FR to 6max switch, pwning myself outside my own comfort zone

[OhioRounder]

I'm bored so here it goes...

My "poker career" has been swingy to say the least. The obv n00b ignorance and negligence of BRM, learning the importance of starting hands, different kinds and reasons for betting, putting opponents on ranges, etc. It's been overall profitable over my small sample, but I know for a fact one of the things I struggle with most is maintaining focus and concentrating on beating one type of game.

Read the stickies, ask questions. Get focused. Only YOU can do this.

Typically when I hit a bump in the road (mini downswing), I tend to say "Aw fuck cash games, lets watch some GS videos on micro SNGs and make some easy money playing a standard push/fold game..." or "Man, fuck this micro cash, I bet I can profit big time if I play a couple hundred DONs"

Stick to what you're comfortable playing, but try to grasp one game/variation at a time.

Well this time, I made the switch back over to 6 max. I had probably played around 10-15K hands of full ring 10NL this month, but for some reason a couple of days ago I decided I wanted to switch back to 6 max, get into more interesting spots post flop and play more aggressively for bigger pots. I've played quite a bit of 6 max in the past, but for some reason after playing so much FR (by my standards) I found it much harder than usual to adjust.

Preflop or postflop? Preflop you should playing more hands and 3-betting more. Postflop, well yeah, you're going to run into some trouble since you're going to get into more marginal situations.

From watching videos, I feel like I tend to try wayyyyyyy too hard to play like Spenda or SugarNut or Colossus, or whoever the fuck else. I get outside my comfort zone and end up making huge spews and tricking myself into believing something that is just not true. Now these guys have shared so much with everybody and they definitely know what they're talking about (and deserve much gratitude. Thanks, btw.), but I know personally, mistakes happen when people try to mimic information and actions that they don't understand.

Stop doing this. What's works for one player may not work for you. Playing laggy just for the sake of playing laggy is a surefire way to start a nice downswing. Play YOUR game and evolve slowly.

Now based on that, I realize that I'm building these HUGE pots against my opponents and getting into trouble a lot after firing the rest of my stack in a pot size river bet with a hand like 2 pair or even TPTK (or even air, WTF WTF WTF) against some people. Usually this happens: they fold and I win a 40-60BB pot (35%), they call and I crush that stack (5%), or they call and pwn me (60%), I puke then cut my inner thigh with a rusty razor blade just a little deeper.

See Spoon's post - Put Your Opponent on a God Damn Range

How many fucking times am I going to do this!!? In the heat of the moment, I'm trying to play out the story and put my opponents on ranges, and a lot of the time I catch myself thinking something like "Well, OF COURSE he's representing XX+, nut flush, whatever....SHOVE" but its so goddamn flawed. I need to trust my reads better and put my ego aside and just fold the goddamn hand. But I'm trying. And slowly getting better.

When low-stakes players rep a hand, it's probably because they have that hand. Tend to believe them unless they're too aggro and play too many pots.

One more thing real quick: For some reason, I've had my HUD stats for my entire playing history as opposed to just the current table/session. Doh! Once I switched it over last night, I was like "No fucking wonder he's calling me down with bottom pair!! I'm running like 52 / 49 / 6.5 ag over the last 99 hands!!!!!" This goes back to trying to make some of the aggressive plays I see in videos (outside my comfort zone and skill level) and "not getting run over at the 6 max tables." Need to get that shit out of my head and play the game I'm comfortable with and confident playing. And definitely cut out this wanna be aggro style, when it clearly hasnt been working for me.

For the love of God tighten up.

As you can see, nothing really of substance is to be learned here since there's so many "it depends" Q&A.