So, I'm trying 6 max

[sandstorm]

I'm currently doing the camping tight/aggressive thing at 10 max, but I have decided to try some 6 max soon. Maybe to work on my shorthanded play, agressionand stuff, I'm not really sure

Anyway, I would need some basic tips for adjusting from 10 max NL to 6 max. I know this probably have been up before and I have searched, but I can't find what I'm looking for.

Any good starting tips would be appreciated!

And oh yah, I'm currently playing 3 tables 100NL 10 max, what level should I try 6 max at?

[mgobluefb]

To be safe, try 6 max at 50NL.

Tips? Play looser, they bluff a lot, implied odds.

[Miffed22001]

To be safe, try 6 max at 50NL.

Tips? Play looser, they bluff a lot, implied odds.

sound advice
just remember to raise a few weaker holdings more often they are better value in 6 max
and see more flops where possible.
ive found its more about tp/gk than flush/straight draws.
just my 20 cents.

[Cocco_Bill]

You don't need to play much looser, just pounce on all the mistakes people make. 100NL 6-max is genuinely crushable, I was completely new to 6-max and I've so far had only one losing day in over 20k hands played.

I don't think I'll be playing much full ring anymore.

[alias2211]

If you like camping, 6MAX isn't as suited for you as full ring. But if you want to play more hands and need to work on your post flop play, especially a lot of headsup, then 6MAX is the place to go.

I first started playing NLHE SnGs, and then when I wanted to try cash games, I took the full ring approach first. It was a good way to really focus on pre-flop play and hand selection. But after awhile, I found that I liked to practice my post-flop play, so moving to 6MAX was good for that. Now I prefer 6MAX over full ring in the cash game arena. And over SnGs, for that matter. I agree w/ Cocc0_Bill, I'm pretty dedicated to shorthanded play now.

[sandstorm]

Thanks for the advice, I guess I'll give it a try and work on it from there.

Any good sites for 6 max then?

[Pingviini]

Sandstorm, my neighbour from the west, I just started playing 6max as well, party full tables are soooo tight nowadays but the 6max tables I have played at, nl100-nl400 have been definitely easier that FH.

I find it a lot easier to get reads when you play 6max, less tables I play 1-2), less players. You have to look out for weakness, giving there more space to bluff, use your position to raise etc, normal stuff for FH as well but more important in 6max.

Let us see how this goes!

[sandstorm]

Well the first few session has been kinda good. A little bad luck but overall fine. I'm stil wondering about the starting hand requirements, and how to value for example TPTK after the flop. I love suited connectors in full ring, but I guess those goes down in value pretty much short handed.

[Cocco_Bill]

Perhaps I shoudn't be getting too cocky. Just dropped 5 buyins in 1500 hands or so..

[andr3w321]

Sandstorm position and reads are crucial in 6max. Don't be afraid to raise it up from CO or button with marginal holdings if you are opening the pot.

Perhaps I shoudn't be getting too cocky. Just dropped 5 buyins in 1500 hands or so..

Yeah I'm recovering from a recent downswing myself. They're pretty few and far between, but when they come they're usually rather large and take a few days to come back from.

[BIGandRICH]

I cant be bothered finding the link.. so i'll just copy and paste it from saved file... this is from a post i read about 6max..

This will be a vague post, so apply it to your own games as necessary. Just remember that the main way to learn when to play what is by experience and getting a feel for the games yourself.

A lot of the hands I decide to play in 6max depend on the table. It depends on how many people are sitting at the table, how those people play, how many have limped in, and your position. The difference between one person in front of me limping or folding preflop can change whether I fold a certain hand or come in with a raise with that same hand.

If there has been a raise before me, my hand selection changes a lot. Unless I have AA, AK, QQ, KK, or JJ I give up on high card strength because its hard telling what you are up against. AT, AQ, KJ all get mucked. Instead, I play sneaky hands like 44, 67s, 88, TJs that rarely hit, but have big pot potential and set potential.

I am considering dropping the small suited connectors however because calling a 4x BB raise with them every time isn't paying off. Its hard to hit anything with them, and even if you do, its pretty easy to move the preflop raiser off of his hand unless he has AA-QQ. I feel lucky to hit 2 pair or better with SC's one time out of ten, and paying 40xBB after ten times doesn't work too well. This is still something I am working on myself, so play those how you see fit.

I do not limp preflop too often. If I come in, its usually for a raise unless its a PP or small SC. KJo, KQo, ATo and the like all get raised from any position. In late position, it depends on the players. I'll raise all kinds of crap like A7s down to 79s if there are tightasses or only a lonely limper in the pot. With the blinds coming around so often, I like to steal to keep up until I win a big pot. In shorthanded games, there are usually fewer people entering the pot, and if you simply limp, it doesnt establish anything postflop. Coming in with a raise narrows it down to 1 or 2 opponents (if any) and gives you another way to win the pot besides hitting a hand. With only 6 hands being dealt, and only 2 or 3 people seeing the pot, the chances of someone having a big hand fall compared to full ring. By raising preflop, you keep them guessing while you steal the pot.

Small blind play is opponent dependent for me. If there are a lot of loose limpers/calling stations in the pot, I will tighten up on my raising hands because all it does is make a bigger pot for you in bad position. I complete it with a wide range of suited hands, PPs, SCs, suited gappers, and unsuited connectors when there are 3+ people in the pot. Usually the crap hands hit nothing, so I think some tightening up could do some good there as well. If nobody has entered the pot, and its down to me and the BB, I either raise or fold. If its just me and the BB, he will never get a free chance to outflop me. Any PP, Ace, suited king, 2 face cards, and SCs get a raise in this spot.

Most of the players at small stakes games will notice how much you raise preflop and will get sick of you always raising. Postflop is also mostly limited to betting, raising, or folding. Sometimes, every oponent at the table will feel like they are being singled out by you because you raise them so often. They will then assume that your postflop play is bullshit as well when actually postflop is where you play TAG poker and bust them. When you hit a real hand, throw out the usual continuation bet, and run into someone who has finally decided to stand up against you, its payday.

All of this depends on knowing your opponents. If they call my continuation bets any time they have an ace high or hold an underpair, then I play tighter, raise less preflop, and wait longer for hands. Against tight opponents, you'll see my dirty little hands in every pot either betting or raising.

As for lower PPs like 55, I play these only for set value. I rarely cold call in shorthanded games. Sometimes I will of course, but this is also opponent dependent and only for small pots.

I know its frustrating hearing the word "dependent" so much, but as someone on here once said, that uncertainty is what makes this a profitable game for us.

-EDIT - This strategy applies best against tight players. When playing in extra fishy loose games, you need to play more ABC poker. Many times, your games will be a mix between loose and tight players so you will need to change your game up every hand depending on who is in the pot with you. This is common knowledge, but I don't want people to waste a lot of money bluffing into calling stations after reading this. I waste enough money doing that myself.

reply post
Group 1: any two cards
Group 2: any two cards you found in your wallet (Blockbuster, Visa, library card)

Har har! Not really. But yes, the starting requirements are a lot looser and a lot more vague than in a full ring game. I don't consult a chart - a lot of it is based on feel more than anything. At a more passive table, you can play or raise with any two high cards (A-J), any pocket pair, and any suited connectors. Suited gappers are playable as well, as are some hands like AT, A9, KT, K9 in late position. At a more aggressive table it depends how much you want to mix it up. I like to often let others drive and try to snake their chips away with implied value hands - little pairs, suited connectors and gappers. With other people raising and betting hard, those hands are potentially devastating.

I think I wrote something up recently, but for me it's about like this:

raise from any seat: AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT, 99, AKs, AKo, AQs, AQo, AJs, AJo, ATs, KQs, KQo.

may raise or call from any seat: all pocket pairs 22 through 88. All suited connectors from 78s to QJs. All suited gappers from T8s to KJs. QJo.

call or raise in late position only: suited connectors 45s through 67s, suited gappers 46s through 79s, Ax suited, ATs, ATo, A9s, A9o, A8s, A8o, KTs, KTo, K9s, K9o, K8s, Q9s.

On the "may raise" hands, I generally would prefer to limp or (even better) call someone else's raise with them, but I will raise at times for a change-up, or in late position to steal blinds; or I might min-raise to juice the pot if a lot of people are playing. That depends on position and table texture.

Small blind... a lot of people in 6max play any two in the small blind. I don't like to, it's a waste of money. You can complete with any of the above hands, and I add in some interesting (i.e. crappy) hands at times: any suited high card/low card combo like Kxs or Axs, some suited two gappers like J8 and T7. I am more likely to complete if there are fewer people playing. If everyone folded to me (somehow), I'll complete with anything or even raise anything and try to outplay the big blind player. If 4 people limped in and you're completing with J3o though, you're pissing money away.

My range of hands played doesn't change much from game to game, but I am more likely to raise at a passive table and more likely to limp or call a raise at an aggressive table. Passive tables give up a lot of small pots to the aggressor; aggressive/loose tables won't reward you constantly like that but will pay off in a big way when you hit a monster on the flop. So my starting requirements are about the same, but I play them somewhat differently.

I also must stress that this is what's working for me - it might not work for everybody. It's a pretty loose set of hands, and at times I even add in some stuff that really looks garbagy like 24 suited. I don't recommend this if you're not used to 6max. I have found some of these weird hands useful, for table image and for the occasional busting someone out, but it's not wise to think "OK, 34 suited is playable" and start playing it from any seat, all the time. If you're just getting into 6max I'd chop off some of the lower suited connectors and most of the gappers, and play a tighter, easier game for a while until you're comfortable.

[sandstorm]

Thanks BIGandRICH, nice post

[sandstorm]

Hey, this is fun! I'm raising the hell out of two tables, always continuation betting and LAgging it up pretty bad. They do grow tired of me and pay me with their top pair.

***** Hand History for Game 2608229937 *****
$100 NL Texas Hold'em - Saturday, August 27, 18:28:17 EDT 2005
Table Table 54653 (6 max) (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Total number of players : 5
Seat 4: sandstorm33 ( $124.40 )
Seat 5: MrLuckieee ( $129.80 )
Seat 6: Jaidizz ( $144.08 )
Seat 1: delinder ( $47.10 )
Seat 3: kyled22 ( $25 )
Jaidizz posts small blind [$0.50].
delinder posts big blind [$1].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to sandstorm33 [ 5d 5c ]
sandstorm33 calls [$1].
MrLuckieee folds.
Jaidizz calls [$0.50].
delinder checks.
** Dealing Flop ** [ Jh, 4d, 5s ]
Jaidizz checks.
delinder bets [$4].
sandstorm33 calls [$4].
Jaidizz folds.
** Dealing Turn ** [ 6d ]
delinder bets [$9].
sandstorm33 raises [$20].
delinder is all-In [$33.10]
sandstorm33 calls [$22.10].
** Dealing River ** [ 2s ]
sandstorm33 shows [ 5d, 5c ] three of a kind, fives.
delinder doesn't show [ Jd, Qd ] a pair of jacks.
sandstorm33 wins $93.20 from the main pot with three of a kind, fives.

***** Hand History for Game 2608240332 *****
$100 NL Texas Hold'em - Saturday, August 27, 18:30:13 EDT 2005
Table Table 36657 (6 max) (Real Money)
Seat 2 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 1: peterdangle ( $84.19 )
Seat 4: MIC42680 ( $113.22 )
Seat 5: dwnw_ladyluk ( $40.50 )
Seat 6: sandstorm33 ( $119.34 )
Seat 3: LordCrom ( $90.50 )
Seat 2: adriano101 ( $44.52 )
LordCrom posts small blind [$0.50].
dwnw_ladyluk posts big blind [$1].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to sandstorm33 [ Jh Ah ]
sandstorm33 raises [$4].
>You have options at Table 54653 (6 max) (No DP) Table!.
peterdangle folds.
adriano101 calls [$4].
LordCrom folds.
dwnw_ladyluk calls [$3].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4c, 5h, Kh ]
dwnw_ladyluk checks.
sandstorm33 bets [$7].
>You have options at Table 54653 (6 max) (No DP) Table!.
adriano101 calls [$7].
dwnw_ladyluk folds.
** Dealing Turn ** [ 4h ]
sandstorm33 checks.
adriano101 bets [$9].
sandstorm33 raises [$25].
adriano101 calls [$16].
** Dealing River ** [ 7c ]
>You have options at Table 54653 (6 max) (No DP) Table!.
sandstorm33 bets [$9].
adriano101 is all-In [$8.52]
sandstorm33 shows [ Jh, Ah ] a flush, ace high.
>You have options at Table 54653 (6 max) (No DP) Table!.
adriano101 doesn't show [ Qd, Kc ] two pairs, kings and fours.
sandstorm33 wins $0.48 from side pot #1 with a flush, ace high.
sandstorm33 wins $91.54 from the main pot with a flush, ace high.

[BIGandRICH]

Thanks BIGandRICH, nice post

No credit should go to me.. i'm currently quite bad at 6max.. just dropped 4 buyins from mistakes, not beats... but hey.. its all good learning, finding it difficult to make the transition from full ring where i can play like a rock and still get paid nicely..

Also check out this one.. theres some useful stuff in it from a few guys
http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...ic.php?t=16875

The info in my original post was from dalecooper and SmackinYaUp, so credit to them.