Help

[Ebene]

I am getting killed in 6-handed. I average about +8BB/100 playing 50NL 9-10 person, but I decided I'd give the B2B bonuses a shot and to do that you pretty much have to play 6-handed.

Over the first 1500 hands, I am -15BB/100 on the 6 handed tables. Meanwhile on the 8 handed tables, I'm +15BB/100 over 800 hands. Amazingly, the bonus is good enough that I am still up a little. Unfortunately there just aren't enough 8 handed tables to play, and when there are the pot sizes are usually too small to clear any bonus.

My general plan was to loosen my raising/calling requirements but to otherwise play basically the same, though being a little looser calling one cbet if I got a piece of the flop. I'm normally around 22% VPIP and 7% PFR in full ring, for 6-handed I was 35% VPIP and 9.5% PFR.

Going through my logs, I found that basically every hand I added to my range was consistently losing me money, and that if I took out all of the hands I wouldn't play in full ring and one donk play where I thought I had a read on a guy, I would have made about +1BB/100. Not great, but a lot better than -15/100.

I think my biggest leaks were limp/calling w/ stuff like weak broadways (KJ, KT, QT, KTs, QTs), Axs, and suited 1-gappers. If any 6-handed players advocate calling raises w/ these hands, I would love to hear how you play them. My standard line has been to call, bet if I get a piece of the flop and about 1/4 of the time if I didn't and the board looks ragged enough. From there, I fold to any aggression unless I've got TP, in which case I'll call/check/fold about 1/2 the time, call/check/call about 1/4 of the time, and raise/fold or call/bet about 1/4 of the time depending on board texture and reads. For those that win money playing these hands, am I not playing them aggressively enough? What would you change?

These are my new starting requirements - and I welcome any thoughts:
No more limping w/ A7 or below or (K-J)(7-8)s in EP.
Limp w/ Axs from EP, but fold to a raise unless there are 2 callers.
Raise 66+ from the cutoff or button w/ no limpers, o/w just limp/call.
Limp/call from any position w/ 22-55.
Limp w/ SCs, and S-1 gappers from any position, call any normal raise w/ the SCs, but only call w/ the 1-gappers w/ 1+ caller already.
Raise w/ Ax and K8+ at the cutoff to steal/buy the button if there are no limpers, raise w/ KT+ and A9+ at the cutoff or on the button with no limpers, or KJ+ and AT+ with limpers, limp w/ Ax on the button with no limpers, unless the blinds are particularly tight in which case I'll raise.
Fold KJ- and A9- from EP.
Raise AQ+, KQ, 88+ from any position, fold AQ and KQ to a reraise, o/w call assuming the implied odds are good enough. With KK and AA I mix between pushing or calling to trap. With AK I may push against short stacks or loose reraisers, o/w I just call and play cautiously.

[Iwind]

for 6-handed I was 35% VPIP and 9.5% PFR - far too high VPIP compared to PFR imo.

Some things that I'd think would improve your game would be to:
- Stop limp/calling, it's a weak play, it's so easy to make money from players that do that. The only hands I'd do this with if any is 22-55. If you're first into a pot, raise, aggression and betting is the way to win.
- Without going into detail on the hands, play position, it's sooooo important, on the co and button you can play a lot of hands. I'm raising A6+, K9+, Q9+, JT, all PP, SCs from 45 and up, suited gappers, etc from the Co and button, and I play pretty tight UTG and in middle position.
- Play very tight from the blinds, don't call raises or raise without real good hands.
- Find out wich players will fold on flop if they miss and continuation bet, value bet the calling stations.
- AA/KK... push preflop? Pushing a 100bb stack after a 4bb raise is not good... especially not with KK...Just make your normal preflop raise, if someone raise before you reraise them 3-4x their raise or something. And the calling to trap thing with AA/KK is bad at 50NL imo.

This is basicly how I played at 50NL at least. Also make sure you get reads on the players on your table.

[aislephive]

Your VPIP is way too high and your PFR is too low. I'm at about 19/14 or so, which means I am playing much tighter than you but I am raising many more hands preflop and limping / calling raises less.

Don't limp Axs hands without a few other limpers to make it worthwhile, same with suited connectors. And if I'm in the CO or button I raise with all hands that I want to play. It seems you are open limping way too much and only raising good hands.

Also, reads are overrated. Work on picking up on betting patterns instead. Reads help somewhat, but I do very well at 50nl and my reads on individual players are terrible and almost non existant. If a player stands out as a complete donkey is my exception.

[aislephive]

And suited connectors I will call raises with in position or from the blinds if there are already at least one caller. The reason is that the preflop aggressor is likely to win the pot when it's HU. He will take a stab at the pot most likely and without a piece you will have to fold. But if there is another caller the pot odds / implied odds are much better, along with the fact that the PFR is likely to be kept honest after two callers and won't make a stab at the flop without a piece of the board. This isn't always the case of course, but it holds true a good percentage of the time. When you flop top pair with 89s on a 842 flop and lead into the PFR he will likely raise you with any two. When you do that into two + players the PFR is less likely to make a play on you with the player behind him, and he also doesn't figure you to be bluffing into two players like that.

Just my .02

[Ebene]

I've incorporated most of this advice and I'm having great results so far (extremely small sample but I'm up about 3 buyins in about 300 hands). More importantly, I feel like I'm in control again - I don't know why I thought it was a good idea to limp/call w/ hands like J7s - I know some people can play this well, but this just isn't my style, at least not today.

But I still can't bring myself to raise w/ my low SC's and 1-gappers against blinds that defend 30% of the time or more. Even on the button, I feel like I'm better off limping/position betting if I miss rather than raising. Is this really a better way to play them from co or button? And if so, are you just firing 1 barrel at any flop, throwing it away to any aggression assuming you didn't catch a draw or hit hard?

[aislephive]

I've incorporated most of this advice and I'm having great results so far (extremely small sample but I'm up about 3 buyins in about 300 hands). More importantly, I feel like I'm in control again - I don't know why I thought it was a good idea to limp/call w/ hands like J7s - I know some people can play this well, but this just isn't my style, at least not today.

But I still can't bring myself to raise w/ my low SC's and 1-gappers against blinds that defend 30% of the time or more. Even on the button, I feel like I'm better off limping/position betting if I miss rather than raising. Is this really a better way to play them from co or button? And if so, are you just firing 1 barrel at any flop, throwing it away to any aggression assuming you didn't catch a draw or hit hard?

I like raising the low SC's on the button, the reason is that when an AJ9 flop comes I can almost always make a c-bet and take down the pot. They will give you credit for hitting that board and will fold if they don't have a piece, but on a low raggedy flop that hits you in the face they will often times play back at you with any pair, A high, etc. and you can win a big pot. If one of the blinds constantly defends then that is a good thing. I will punish these players with position by making a flop c-bet. If they call I may shut down, but I might also throw out another big bet that will usually get them to fold. Second barrells are amazingly profitable against some players. If somebody with position on you constantly is calling your raises and then calling every flop bet, and then betting when you check it is important that you do this with a big hand to throw them off. See below ..

Villian in each hand is the same player.

Party Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $0.25/$0.50
6 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
UTG: $77.88
Hero: $50
CO: $85.43
Button: $49.75
SB: $49.15
BB: $13.40

Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is UTG+1 with A T
UTG folds, Hero raises to $2, CO calls, 3 folds.

Flop: 6 3 9 ($4.75, 2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks.

Turn: 7 ($4.75, 2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $4, Hero folds.
Uncalled bets: $4 returned to CO.

Results:
Final pot: $4.75

Party Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $0.25/$0.50
6 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
UTG: $74.23
Hero: $50
CO: $35.57
Button: $104
SB: $47.90
BB: $12.86

Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is UTG+1 with A K
UTG folds, Hero raises to $1.75, CO calls, 3 folds.

Flop: 7 J 7 ($4.25, 2 players)
Hero bets $2.75, CO calls.

Turn: 4 ($9.75, 2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $8, Hero folds.
Uncalled bets: $8 returned to CO.

Results:
Final pot: $9.75

Party Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $0.25/$0.50
6 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
Hero: $50
UTG+1: $27.62
CO: $105
Button: $46.90
SB: $15.36
BB: $83.73

Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is UTG with A A
Hero raises to $2, UTG+1 calls, 4 folds.

Flop: 5 J 8 ($4.75, 2 players)
Hero bets $3, UTG+1 calls.

Turn: 3 ($10.75, 2 players)
Hero checks, UTG+1 bets $10, Hero raises to $44.36, UTG+1 folds.
Uncalled bets: $34.36 returned to Hero.

Results:
Final pot: $30.75