Quote:
Originally Posted by RedOak
One of the biggest mistakes weak players make is to play too many hands. At 9/10 handed the correct strategy is to play fewer hands than at 8 handed. Weak players are playing way too many hands in early position at 9/10 handed. When going to 8 handed, they will be making fewer mistakes as now it is correct to play more hands in early position. So the edge pros have will be reduced. In addition, the higher rake 8 handed will reduce the pros edge, and the higher cost per hand in blinds 8 handed will reduce the pros edge. But it will make the house more profitable.
This is a very simplistic way of looking at it. Sure, preflop hand selection is important, but is only a small way in which a very skilled player can gain a big edge on the rest of the field.
By playing 10-handed, it actually knee-caps a good pro b/c there are simply too many players to wade thru making preflop hand selection too valuable. The pro won't be able to navigate trickier hands b/c 1 or 2 of the nits will be showing up w/big hole cards. That being said, the better player will still find spots to push around the nits and less skilled players, they will just be much rarer than playing a shorter table.
Once you get down to 8-handed, 6-handed, etc. then post-flop play becomes much more important and this is where the skilled pro will be printing money over the rest of the field and really be able to grow his edge and winrate. He'll be paying more rake per hand, but this will be more than offset by an increased edge over the field.
Sure, if your only assets as a poker player are disciplined preflop hand selection, patience, set mining, etc. (aka a nit), then a 10-handed table will be a much better option for you. But for a skilled player with a well rounded game looking to win the most money possible, the shorter the table gets, the better it will be for him.