Re: shorthanded vs full ring
 

A key factor in deciding how many hands to play preflop in a 3-4 handed game is whether there is a loose passive fish in the game, and whether he is willing to pay 3 bets to see the flop with most of his hands. In that case, you can raise more because the pot is protected.

But in a typical game where the donator likes to splash around aggressively but shows some discretion when facing a 3-bet preflop, you run the danger of being isolated OOP with a weak hand or playing a weak hand against an opponent who is aggressive and whose main weakness may be getting out of line with weak made hands. That weakness is hard to exploit when your hand mostly makes weaker made hands, and it also kills either the implied odds (your continuation bets are more likely to get checkraised) on a lot of your drawing hands or hurts your chances of winning unimproved (if you check behind to take free cards).

Re: shorthanded vs full ring
 

Here is how I think about opening from the CO or BU. I have a range that I believe is correct against unknown and/or very good players. I then take into account how much the blinds defend. I tighten up if the sb folds less than 75-70% and if the BB folds less than 40%. I'll loosen up if the bb folds over 50% but given a bb who folds about 40-45% (which I believe is optimal) i wont change my standards even if the SB is very loose. I will also take into account how aggressive and tenacious a player is. If I'm up against a BB that goes to SD 45%+ I'll throw away the 78s and 97s type hands in the CO because its important to have a sense of how often you can win without showdown when deciding what types of hands to play.
if you are in the CO and the button is very loose and floats and or 3 bets a lot you obviously have to tighten up. I think if you take these factors into account it doesn't matter how many players are at the table.

Re: shorthanded vs full ring
 

[ QUOTE ]
Here is how I think about opening from the CO or BU. I have a range that I believe is correct against unknown and/or very good players. I then take into account how much the blinds defend. I tighten up if the sb folds less than 75-70% and if the BB folds less than 40%. I'll loosen up if the bb folds over 50% but given a bb who folds about 40-45% (which I believe is optimal) i wont change my standards even if the SB is very loose. I will also take into account how aggressive and tenacious a player is. If I'm up against a BB that goes to SD 45%+ I'll throw away the 78s and 97s type hands in the CO because its important to have a sense of how often you can win without showdown when deciding what types of hands to play.
if you are in the CO and the button is very loose and floats and or 3 bets a lot you obviously have to tighten up. I think if you take these factors into account it doesn't matter how many players are at the table.

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I was just about to make this very post word-for-word. [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

Re: shorthanded vs full ring
 

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Gary carson

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LOL