at $25 NL...

Is it more profitable to play full ring or 6-max at the 25 NL limit?

sixmax

full ring

I'm biased. I played fullring since I started playing ring and since I've swithed to 6max I'm enjoying myself sooo much more.

But either or you're gonna profit.

This is an interesting thought. I've been playing both trying to figure it out. You need to add "and why". I'd like to hear reasons depending playing styles, table dynamics, hands played/HR, more hands not in the blinds, gameplay and other reasons.

a novice at postflop play would do well to play a tight aggressive style at full ring and make a steady roll-building profit, and forgo the tough situations and swings of 6-max (even if the profit potential is greater there).

Originally Posted by Renton

a novice at postflop play would do well to play a tight aggressive style at full ring and make a steady roll-building profit, and forgo the tough situations and swings of 6-max (even if the profit potential is greater there).

The question was about what would have greater potential for profit, not what would be the most steady.

Id say 6max, when you move up most of the money is going to bet at 6max, your game is going to improve faster there and there is a greater concentration of fish at these tables and more tables available so its easier to game select.

6max offers a better winrate.

play both

Originally Posted by Miffed22001

6max offers a better winrate.

I don't think this is necesseraly true when talking about BB/100 partly because the rake is more significant in 6-max. You can however play more hands per hour against fewer players so you won't sacrifice your reads as much, this is why I like 6-max.

You can just wait good cards with lower cost.

The answer is exceptionally simple. If you are equally good at 6max as at ring (this is NOT a given, but for the sake of argument I'm assuming it) you will see roughly 40% more hands and therefore make 40% more profit. It's as simple as that.

If you are a 13/7 nit and can't loosen up for the life of you, stick to full ring. But if you can use position well and are happy letting your VP creep above 20% and your PFR 10%, then you should be fine at 6max.

There does need to be a proviso - 6max is swingier, takes more balls and can fuck you in the arse if you lose concentration or go on tilt. So you need to be even more well-disciplined and have a solid fundamental game before you can rely on making the sort of $$$ there thhat should be possible.

Originally Posted by andy-akb

Originally Posted by Renton

a novice at postflop play would do well to play a tight aggressive style at full ring and make a steady roll-building profit, and forgo the tough situations and swings of 6-max (even if the profit potential is greater there).

The question was about what would have greater potential for profit, not what would be the most steady.

Fair point. BUT, you need to consider that with a roll suited to 25NL, many players aren't yet as savvy as to be able to play a profitable 6max game. Obviously you might argue that he just had to withdraw a massive amount after being a winner at 200NL FR and 6max and has to start over, or something of the kind, and you might be right.
However, "profitability" is not only an ecuation based only on fishiness at the tables, size of pots and number of times you can profit from the mistakes of said fish. You also need to take into account increased variance, increased difficulty (especially if said players is relatively new at holdem - even if he isn't a fish) in the context of playing more hands and needing to be more aggressive and sometimes needing to play more marginal hands.

Having said that, my answer would be... *drum roll*... it depends. It depends on the bankroll available, on the player's experience in hold'em (it's much easier to play 200NL FR and move down to 25NL 6max or 50NL 6max to learn the game than it is to move from 25NL FR to 25NL 6max), and also on the player's bankroll. In some cases it might even depend on the site being played on.

Originally Posted by Hate

Originally Posted by andy-akb

Originally Posted by Renton

a novice at postflop play would do well to play a tight aggressive style at full ring and make a steady roll-building profit, and forgo the tough situations and swings of 6-max (even if the profit potential is greater there).

The question was about what would have greater potential for profit, not what would be the most steady.

Fair point. BUT, you need to consider that with a roll suited to 25NL, many players aren't yet as savvy as to be able to play a profitable 6max game. Obviously you might argue that he just had to withdraw a massive amount after being a winner at 200NL FR and 6max and has to start over, or something of the kind, and you might be right.

The winningest play at party 6max plays a Tagg game.

To beat 25nl 6max you dont need to be that savvy, the difference at these stakes between the two games is very minimal in terms of required skills to beat the games.

Originally Posted by Hate

However, "profitability" is not only an ecuation based only on fishiness at the tables, size of pots and number of times you can profit from the mistakes of said fish. You also need to take into account increased variance, increased difficulty (especially if said players is relatively new at holdem - even if he isn't a fish) in the context of playing more hands and needing to be more aggressive and sometimes needing to play more marginal hands.

Variance doesnt affect profitability, it just makes things have more ups and downs. The increase in difficulty is offset by the fact that most of your opponents at these stakes do not adjust to the more shorthanded play and are worse in general.

Lets go through a logical progression here, most of your opponents for the most part do not adjust to playing shorthanded and if they do often do so incorrectly. There are less players at the table allowing you to play more hands/hour. Since there are less players at the table and most of our opponents either dont adjust or just dont play well to begin with, there is a higher concentration of fish, also we can deduce there are less strong players.

Now lets look at how this combines to give greater potential for profit. There are less people at the table and a greater percent of them are fish allowing us to play more hands against the weaker players and isolate them more easily. You are able to play more hands per hour which allows us to have a higher hourly rate even if our winrate is lower.

In poker we profit from the mistakes of our opponents, in 6max there are more mistakes to profit from and its easier to exploit these mistakes.

Originally Posted by Hate

Having said that, my answer would be... *drum roll*... it depends. It depends on the bankroll available, on the player's experience in hold'em (it's much easier to play 200NL FR and move down to 25NL 6max or 50NL 6max to learn the game than it is to move from 25NL FR to 25NL 6max), and also on the player's bankroll. In some cases it might even depend on the site being played on.

I agree that it can depend, but that is not the question being asked in this thread and I think people are looking too deep into this.

The question was asked, "Is it more profitable to play full-ring or 6max at the $25nl limit?" It was not specificed for who so we must assume general circumstances or even take the player out completely and see which game has more potential. Analyzing the games themselves shows us why there is more profit potential in 6max.

For a bad player you are going to profit "more" in fullring simply because its easier and the opposite holds true for a good player, taking the players out of the equation shows us that there is more profit potential in 6max and I believe that is what was asked in the OP.

in my limited experience, the multi-tabling rocks all play Full Ring, while the Gamblers play 6max - There are some Good players doing 6max, but I would say there are a lot more fish who try to shortstack and gamble with too much crap - Personally, 6 max is a much better game, for me, than full ring - Maybe it simply comes down to seeing more hands - I just have found that the Full Ring players LEAN towards being tighter/more informed/TAG's than the 6 max....you find 1 or 2 weak players at 6 max and you get a LOT of chances to take advantage...at Full Ring it takes longer....The main benefit, as I see it for Full Ring, is that you can multitable more tables than 6 max - My max is 4 tables for 6 max, but I can easily put it in cruise control and do 6 tables full ring....