Poker Forum

Over 1,246,000 Posts!

Subscribe to FTR web feed
Already Registered?      Username:    Password:   Remember      Forgot Password
  >    > 

When is it time for 6max?

  
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Display Modes
Kits
Old 07-30-2006, 06:30 AM     Post subject: When is it time for 6max? #1 (permalink)  
Kits's Avatar
Straight

Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 129
Kits
So far I've racked up 6000 hands at $25NL full ring. During that time I haven't even thought about the 6 max tables.

Can someone give me some advice about when it is appropriate to give 6max a go? Obviously it involves playing hands with some not so premium cards, playing well out of the blinds and having good judgement regarding when you are ahead or beat.

When did you make the transition? Did you stay at the same limit? How did it all go?
Reply With Quote
Join the FTR Poker Forum to disable these banners and start posting!
Lukie
Old 07-30-2006, 06:50 AM #2 (permalink)  
Lukie's Avatar
4-of-a-Kind

Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: back with a vengeance
Posts: 3,307
Lukie is on a distinguished road
I used to play exclusively full ring, then I played about half and half, and lately, I've played exlusively 6max. My biggest reason for this is simply the ability to play more hands per hour. Now that said, I'd still feel very comfortable playing full ring, and I'll still bring up 1 or 2 of these tables.

I guess what it really comes down to is personal preference to be honest. Although, if you really want to take your game to a new level, 6max is the place to start.
Reply With Quote
Kits
Old 07-30-2006, 11:54 AM #3 (permalink)  
Kits's Avatar
Straight

Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 129
Kits
Thanks Lukie. Do you open up the number of hands you are willing to play with?

Are A rag suited something you will play? Do you raise with small-mid pocket pairs instead of limping?

Is there any guidance around this kind of stuff for 6 max located on FTR?
Reply With Quote
Renton
Old 07-30-2006, 01:37 PM #4 (permalink)  
Renton's Avatar
Straight Flush

Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Atlanta, GA, USA
Posts: 5,991
Renton will become famous soon enough
lukies range is 99+ AKs
Reply With Quote
jackvance
Old 07-30-2006, 01:46 PM #5 (permalink)  
jackvance's Avatar
4-of-a-Kind

Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 2,910
jackvance is an unknown quantity at this point
There is a forum for 6max (shorthanded) NL holdem. Personally I've never played a single hand of full ring. Jump in the pool and hope you can swim
Sarcasm is your body's natural defense against stupidity
 
Reply With Quote
pgil
Old 07-30-2006, 03:36 PM #6 (permalink)  
Full House

Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 1,103
pgil
table/opponent selection is much more important in 6max in my experience. at a full ring table at 25nl you arent likely to find that the table revolves around a single player, but this is not always the case at 6max, and its fun to be that player, but not all that fun to be one of the others at the table.
"If you can't say f*ck, you can't say f*ck the government" - Lenny Bruce
 
Reply With Quote
Lukie
Old 07-30-2006, 03:44 PM #7 (permalink)  
Lukie's Avatar
4-of-a-Kind

Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: back with a vengeance
Posts: 3,307
Lukie is on a distinguished road
Quote:
Originally Posted by Renton
lukies range is 99+ AKs
Lukie's stats (in their entirety) playing in Renton's main game (party 1/2NL)



I bet I could sustain a 10ptbb/100 winrate in this game over 100k hands.

meh, that's probably too high, but I bet I could be close.
Reply With Quote
Lukie
Old 07-30-2006, 03:53 PM #8 (permalink)  
Lukie's Avatar
4-of-a-Kind

Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: back with a vengeance
Posts: 3,307
Lukie is on a distinguished road
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kits
Thanks Lukie. Do you open up the number of hands you are willing to play with?

Are A rag suited something you will play? Do you raise with small-mid pocket pairs instead of limping?

Is there any guidance around this kind of stuff for 6 max located on FTR?
There is obviously a change from full ring to 6max, but it's really not as drastic of a change as some make it out to be. You can still play tight, solid poker and be a consistent winner, and anybody who tells you differently is a fool. Now of course the set-hunting nit will get overrun on a competant table, but there's a big difference between a nit and a solid tight-agressive player. I would consider myself the ladder, and it's not really close either.

As far as your questions about Axs and low pairs, they are very situation dependant. I'm generally raising all pairs in all unraised pots (outside of the blinds), but occasionally you have to find a limp with them, particularly against active players that put up resistance in small-medium pots but won't play big ones without the goods, vs shortstacks (particularly to your left), and a whole bunch of other factors, such as your image. Axs I'm usually folding in EP at a 6 handed table, and I'm trying to raise it in late. It really depends though, sometimes I'll open raise it from EP and limp behind limpers in LP, it's really situation dependant. I wouldn't really try to put a system down so to speak as much as I'd try to figure out when it makes sense to play these hands and how.

Quote:
Is there any guidance around this kind of stuff for 6 max located on FTR?
I'm sure you could dig up a guide on it somewhere, but the most useful thing would be to just play lots and lots of hands. Posting hands is also a good idea. I've comtemplated writing a 6max guide but there's just an incredible amount of things that I want to discuss that I just can't really explain because shorthanded NL ring is so complicated and often times small details can drastically change what the correct play is.
Reply With Quote
mcatdog
Old 07-30-2006, 05:19 PM #9 (permalink)  
mcatdog's Avatar
4-of-a-Kind

Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: St. Louis
Posts: 3,654
mcatdog
Quote:
Originally Posted by jackvance
Jump in the pool and hope you can swim
Reply With Quote
Renton
Old 07-30-2006, 06:40 PM #10 (permalink)  
Renton's Avatar
Straight Flush

Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Atlanta, GA, USA
Posts: 5,991
Renton will become famous soon enough
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lukie
Quote:
Originally Posted by Renton
lukies range is 99+ AKs
Lukie's stats (in their entirety) playing in Renton's main game (party 1/2NL)



I bet I could sustain a 10ptbb/100 winrate in this game over 100k hands.

meh, that's probably too high, but I bet I could be close.
my winrate is converging toward 4ptbb/100, but you are probably a better player than i, so 6-8 wouldn't be unrealistic.
Reply With Quote
Renton
Old 07-30-2006, 06:42 PM #11 (permalink)  
Renton's Avatar
Straight Flush

Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Atlanta, GA, USA
Posts: 5,991
Renton will become famous soon enough
btw lukie if thats full ring our stats are almost identical, but its sixmax isn't it?
Reply With Quote
yorib
Old 08-01-2006, 03:29 AM #12 (permalink)  
yorib's Avatar
Flush

Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Oak Park, IL
Posts: 281
yorib
Kits: I started playing full ring ($5NL) until I got kicked off the beginners tables at Party, then went to Paradise and played about 10K hands at 10NL (full) and 25NL (full) with reasonable success. I too was always curuious about playing 6-max (5-max at Paradise), but took the leap after Party gave me $30 to screw around with and I was constantly running into nits at full ring. From then on I've played (almost) exclusively $25 5-max (at Paradise) and love it. The most important thing I read about 6-max is that you can really take advantage of the weaker players. I've also found that I've gotten a lot better at reading hands, managing pot sizes and aggression. I hihgly recommend giving it a shot and seeing if it's for you. (At first only try 1-2 tables so you can really give it your all)

Good Luck.
Reply With Quote
jackvance
Old 08-01-2006, 09:15 AM #13 (permalink)  
jackvance's Avatar
4-of-a-Kind

Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 2,910
jackvance is an unknown quantity at this point
Quote:
Originally Posted by yorib
The most important thing I read about 6-max is that you can really take advantage of the weaker players.
This is the key point imho. Full ring favors nutcamping strategies.. which is a good place to start probably if you're new to poker, but if you're good at poker and you want to use your edge over other players, I think MTTs and 6max are the place to be.. because in both of those there is a lot more pressure on people to act.

(don't know about SNGs, only played like 3-4 in my life)
Sarcasm is your body's natural defense against stupidity
 
Reply With Quote
yorib
Old 08-01-2006, 12:00 PM #14 (permalink)  
yorib's Avatar
Flush

Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Oak Park, IL
Posts: 281
yorib
JV: The best part is, you don't even have to be *that* good. (I don't think that I am.) Just recognizing that a guy is playing way too many hands, and taking them too far, and then when you get a hand that hits the flop hard, really punishing him.
Reply With Quote
Rondavu
Old 08-01-2006, 01:25 PM #15 (permalink)  
Rondavu's Avatar
4-of-a-Kind

Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 3,053
Rondavu
Ugh. Immense success at 6-max is something that transcends starting hand requirements. It's about getting people hooked on hands and draining them with strange straights, trips or two pair. It's about taking deceptive lines that get there. It's about putting people in line or denying value to rocks. It's about knowing how to extract value from a flush, or how to play overpairs efficiently. It's about value betting marginal hands in the right spots. It's about inducing bluffs, and then snapping them off with weak hands. It's often ballz and a tight plan of action. It's a game of balanced lines to supplement unpredictability. It's less about not making a mistake, and more about forcing people into them.

6 Max = Proactive

The bottom line is if you're still thinking about starting hand requirements, you won't make the max from 6-max. If you ever watched me at a 6-max table, you would see me sitting on 7+ buy ins while 3 people bitch about the 7T offsuit I just raised UTG and won a huge pot with. People calling me "lucky", or "fish", while buying in again.
It's not what's inside that counts. Have you seen what's inside?
Internal organs. And they're getting uglier by the minute.
 
Reply With Quote
Kits
Old 08-08-2006, 12:03 PM #16 (permalink)  
Kits's Avatar
Straight

Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 129
Kits
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rondavu
Ugh. Immense success at 6-max is something that transcends starting hand requirements. It's about getting people hooked on hands and draining them with strange straights, trips or two pair. It's about taking deceptive lines that get there. It's about putting people in line or denying value to rocks. It's about knowing how to extract value from a flush, or how to play overpairs efficiently. It's about value betting marginal hands in the right spots. It's about inducing bluffs, and then snapping them off with weak hands. It's often ballz and a tight plan of action. It's a game of balanced lines to supplement unpredictability. It's less about not making a mistake, and more about forcing people into them.

6 Max = Proactive

The bottom line is if you're still thinking about starting hand requirements, you won't make the max from 6-max. If you ever watched me at a 6-max table, you would see me sitting on 7+ buy ins while 3 people bitch about the 7T offsuit I just raised UTG and won a huge pot with. People calling me "lucky", or "fish", while buying in again.
I love this stuff. You're posts are always extremely insightful and I always find myself nodding my head when reading them. Thanks - great stuff.

I took the plunge and had a quick bash at 6max. On the whole I have found the experience quite enjoyable. I've been trapped a few times and one of the hardest things I have found is trying to put my opponent on a hand. On the other hand against the right players you can stack them with simple reads and good strategic play. I like that.

The most important thing I have recognised is that I have to play 6max to become a better player. It shows up all my leaks and magnifies my stupid plays. It makes me more aggressive and as Rondavu said - more proactive.

I've had a little more variance than full ring but I expected it and my bankroll can handle it. Overall when time permits I look forward to racking up a lot more hands and see how I fair.
Reply With Quote
Reply
Latest Poker News
KoRnholio Old 05-26-2012, 03:08 PM    Australia Legalized Online Poker coming up in next 6 to 12 Months
According to an email sent out by Mark Bryan, a gaming analyst at Merrill Lynch, the Australian government plans to legalize online poker sometime in the next six to 12 months. This move will coincide ...

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On



All times are GMT. The time now is 10:06 PM.


FTR Testimonials

All content
© FlopTurnRiver.com
Advertising  |   Partners  |   Testimonials  |   T&C  |   Contact Us  |   FTR News & Press  |   Site Map  |   Search FTR

Full Tilt  |   Titan Poker  |   UltimateBet  |   Poker Stars  |   Ladbrokes Bonus  |   Sportsbook  |   Cake Poker  

Play Texas Holdem Online, Online Texas Holdem Strategy, & Poker Forum
This is not a gambling website.