Best Shorthanded Poker Games Online

Shorthanded poker games are incredibly popular among players. Not only do you have the advantage of seeing more hands, but the games are some of the juiciest games online. Whether you play FL, PL or NL shorthanded tables, you will notice that the number of players who see the flop is significantly higher than that of a full table. In fact, many of the short handed poker sites we've listed on this page have an average viewed flop percentage of nearly double that of the full ring games.

What is Short Handed Poker?
A "short handed" game is a table with five or fewer players, and can include tables of six. A full table is that which consists of 8 or 9 players, although when only five or less are seated, the game is referred to as playing short handed.

Difference Between Short Handed Poker and Full Tables

Besides the obvious, short handed poker games are generally more aggressive then their counterpart. Players will see more blinds, more hands and ultimately call bets more often than they would in a full game. Depending on the poker site, these games are some of the easiest to beat cash games online, especially at the FL tables. Key tips include table selection, aggression and evaluating you hand accordingly.

Short Handed Strategy
Short handed strategy is something that a lot of players are just now starting to learn. Full ring poker games have long been commonplace in casinos, but online play has seen the prominence of short handed games rise steadily.

Most of the biggest stars of the game today can be found playing in short handed, even heads up games, not a full ring game. Sure, there are a lot of televised cash games and tournaments that are set up as full ring tables, but this is far from the most popular variety of the game. If you ask Ziigmund or Tom Dwan what types of games they prefer and regularly participate in, they are going to tell you short handed.

Short handed games come in a number of shapes and sizes, but the most common is 6-Max and heads up. For the sake of this article, short handed is going to reference 6-Max games and not heads up games. Sometimes a full ring game will break and players will play down to a 6-Max game. For all intents and purposes, this is the same as a normal 6-Max game.

6-Max (Short Handed Poker) Strategy
6-Max (commonly used term for short handed tables) strategy, as a general rule of thumb, is much more aggressive than full ring strategy. The reason for this is quite simple. As fewer players enter a game, the more loose players are going to play. You can’t sit around and wait for pocket kings and pocket aces because the other players will raise it up with 87 off suit and steal every pot.

Learning relative hand value is incredibly important for short handed players. You need to know just how much your hand is worth in relation to the other hands that your opponents are likely to be holding. It doesn’t matter that you only have ace high, if there are only a few other guys in the game, your hand may very well be the best in play. This is what should always be going through the head of a 6-Max player, “what value does my hand have in this particular game and in this particular situation.” It hardly matters that you have a small pocket pair if the other guys are likely holding something worse.

Don’t Be Afraid
As mentioned previously, one of the biggest differences between full ring and short handed play is the level of aggressiveness. If you are in a short handed game, be prepared to put your chips on the line in less than comfortable situations. This is nothing more than the reality of how short handed games play. If you are afraid to go all in on the flop with a flush draw because the pot will be big, you probably are not cut out for or are not ready for short handed play.

The swings and variance that short handed players experience are topped only by heads up players. This means that you should expect a lot of 10 buy in upswings and downswings. There is next to no short handed player who is able to post wins on a weekly basis, you are going to inevitably lose. There is no doubt that there is a ton of money to be made in short handed games, but there is also a lot of money to be lost. Approach short handed games with no fear and be prepared to win, but don’t be surprised if you lose.