One of the incontestable truths about short- handed cash games is that you must steal blinds with regularity. But this also means you will be on the receiving end of attempted blind steals from other aggressive opponents. For the most part, I won’t tolerate a table where a strong opponent has his button on my big blind. It’s too much like hard work.

Playing out of position against loose- aggressive tricky opponents is a sure-fire way to lose money quickly. Sometimes, however, the game will be so juicy that you will have to put up with a couple of good opponents in order to take advantage of a couple of overplaying idiots or big calling stations.