Say we have an 8-person table and one of the players is missing. Would the fact that there's an automatically folded hand make a difference in your starting hand requirement? My brother-in-law claims that if you hold an ace, it would lose value because the more hands are dealt out, the less likely it is that you will pair your ace. Therefore, he'd have a tighter starting hand requirement - just as if the 8th player was there. He looks at is "if X hands are dealt, then there are X Aces out there."

While I can't argue that logic (that there theoretically may be less aces in the deck), it doesn't change anything when it comes to counting your outs. For example: if you flop a flush draw, you're still counting 9 outs - whether there's 2 hands in play or 10. For that reason, it doesn't make a difference. My second arguement is that if the hand is automatically folded, that's one less hand you have to beat. If anything, you should be more liberal or more aggressive with your starting hand requirements.

I realize this is highly theoretical, but it would be good to hear some feedback either way. Thanks!

I'd rather be a lion for one day than be a sheep all my life.

Was the fact that Villain 1 was dealt a hand make a difference in how you play your hand? My brother-in law's arguement is that is does, because you have less chance of hitting an A or Q since Villain 1 may have been dealt either of these cards. My arguement is that it doesn't matter. He could be dealt pockets Aces for all we know, it's not going to change how you're going to play your A-Q because we simply don't know what he had.

I'd rather be a lion for one day than be a sheep all my life.

However my guess is that if two cards are taken from the deck it is no different to there being two cards at the bottom the deck which wont be braught into play. I give those cards no consideration as I will do with any dealt but unseen cards.

Personally, I'd play it slightly more loosely and think nothing more of it.

I am curious to see what other people would do.

The first is where that person is sitting. If he sits to my right/does NOT have position on me, then I don't change my style. If he sits to my left/DOES have position, then I may change it up. For example, say the hand is folded to you in the Cutoff seat and you look down at something like A5. Normally, I'd just limp or fold this hand, but let's say Dealer is absent. This is actually a very good time to go for a blind steal because you have to get rid of only two guys instead of three, and if you get called, you still have an ace AND you'll have position the rest of the hand.

The second condition is the opponent's style of play. If he were playing super-aggressive and the rest of the table was being pretty tight, scared of him, then I would loosen up my play a little bit once he's gone because now I can take advantage of the tightness of the table, especially since I don't have to worry about his potential calls/raises.