and deeper into the game.in the games i play in, players are somewhat hesitant to bet before the flop, for the most part they want to make their decisions after catching a glimpse of the flop. i take advantage of this in the early levels of the game, but when it gets to short handed play, it always seems that theres checks around, i bet with a marginal hand and get 3 out of 4 callers. or with a halfway decent hand, for instance A9d, i get callers as well. i think my short handed play is real sketchy. ive come up just short too many times. any tips?

[Smasharoo 0]

Blind stealing is critical short-handed.You shouldn't be seeing flops that aren't heads up very often.Raise more PF with hands you'd limp with at a full table.

[SeanGagne 0]

Agree 100% with Smash. Your mediocre hands are a must and your semi-decent hands are powerful. You can't sit and wait for big slick, pocket pairs and the likes. You get to good cards, you must raise preflop. Put other people to the test. The odds are they will not have a monster to play with since it is short handed. You can put people on better hands with a bigger table. But when it's heads up you can bet any ace is good, so raise with them. All of your level 1 and level 2 and some level 3 hands (According to Skalansky) are a must play in short handed hold'em. You just have to practice. Try the play tables (even ring games) to figure out what hands you should play with. You might think about folding K-9s with a full table but it's a great hand heads up.

[dominiksdad 0]

every tourney i seem to play in, i bust out in 2nd or 3rd place out of 8. never have i placed any lower.

Congratulations on never finishing out of the top 3!I guess you must be the only poker player in the world who has never called all-in pre-flop with poket aces and gone on to lose the hand :wink: