Changing Strategy with Smaller Tables
I tried to incorporate Phil Hellmuth's "supertight" strategy of folding everything but pairs and AK, AQ today into my game. I first tried when only Matt and Mike were playing with me. I noticed I was losing a lot of chips and never getting the top 15 pre-flop hands that I am only supposed to bet with.
I got the epiphany that when playing with small numbers of people you have to play more loose, i.e. bet on lower valued cards, because of the POT odds. In other words, going all-in with an AK or QQ may get you back a significant number of chips if you are playing with 8-9 other people, especially if you have good position or other people have good hands as well. Even if you are the large blind and everyone else just antes, you still can get back 9-1 pot odds even if everyone else only posts the large blind.
However, when there are only 3 chips in the pot, and the likelihood of someone else betting is minimal, the pot odds are not in my favor for playing this strategy. I played with 4 other people later at night, and the pot odds were much better. I did play a tad looser as well, though.
I also experimented with going all-in many times tonight and it worked great. I tried to do it after a being called on a strong all-in hand as well to see if I could scare anyone off. I didn't, but still won the hand with a stroke of luck in which I caught a straight on the river and beat Mike Culver's "pocket rockets". Also worth note is that we were not playing for money tonight, and people were more likely to call my all-in hands.
A "going all-in every hand" concept is something I saw Gus Hanson do recently in the Superstars of Poker show when he had a commanding chip lead. He could afford to put everyone else all in even without looking at his cards, and the others simply didn't get anything. Even the few times when they called gus pulled great hands from nowhere.
I got the epiphany that when playing with small numbers of people you have to play more loose, i.e. bet on lower valued cards, because of the POT odds. In other words, going all-in with an AK or QQ may get you back a significant number of chips if you are playing with 8-9 other people, especially if you have good position or other people have good hands as well. Even if you are the large blind and everyone else just antes, you still can get back 9-1 pot odds even if everyone else only posts the large blind.
However, when there are only 3 chips in the pot, and the likelihood of someone else betting is minimal, the pot odds are not in my favor for playing this strategy. I played with 4 other people later at night, and the pot odds were much better. I did play a tad looser as well, though.
I also experimented with going all-in many times tonight and it worked great. I tried to do it after a being called on a strong all-in hand as well to see if I could scare anyone off. I didn't, but still won the hand with a stroke of luck in which I caught a straight on the river and beat Mike Culver's "pocket rockets". Also worth note is that we were not playing for money tonight, and people were more likely to call my all-in hands.
A "going all-in every hand" concept is something I saw Gus Hanson do recently in the Superstars of Poker show when he had a commanding chip lead. He could afford to put everyone else all in even without looking at his cards, and the others simply didn't get anything. Even the few times when they called gus pulled great hands from nowhere.
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