Short Handed Stud Play

[dha123]

I have a question about short handed play. The books I have, do not have much information about this. (West's and Sklansky's books)

I play:
live 4/8 with .50 ante and 1 bring in
online 2/4 with .25 ante and .50 bring in

Most of the games I play in are full, 8 players; however, if two people are out smoking a cigarette or whatever, the play is often 6 handed.

Do you make adjustments for 6 handed play, or do you play pretty much the same?

So far I have made few adjustments, mostly treating the situation as a full game with 2 players having folded. I find that I am still playing about the same amount of hands, which is not many.

My next question in shorthanded play, is do you make further adjustments if there are only 4 or 5 people playing. (This happens online from time to time, especially at sites that do not have a lot of stud traffic, i.e. UB). Currently, if the game goes to 5 handed I continue to play if I feel good about the game, but at 4 handed, I am sitting out for sure.

[Bartholow]

6 handed is definitely not particularly short for stud. 4 feels kinda short, but as mentioned in every thread on here ever about short play, which I advise you to look for, stud doesn't change as much when it gets short as holdem does, because the antes reduce with number of players, while blinds don't.

[SweetLuckyMe]

Just like any form of poker, the shorter it gets you've got to open up your starting requirements. Simply get a bit more aggressive with made hands and realize that you're getting shorter odds to draw to hands. As an example, be less tempted to play 3 suited rags and small/mid 3 straights, and more tempted to raise with 3 broadway cards and middle pairs. In short, punish draws and don't be the one getting punished. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]