Loose/Aggressive Style and Tools Sheet
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Performance Poker’s 6-Max No Limit
“Hold onto your shorts” Strategy Guide |
© 2006,2007 |
For the Fast-paced and Fearless
No Limit 6-max is without question the fastest game in town. The hands play fast, the blinds come fast, the opponents are more aggressive, and you have to be able to think on your feet. It’s also one of the greatest games in town from both an intellectual standpoint and a win-rate standpoint. If you’re interested in 6-max, but aren’t sure where to start, then here are your training wheels. The only way to learn it is to play it, and the only time to play it is now. So let’s get started.
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First, this guide assumes you know how to play and win at No Limit Ring. If not, then you need to read Performance Poker – No Limit! on www.performpoker.com, and take the Performance Poker Challenge. That will get you winning at NL ring in 30 days or less. And if you lose then you’ll get your buy-in back. Who else offers to cover your loses if their advice doesn’t work? (So, go do that if you’re not a consistently winning No Limit ring poker player yet.)
OK, for those who are left (and for the truly fearless who say, “Screw full-table No Limit, I’m going straight to 6-Max), let’s get started.
If you play No Limit ring, then you typically play 9-10 players. Sometimes the table drops a player or two and you end up playing 8 handed or even 7 handed. What happens in those instances? First, there are less people to draw out on you. Second, your good hole cards increase in value. Third, your preflop raises will see fewer callers. Fewer players mean fewer quality hands at the table in any given deal of the cards. This is probably the most important concept to 6-max.
Another aspect that changes as the opponents get fewer is that what you do starts to get noticed more readily. This happens for two reasons. One, there are less people to watch. Two, hands are dealt faster and your position at the table rotates quicker. These two elements combine to “concentrate” your play so that others can reach conclusions quicker, and vice verse. You can read other players faster and easier on 6-max as well.
So, very simply we have a game where your hole cards are more valuable than they would be in a full ring game, players have to play faster to keep up with the blinds, and everyone is trying to read everyone else’s play. Combine those three elements and you have a paper sack full of fun and fury.
HOW DOES 6-MAX CHANGE YOUR PREFLOP STRATEGY
If most hands are trash hands, and you catch a quality hand then you’re probably the only one at the table with a quality hand. That’s good. Open strong. Don’t limp. Open for a raise. Now, everyone is trying to read your cards, so I would recommend opening with the same raise every time. Pick on based on the table (3, or 4xBB).
But, what’s a good preflop hand?
Any pair, big slick (AK) and Mrs. Slick (AQ), any broadway (2 face cards) and suited connectors down to 65s. Those are your cards. So here’s the list of hands you will raise with if you are the first with the opportunity to enter the pot (that means no one has limped ahead of you and no one has raised ahead of you).
AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT, 99, 88, 77, 66, 55, 44, 33, 22, AK, AQ, KQ, QJ, JTs, T9s, 98s, 87s, 65s. These are all raising hands.
What about AJ, AT, A9, KJ, KT, K9, and suited A’s and K’s? I’m not recommending them. With all of the hands That I Recommend, if you raise and get reraised then you can call the reraise with them (or even push with some) and still have a chance. With AJ and below and KJ and below, you’re really only hoping for a fold if you raise preflop (or a call/fold). If you’re going to raise preflop hoping for a fold to simple aggression then you can do that with any 2 cards. You might be thinking, “yea, but they might call and I can make a continuation bet to win the pot.” The answer is “yes”. But that’s also true of the hands that I recommend you raise preflop. Those are plenty to keep you active and unpredictable. These are trouble hands more than 50% of the time and they have very poor drawing possibilities.
How do things change if you’re not the first person in the pot?
If someone raises in front of you then you should reraise with:
AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT
and call with AK, AQ, 88-22.
The fact that the raise came IN FRONT OF YOU assumes you have position on the raiser. However, if you are on the blind then you need to weigh your cards (and a slightly discounted amount to call) against the fact that you are out of position for the rest of the hand.
What about limped pots? Short-handed anyone who limps is probably going to call a raise, so only raise if you want to be called, JJ+ and AK. The chances that they are limping with a super-premium hand is fairly low, but that chance goes up if the table is hyper-aggressive. So, I would typically put a limper on AJ or worse, Kxs, pocket pairs below TT and suited connectors. So in limped pots you’re going to
Raise: JJ-AA and AK only. You will limp all your normal suited connectors and pocket pairs. This is the closest you’re going to get on “drawing value” in a short-handed game.
Drawing to “odds”. In a full ring game you’re more likely to get the ability to draw to “true” odds in late position. In a short-handed game you’re drawing more to implied odds of making money if you hit your hand.
Finally, depending on the table you may be seeing a lot of flops from the blinds. When you’re on the SB, don’t complete every bet with any 2 cards. It’s a waste of money. Play smart, drawing hands for calls and raise your premium hands. On the BB you’re going to be seeing a lot of flops. You need to make sure you play them correctly post flop. If you hit a pair then you Might be good. You need to guage reactions to your betting. If they aren’t folding, then you need to ask yourself why, and don’t get overly committed to a simple pair.
How to play after the flop.
This is where 6-max gets a bit counter-intuitive.
First, if you were the preflop aggressor and you are up against 1 player, then you want to be aggressive. If you’re in early position, bet the flop with any made hand and any missed hand that doesn’t have an Ace in it. If you raised preflop with AK or AQ and you are in early position then check/call a reasonable bet from the other player. If he bets more than 2/3 the pot then you want to let your missed A high hand go. But, you do have the ability to improve on the turn or the river, so don’t dump it to any bet. Plus, you never know if the other player will wimp out of the hand on later streets. He may just be betting into the void created after you raised preflop and then checked the flop.
With all your other preflop raising hands (including 56s) make that postflop continuation bet against 1 player. I like to keep it at ½ the pot (or 3BB whichever is greater) whether I miss or hit on the flop. This is the same logic as raising the same preflop. You are under intense scrutiny. Give as little information as possible. This helps in 2 ways. First, they can’t read your cards based on your bets. So they will fold if they don’t have anything. And 2nd, if you’re always betting the same post flop, they will never know when the flop really hit you good or you have a big over-pair. Hopefully you can get them to zig when they should zag and vice verse.
Now let’s talk about the “heavily contested pot rule”.
HEAVILY CONTESTED POT RULE: Pots that are heavily contested after the flop are contested for a reason. Someone is Very Strong, and the other person is either very strong too or very stupid. So if you feel yourself wanting to get into a pissing contest over a pot and you don’t have a Very Strong hand, then you need to remember the Heavily Contested Pot rule and not be “very stupid”. Let the hand go! There are more coming. Short-Handed play means you’re going to see 75-100 hands/hour.
What about drawing hands postflop? Let’s say your on the draw after the flop, what do you do? First, if you were the preflop raiser then bet your draw. Keep the pressure up. If you have position and the hand is checked to you, then Bet your draw (1/2 pot or 3xBB whichever is greater). If you called or limped for some reason preflop then you need to stick with reasonable drawing odds. For an open ended straight draw you have 8 outs. For the turn that’s about 16% to improve. If you have the flush draw too then you have 30% or so to make one draw or the other on the turn. Don’t overpay for your ability to draw. If you have 2 overcards and the draw then your odds change as well. It’s important to know what the odds are. I’ll normally double them for the turn. So if I’m hold a 16% chance then I’ll call up to 30% of the pot. If I’m holding 30% chance I’ll call up to 60% of the pot after the flop. But after the turn I’m cranking these back down to the actual odds. And if I’m not getting the correct calling odds I’m out of the pot.
That’s all there is to it. The swings in 6-max are high. Be prepared. You need a deep bankroll and an ability to absorb losses and not get overly excited about massive wins. Winning 80BB in an hour doesn’t mean you’ll maintain that rate.
Get a pad and pen when you play 6-Max. Write each players’ name on the pad and every time they show their cards, make a quick note of their cards, position and how they played it. Do this whether you’re involved in the hand or not. This is a good reference as the session moves on. You may notice patterns that can be useful.
>Next, if you watch you’ll notice that small amounts of money are constantly shifting from player to play on the table. Everyone is active. That’s how you keep up with the blinds. But the big money is made when someone makes a big mistake (to lose money) or hits a great hand against a good hand (to make big money). That’s what this is all about. Not making the big mistake and finding that hand that will give you the big win. All the rest is just idling. It FEELS like you’re doing a lot, but really you’re just keeping up with the blinds and action on the table.
Finally, you do have to watch your table image in 6-max. If you have been on a rush of cards and taking numerous pots recently with no showdown, then you probably need to slow down and only play super-premium cards. Someone will be looking to put you to the test the next time your raise preflop. Also, if you’re good cards aren’t holding up and you look like a wounded bird then it’s best to not bluff or make C-bets. For some reason when your good cards aren’t holding up it’s like blood in the water and no one will respect you. Alternatively, if you’re getting lucky and sucking out on people, then they tend to fear you more!! Go figure! So, keep those rules in mind. One more trick, RESPECT THE BIG BLIND IF HE RAISES A LIMPED POT. If the big blind, WHO COULD HAVE JUST CHECKED to see the flop, raises preflop with limpers ahead of him then he has a big hand. Let him have it. You’re up against a big pocket pair.
Be prepared, playing short-handed can start to FEEL very personal. You need to have excellent emotional discipline in order to not get sucked into horrible play. And, go pee before you start playing. There won’t be a chance to blink once you sit down.
My recommended site for playing this strategy 6-max is Titan Poker. That place is a 6-Max Mecca. They have 6-Max tables down to NL2 (.01/.02 blinds). And they have plenty of 6-Max tables running at any given time.
(The above 6-max strategy is intended for training and experience on NL2-NL25 tables. Advanced 6-max play requires skill, FEEL, and experience. But this guide should help you start to get a feel for how to adjust your NL Ring full table game to 6-max conditions.)
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