I am friggin sick of waiting around for the right hand in the right position so I decided to practice some short handed poker. I've been trolling around the PokerStars $25 NL game looking for short buy in players and bad players who are lucky enough to have a big stack. When you play short handed you must play more hands to stay ahead of the blinds and have to be willing to push small edges and bluff more often otherwise aggressive opponents will have their way with you. I have been applying a loose-aggressive strategy and have to admit it is extremelly fun. When you play at a 9 or 10 handed table it makes sense to wait for a hand but when playing 2-5 handed you are constantly in the action. One thing I am noticing is that the more hands you play, the luckier you get. Well, you dont get luckier in the sense that the cards favor you more than usual but when you are pushing hands that are often not the favorite you get more opportunities to get lucky and draw out. I have made a bunch of big hands with cards like 10 4 suited and King 4 offsuit, hands I normally wouldnt play unless I was getting a free ride in the blinds. It is also exciting to find a short handed table that is playing passively and start raising every pot. I'm good at following through with the bluff on the flop but can usually tell when it is time to slow down on the turn. I'm not fond of cultivating a loose image in the full ring game but when playing short handed the players notice you playing wildly and tend to take stands against you when they shouldnt. I already had one fella move in on me with A5 before the flop when I had AA and had raised the 10 previous flops. The key to this strategy is to raise with your big hands just like your crap hands and hope they play back at you. Playing short also makes me realize how much of NL holdem is a money game and how important it is to play at a level you can afford. The $25 game feels like nothing to me so it is easy for me to push hard when I feel I have a small edge. I can tell there are players out there who buy in for $10 and nurse their stack like a cold beer and these are the opponents you can really exploit playing short handed. I will be going to Vegas again this Thurs and Friday night to see if I can bust some tourists. Wish me luck!see yaYD

Source: Live No Limit Holdem with Yogi Steve