help from short-handed specialists?

[mrdannyg 274]

hi everyone. i never play short-handed, but i missed the big blind and ended up at a 6-way table. button had shown to be quite aggressive, especially in position, but only through 2 rounds.he had also shown the propensity to call on the river with nothing, which is good EV-wise, but bad since thats about all i'm beating.anyways, i figured i was probably ahead of him, and in fact ahead of anyone, so i was wondering what is the best way to play this situation with three goals in mind:1 - isolate against as few players as possible2 - find out quickly if someone has an 8, and be able to get away from the hand at this point3 - end the hand quickly, since there are undoubtedly several overcards.i thought my check-raise would make it 2 bets to most players, and remove most overcards, and also force someone slow-playing to give it away by calling 2 bets cold, then raising me on the turn, so i could fold.of course it turned out perfectly, but its a situation i often find myself in in short-handed situations, and i'd appreciate some input.Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (6 handed) converterPreflop: Hero is BB with 5:spade:, 5:heart:. CO posts a blind of $2. UTG calls, MP calls, CO (poster) checks, [color:#CC3333]Button raises[/color], SB calls, Hero calls, UTG calls, MP folds, CO calls.Flop: (11 SB) 8:diamond:, 3:club:, 8:heart: [color:#0000FF](5 players)[/color]SB checks, Hero checks, UTG checks, CO checks, [color:#CC3333]Button bets[/color], UTG calls, CO folds, Button calls, SB folds.Turn: (9 BB) K:spade: [color:#0000FF](3 players)[/color][color:#CC3333]Hero bets[/color], UTG folds, Button calls.River: (11 BB) 6:diamond: [color:#0000FF](2 players)[/color][color:#CC3333]Hero bets[/color], Button calls.Final Pot: 13 BBbtw finished this table up 24bb, so maybe my super-cold streak is finally over! been getting killed lately, hopefully this is the end!cheers,daniel

[Scott31 0]

Looks good. C/Raising the flop was the correct play for the situation and for your reasoning. The King on the turn was a bit of a scare card, but you had the lead and it's hard to hit overcards, so leading was fine. I might not have bet the river, but in shorthanded play, you'll often get called down by ace high, so it's not too bad. BTW, I think the button plays this hand the same way with QK, so I don't know if you're beat or not by his river call. He could've been fearing trip 8s and just soft played his top pair..... I assume we'll get results

[custom36 4]

Nice hand.

[monoatomic 0]

yep that's about pretty normal. Nice check raise on the flop that's what got the SB and CO out.Turn is good, I like the lead out as you will find out pretty damn soon if someone has a K or an 8.River again is standard. Although there is a case to be made for you to check. Kx does play this about the same scared of trips so. It's probably 50/50 either way to check or bet so in those situations I usually err towards being aggressive.

[mrdannyg 274]

didn't mean to no post the results.i had 55, button had 22.i agree the button would've played a AK, KQ, KJ or K10s the same way. i say that based on the 'read' of this player. also a bunch of other hands as you can imagine.he would've bet the river had i checked also, so that doesn't really affect my EV, just helps me mentally i guess, although i am looking for places to be less aggressive late in hands. thanks for the input guys.

[akishore 0]

i like it. :-) aseem