Talk to Tetsuo and have them merge the section. There's just not enough traffic on the shorthanded forum.

Short handed and head up are about position. If you have certain hands in any poker game, 6,6 or 98 suited, you want a cheap flop. In head up, you rarely raise into the button and raise or fold with the button. You want a cheap fllop out of position. In short handed, you want position on the most frequent raiser or the wildest player or the best player. In short handed, you must be willing to gamble, bluff more, and play hands with position that are usually sucker hands.

With the button, K,9 becomes a raising hand. In short handed, you mix up your play, by more trappiing. If you are better than your opponent, you do not want pre flop move ins.

In Vegas, when it gets short handed, the rake is reduced and your risk of getting broke on one hand goes up. Many players are uncomfortable with short handed and play too tight. I realize that short handed, I may be required to risk it all far more than full table.

In the earliest days of hold 'em, I played head up against a couple of future world champs and short handed with several more. These are fast action games not for the faint hearted. Faster than hold 'em is seven five low ball short handed.

Treetop Straus was sweating a huge game here in West Texas. I challenged him to play head up after the game and he broke me trapping with a flopped two pair not ten hands into the game. Bill Smith and I played a lot of head up. If you checked it to him, he would bet. I knew he was great so I played him two card hold 'em., meaning we would play freeze out for fixed pull outs and I would move in with any two big cards.

The very first night I meet Tennessee Longoodie, AKA James Roy, he challenges me to play single handed at Morgan's whore house. Him and Reverend were drinking and chippying. However, he keeps staking Homer D. Sharptop, Friend of the Working Girl which makes it three handed. The money rolls back and forth without Sharptop ever getting any and finally Longoodie busts me when we both back door small flushes.

Later, I asked him why stake Sharptop? He laughed and said it was to have a backstop. Having Sharptop in there gave Goodie position on me two thirds of the time.

Cash games usually start out ten handed and tight. Three or four hours later is the best time to enter the game. Some winners have left gigglin and grinnin with a little winning. The others are wilder and it will probably get short handed and wilder. In Vegas, the games will be ten handed one minute and five handed the next. You have to be good at short handed to win tournaments.

Johnny that may have been the most informative semi-hi jack I've ever seen. Go sprinkle that glitter in the short handed forum when you see something that needs a dusting