© March 1st, 2010
Daniel L. Cox
Editor, Poker Insider Magazine

This article is Part 5 of 5 Parts and is an excerpt from “Winning Blue-Collar Hold’em” by Daniel L. Cox. Available at Amazon.com.

Short-Handed Play

As the table becomes short-handed (less than six players), the starting hand requirements loosen up and aggressive play increases. With only a few opponents remaining, you have to make a major decision: You must decide if you are going to try to win the tournament or just move up on the payout scale a place or two. If you are going to attempt to win the tournament, you must change gears and adopt a loose-aggressive style. If you are satisfied with the prize money you will win in your current position, retain a tight-aggressive style using the modified starting hands as a guide.

Once the table reaches four to five players, more starting hands become premium hands. The Blackjack hands and Medium Pairs, as well as Suited Aces with Weak Kickers, become the new standard. If you are fortunate enough to make it to the final three players, even Low Pairs and Unsuited Aces with Weak Kickers become power hands. Position becomes less of a factor, since all of those remaining are playing more loosely. At this point, it is imperative to use your stack effectively. Later in this chapter, you will find more details on short-stack and large-stack play. When playing the short-stack, with few chips relative to the blinds, you need to determine when the best time to go All-in is. If you are the chip leader, you must know how to pound the short-stacks into submission. In either case, your objective is to see the elimination of the remaining players.

"Show me a good loser and I will show you a loser."  - Hall of Fame Football Coach Vince Lombardi

Heads-up Play

Once you get to heads-up play, the game changes again. In limit Hold’em, you can make a few big mistakes—sometimes it works in your favor if you appear too loose—but you cannot afford to make very many small ones. Constant small misreads of your opponent are far more likely to end your tournament than an incorrect size bet.

When playing heads-up, the most important factor is to understand your opponent’s style. Since you have been playing against them for at least the time together on the final table, you should have a good read on their ability, image and level of play. If they are more skillful than you are, you can negate their advantage by forcing big pots to end the game as quickly as possible. If you are the superior player, take your time by playing smaller pots. Your skill level should win out in the end.

Heads-up essentially comes down to a psychological war of aggression. You should raise aggressively with any hand you play and, more often than not, follow it to the river if you have any part of the board, trying to get in every extra bet possible when you believe you are in front.

In order to win the tournament outright, you must know how to adjust your game. When it is down to just two players, there is no one else to hide behind, since you are paying blinds every hand. If you wait for the Elite 8 or Sweet 16 starting hands, your stack is going to end up blinded away. It often comes down to AC^[i] poker. The chances are that you will see the flop with nearly any hand. The end stages of some tournaments will see the blinds equaling the size of the chip stacks. The exceptions to seeing the flop are a sizable raise from your opponent or an extremely poor starting hand. It sometimes comes down to going All-in blind on every hand and hoping your cards win. This style of play twice made Doyle Brunson a WSOP Main Event winner with 10–2 offsuit.

The other defining element to heads-up play is position, which is just as important as the break in pool. Limit heads-up is slightly different than no-limit heads-up, since position plays a lesser—though still important—role in limit. The button traditionally posts the small blind, therefore acting first before the flop, and acting second after the flop. This player has both the opportunity to take the lead in a pot pre-flop and to put pressure on the big blind post-flop.

To control the game heads-up, you want to do the majority of your attacking when you are on the button, and the majority of your defensive poker when you are off it. The comparative size of the blinds to your chip stack plays an important part in your decisions. With huge blinds, you stand a greater chance of risking your entire chip stack in either position. Remember, the button's main advantage is that there are three rounds of betting after the flop, giving you the opportunity to fire chips at your opponent three times, essentially putting most of their stack on the line, even in a limit game.

Though this strategy is the first step to success in heads-up play, a lot depends on your opponent. If you follow the formula of constantly attacking from the button and defending off it, you should quickly find out how your opponent’s game contrasts with yours. If you find them using the same strategy, the chances are that you will end up in a long battle of attrition. In this case, with neither of you giving in, the blinds eventually become so huge that winning or losing the tournament comes down to a few big pots.