rules

Six-max

Also: 6-max, six-handed, short-handed, shorthanded

A table seating at most six players, or a tournament or cash game played at that size throughout. Removing the three tightest seats from a nine-handed table means the blinds come round half again as fast and every player posts more often, which forces wider opening ranges and far more hands played.

Example. A solid full-ring player might open 18 per cent of hands; the same player moving to six-max will need to open closer to 28 per cent, because folding at the same rate means the blinds eat the stack.

The structural difference

Take a nine-handed table and delete under-the-gun, UTG+1 and UTG+2 — the three positions that need the strongest hands to enter a pot. What is left is a table where every seat is, in effect, a late seat. You pay the blinds every six hands instead of every nine, so the cost of folding rises by half, while the hands that remain are being opened from positions that justify a wider range anyway.

The result is a looser, more aggressive game with bigger average pots and much higher variance, played between the same stack sizes.

What has to change in your game

- **Opening ranges widen everywhere**, most sharply in the blinds and the cutoff. - **Three-betting goes up**, because opens are weaker on average and worth attacking. - **Post-flop skill matters more**, since you are more often in marginal spots with marginal holdings rather than waiting for a premium. - **Blind defence becomes a real part of the win rate** rather than an afterthought.

A player who brings full-ring ranges to a six-max table is not playing tight; they are folding their stack away one blind at a time.

Where you will find it

Six-max is the default online cash format and common in online tournament series. Live, it appears mostly as a billed variant — a six-max side event in a festival — and as the de facto size of any full-ring table that has lost players late at night. Short-handed is the looser term, used of any table running below its nominal size; six-max is the specific format.

Related terms

Full glossary

Heads-up

Poker between exactly two players, either as its own format or at the end of a tournament when two remain. Han…

Position

Where you sit relative to the dealer button, which decides when you act. Acting last ("in position") means you…

Range

All the hands a player could plausibly hold given how they have played so far. Thinking in ranges rather than …

VPIP

Voluntarily Put money In Pot: the percentage of hands a player enters by calling or raising (not counting the …

Blind steal

A late-position raise with a weak hand whose main purpose is to win the blinds and antes uncontested. Steals f…

Under the gun (UTG)

The seat that acts first before the flop, immediately to the left of the big blind. With the whole table still…

Cutoff

The seat directly to the right of the button. Second-best position at the table, and the spot from which playe…

Blinds

The two forced bets (small blind and big blind) posted by the players to the left of the button before any car…

Frequently asked questions

What does six-max mean in poker?

A table seating no more than six players, or a game played at that size. It is the online cash-game default and appears live as a billed side-event format.

How much wider should I play at six-max?

Considerably. The three earliest seats of a full-ring table are gone, so every remaining seat behaves like a late one, and the blinds arrive every six hands instead of nine. A full-ring opening range of around 18 per cent of hands typically needs to move towards the high twenties.

Is short-handed the same as six-max?

Not quite. Short-handed describes any table running below its nominal size — including a nine-handed table down to five players late at night. Six-max is the specific billed format.