My hand is short

I can't emphasize enough how important practicing short-handed play is to my overall limit game.

Short-handed tactics are critical because most pots bring only a few players to see the flop, and even fewer on the turn. You need to know how to handle those situations.

It's crucial to learn when to speed up and when to slow down, and how to show aggression without spewing chips.

The most important part is to gain a better understanding of value betting.

Before my shorthanded excursion, I didn't fully know what value betting was, and I fooled myself into believing that fancy check-raises, delayed bets and stop-and-goes would bring me the money.

I was wrong.

Value bet when you think you have the best hand. When you get raised and you think you have the best hand, reraise. I know it sounds simple, and maybe it is. But it wasn't for me until I was able to practice those evaluation tactics in the controlled short-handed environment.

When you bet with top pair, for example, you're doing so more because you have the best hand than because you want to prevent free cards. Think in terms of everything you know about the hand so far, and if you think it's more likely than not that you're ahead, bet.

Another point that I've mentioned before is betting a four flush on the flop. In essence, you should either lead out or check-raise with a four flush if there are at least two other people in the hand. The reasoning is simple: you will make your flush about 35 percent of the time by the river, and if you have two callers, you're only investing 33 percent of the pot. You want to build the pot because you will win more than you lose. That's the very definition of +EV (expected value).

And that doesn't even account for the many times when you'll catch an overcard or when everyone folds to your initial bet.

About two months ago, I read a thread on the 2+2 Forums about what winning players would do differently if they did it all over again.

"Learn shorthanded tactics sooner" was the resounding answer.

I can vouch for that.

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