OldschoolSteinhausen
Enthusiast
Silver Level
INTRODUCTION To Full-Ring and Shorthanded Poker- Cash Games
Why is Full Ring (FR) play different than its Shorthanded (6max) and heads-up (HU) counterparts? We know nine players sit at the table instead of six or two, but how does that translate into a different style of play, and different winning strategies? Poker is poker right? Well, it is and it isn’t. We are going to explore the working fundamentals of a winning full-ring/6max player’s game, and see how -- and, more importantly, why – full ring play differs from 6 max and HU play on a technical level.
How Does FR Differ From 6max?
The easiest and most inclusive answer simply is a lack of air in people’s ranges. Later on we’ll see more about how this idea applies to actual game play. For now though, let’s look at an example that illustrates this basic idea.
Player A (hero) enters the pot with a PFR from UTG in a FR game. He’s a de-cent tag player, and his range typically would be something like 77+ & AQ+. This, incidentally, is generally one of the tightest pre-flop ranges you will encounter in any cash game -- only opening with about 6% of starting hands.
It’s folded around to Player B (frosty012) who sits in MP. Player B is also a tag, and he 3-bets player A. This situation is a nightmare for player A if he’s holding something like AK or QQ, but why?
The reason why this spot is a headache for player A stems from the fact that there is a lack of air in his range. When he open-raised UTG, he announced that he had a strong hand range, with no nonsense hands in it. When a rea-sonably sane opponent like Player B decides to re-raise against player A, who is already known to have a strong hand range, then player B isn’t likely to be bluffing at all either. He usually has KK+ and the very occasional bluff.
If player A decides to 4-bet with a hand like AK or QQ and player B shoves, at that point player B is NEVER BLUFFING. How many people do you know that would 5-bet bluff shove AI vs. an UTG player in a FR game? The only time you could expect a 5 bet bluff shove is Vs. players on tilt or players who don’t understand how strong UTG’s range is.
So, given the lack of air in the UTG player’s range here, we can see that as far as full ring early positions (EP) poker goes the game has gotten to be very straightforward and very tight in a hurry.
If Player A and B were not in EP and MP, but instead were CO vs. Button or SB vs. BB, then things would be very different. In these spots people play much looser ranges. A tag player will probably open 25% or so of hands from the CO compared to just 6% in EP. That’s a range containing A LOT of non-premium hands.
In this instance, if CO is Player A and Player B is the on the button (OTB) or in the blinds, player B would be very wise to increase his range of 3-betting against player A, because now Player A has a lot of mediocre hands in his range with which he would be forced to fold to the 3-bet.
Here also since player B's 3-betting range is much looser and itself has a decent portion of bluffing hands, player B will sometimes fold to a 4-bet from player A. As a result player A's 4-bet range will have some bluffs in it, too. So, in these late position (CO vs. BUT, CO vs. Blinds, BUT vs. Blinds, and Blind vs. Blind) battles, if player B shoves a 5-bet AI, he could be bluffing still! Whether we are playing 6 max or full ring, we can com-fortably get AK in preflop here because both players are battling from late position spots with a lot of air in their respective ranges.
Here when player A 4-bets AK or QQ, he is totally fine with it, because the abundance of air in his original opening range means he is able to get hands in lighter for value. This is why in HU matches you might see players 4-bet and call it off with hands as weak as AJ or 77. Doing that would be suicidal in a FR game, but in HU matches people are often open-raising 100% of buttons (meaning there is a lot of air) which in turn induces a high frequency of 3-bets, and the cycle continues from there.
I hope that was helpful! Best Of Luck At The Tables
Why is Full Ring (FR) play different than its Shorthanded (6max) and heads-up (HU) counterparts? We know nine players sit at the table instead of six or two, but how does that translate into a different style of play, and different winning strategies? Poker is poker right? Well, it is and it isn’t. We are going to explore the working fundamentals of a winning full-ring/6max player’s game, and see how -- and, more importantly, why – full ring play differs from 6 max and HU play on a technical level.
How Does FR Differ From 6max?
The easiest and most inclusive answer simply is a lack of air in people’s ranges. Later on we’ll see more about how this idea applies to actual game play. For now though, let’s look at an example that illustrates this basic idea.
Player A (hero) enters the pot with a PFR from UTG in a FR game. He’s a de-cent tag player, and his range typically would be something like 77+ & AQ+. This, incidentally, is generally one of the tightest pre-flop ranges you will encounter in any cash game -- only opening with about 6% of starting hands.
It’s folded around to Player B (frosty012) who sits in MP. Player B is also a tag, and he 3-bets player A. This situation is a nightmare for player A if he’s holding something like AK or QQ, but why?
The reason why this spot is a headache for player A stems from the fact that there is a lack of air in his range. When he open-raised UTG, he announced that he had a strong hand range, with no nonsense hands in it. When a rea-sonably sane opponent like Player B decides to re-raise against player A, who is already known to have a strong hand range, then player B isn’t likely to be bluffing at all either. He usually has KK+ and the very occasional bluff.
If player A decides to 4-bet with a hand like AK or QQ and player B shoves, at that point player B is NEVER BLUFFING. How many people do you know that would 5-bet bluff shove AI vs. an UTG player in a FR game? The only time you could expect a 5 bet bluff shove is Vs. players on tilt or players who don’t understand how strong UTG’s range is.
So, given the lack of air in the UTG player’s range here, we can see that as far as full ring early positions (EP) poker goes the game has gotten to be very straightforward and very tight in a hurry.
If Player A and B were not in EP and MP, but instead were CO vs. Button or SB vs. BB, then things would be very different. In these spots people play much looser ranges. A tag player will probably open 25% or so of hands from the CO compared to just 6% in EP. That’s a range containing A LOT of non-premium hands.
In this instance, if CO is Player A and Player B is the on the button (OTB) or in the blinds, player B would be very wise to increase his range of 3-betting against player A, because now Player A has a lot of mediocre hands in his range with which he would be forced to fold to the 3-bet.
Here also since player B's 3-betting range is much looser and itself has a decent portion of bluffing hands, player B will sometimes fold to a 4-bet from player A. As a result player A's 4-bet range will have some bluffs in it, too. So, in these late position (CO vs. BUT, CO vs. Blinds, BUT vs. Blinds, and Blind vs. Blind) battles, if player B shoves a 5-bet AI, he could be bluffing still! Whether we are playing 6 max or full ring, we can com-fortably get AK in preflop here because both players are battling from late position spots with a lot of air in their respective ranges.
Here when player A 4-bets AK or QQ, he is totally fine with it, because the abundance of air in his original opening range means he is able to get hands in lighter for value. This is why in HU matches you might see players 4-bet and call it off with hands as weak as AJ or 77. Doing that would be suicidal in a FR game, but in HU matches people are often open-raising 100% of buttons (meaning there is a lot of air) which in turn induces a high frequency of 3-bets, and the cycle continues from there.
I hope that was helpful! Best Of Luck At The Tables
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