[easyguy]

I recently started playing online. I'm doing fine in a 10 person small stakes game, mostly playing a pretty tight game.

However, when I switch to a 6 person table (same stakes) things go haywire. I'm losing everything I win in a 10 person game. People are drawing with all sorts of $!#$ and hitting it on turn/river.

Does anyone have any idea what's going on? Are 6-person-table people generally tougher? Or am I loosening up too much? Should be I playing looser on paint cards and tighter on connectors/suited-connectors?

Any advice would be very appreciated. Also, any suggestions on reasonable see-flop-% would be useful (both 10 and 6 person tables).

Thank you!

[johnf]

It would seem that you would be less likely to get proper odds to play the lower suited connectors in a short game. After the flop you are more likely to be heads up and any raise ruins your odds to chase somebody down. Play higher value cards more aggressively, even if you choose not to play more of them. Aggressive play with higher value cards will protect your hands and build enough value in the pots you do win, to make up for the times when someone pays the higher price to chase but then gets there. Just my thoughts.

[norshvind]

In a shorthanded game, you have to change your hand selection a little but it really depends on how the game is. If your opponents don't play well post-flop and are really loose passive, you can play many hands. If most pots are heads up, you need to call down more..sometimes with ace high and bet weaker hands for value..like second pair or ace high on the flop. You also have to pay close attention to your opponents since you will constantly be in pots with them. Fish get killed short-handed, but so do good players if they don't adjust or insist on staying in tough games. The rake is a bigger factor short. If you can play both full and short well, you will have an edge when the full games start to break up and your opponents don't adjust or make the wrong adjustments.

[lork]

6 seaters suck. They need to do away with them. They take to much action away from the 10 seaters. I think at shorthanded games, it is harder to bluff because you can win with A high, and people stay with crap. To me, it seems like it is all about the cards at a 6 seater. Not nearly as much poker involved and I do agree that you have to change strategy and hand selection. Oh well, I guess I'm just saying that I don't play them anymore, and wish more people would fill up a full table instead of playing at those.

[chris]

I totally disagree with the last poster. short handed is more skilled. It's all about reading the player and knowing how to play w hands that would be weak in a full table. Ie King 8 is awful on the fulltable but powerful on a 5 handed or less table in late postion without too many callers. Watch the way the Skalansky clones scatter when a table goes short, or if you play live watch how awful the play becomes. When I played live if I saw a 4 handed game I would run from my full to play on the short table.....

[jhasper]

What type of limits are you talking about? I play mostly low limit games, most often 5-6 player spread limit games. I tend to play looser because, on average four people will see a flop, giving me pot odds to play draws and smaller pairs, while having some of those mediochre hands hold up. On a full table game I found that I just got run over playing the way I did on short tables. If I played low flush and straight draws I would make my hand, only to have it beaten by a higher straight or flush. Think of it this way, in a ten person game, nearly half the deck is out pre-flop. If you are holding a hand like A6 offsuit in a no foldem game, chances are pretty good that someone else has an ace too, and they probably have a better kicker. The less opponents you have, the better chances you have of your made hand being the best. Take pocket aces for example. Heads up you are close to a 95% favorite. With 7 callers you are closer to 30%. Personally I do better in a smaller playing field.