Number of Players and Starting Hands

[Albert Moulton]

When you say, "...we should play the top X/XX of hands ..." you aren't defining what constitutes a "top" hand. And that's part of the problem with your assertion. The top hand preflop isn't always the top hand post flop.

It is generally true that more players in the game should translate into a lower V$PIP, and the less players in the game should translate into a higher V$PIP. But you can't "only play aces" for example, because if you only get 5% of your money in preflop, on a flop of 8sJs7s with AdAh your pair of aces is ninth best possible hand since 78, J8, J7, 88, JJ, 77, XsXs, and 9T all out flopped you.

If the game was played without a flop, and all bets were push or fold preflop, then you would be on to something. But everybody would end up playing the same hands and it wouldn't be much of a game.

With multiple rounds of betting and deep stacks that give all kinds of hands a significant amount of implied odds, you have to account for more factors than starting cards. Position, SPR, reads, etc. become critical for estimating your potential for implied odds. Moreover, if you only play the top X% of hands, then in many games you will give up too much in the way of reverse implied odds to others playing more speculative hands under the right conditions, especially when they have better position than you post-flop.