For the vast majority of a poker tournament, the players will find themselves at ‘full tables' of nine or ten players but when they reach the final table, none of the eliminated players are replaced so the play becomes more and more short-handed.

Many players fail to adjust their play for short-handed tables as they lack the experience of going deep in a tournament environment.

As the number of active players reduces, hand strength increases, as it is less likely that one of the players has a strong starting hand. In addition, fewer players mean that each player pays the blinds more frequently so they have to play aggressive poker just to stay ahead of them.

At the 2008 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event Final Table, play suddenly turned short-handed within three hands! Chris Elliot had already been eliminated during the seventh hand but with eight players remaining, the table was still counted as being full.

Two players lost all their chips during hands #50 and #52 to completely change the table dynamics. First to go was Finland's Toni Hiltunen. Having raised pre-flop with Jd Jh, Hiltunen found himself all-in when Stanislav Alekhin re-raised him with pocket queens. The board ran out 3c 4h 6s Qh Kh and Hitchen exited in eighth place, £108,600 richer.

The table had barely settled down from the excitement of moving up a place in the payout structure when another player was heading for the rail. Russian professional, Ivan Demidov, raised to 38,000 and the last-remaining British player, Robin Keston, announced he was all-in, a bet that Demidov quickly called. A flop of Kc Tc 4h meant that Demidov's pocket nines were still in front of the Ac 8h of Keston. The nine of clubs on the turn completed the Russian's set but gave the Brit some hope with eight outs to the nut-flush. Unfortunately for Keston, the 6d was dealt on the river, eliminating him in seventh spot with £135,750 to soften the blow.

Within three hands, the table had gone from being relatively full, to a bona-fide short-handed game with the two Russian players holding the lion's share of the chips in play.