Wednesday 29 July 2009

First Impressions of the Mint (aka 25NL 6MAX)

Well that was fun! I finished my first session of 25NL 6max and I’m quite impressed. This is actually a money printing factory in disguise.

The first table I sat down at, the player to my left immediately leaves and is replaced by one of the best 25NL FR regs on Stars. He 3bets both of my opens in the first orbit and I decide it’s time for a change of scenery. And it was smooth sailing after that.

Extremely tiny sample obviously, but I can’t adequately explain how uber satisfying it is to run 30ptBB/100 and not show down anything better than 1 pair hands. My aggression factor was an unseemly high 5.5 and this is totally because 25NL 6max poker call down ranges are like 5NL FR – completely face up, fit-or-fold showdown poker. When you can cbet 80% of flops and take down 70% of those, you are going to insta-profit. No need for me to run any sort of bluff and no reason to call down since I know they have it (although there definition of “it” is not very good all the time).

I’m not really sure what the definitions of nit/TAG/LAG are yet, but I played 22/19 and felt pretty comfy with that range. I squeezed a few nice spots too and people just 4bet/fold or call/fold flop every time.

I ran a little bad against a guy that bought in for $9 and doubled him up 2x for $9 on his first hand and $11 a little later on and my winrate would have been even higher if not for those 2 hands. Getting AK all-in preflop against this guy when he posts UTG, open-minraises Q9o and then shoves over my 3bet makes me giggle.

I think I’ll start posting some hands for discussion since I probably still suck hardcore at 6max and I need advice to get my head wrapped around this game a little better. I know there’s quite a few of you out there that read my blog so please leave comments!

Hand History Analysis

Preflop: Dealt AsTs, 80BB effective.
I open ATs for 3BB in MP. Stats-wise unknown calls in BTN – I have a read that he gets agro with draws on the turn when shown weakness. I am playing under the assumption that the rest of his call down range is standard light/weak stuff.

Flop: Ad 3c 5c, pot is 7.5BB, 77BB effective
I cbet this for slightly more than 2/3 because I cbet pretty much every flop and it’s for value obviously. Villain calls.

Turn: 3s, pot is 17BB, 72BB effective
Pretty blank card imo and is actually a good card if I’m behind AJ/AQ since chances of chopping are higher since another 3, K or A will leave us chopping and also lowers the chance of him having a set. I’m thinking commitment now since that’s what the next bet will do and I’m not folding since I’m ahead of his range.

So that leaves the question of maximizing vs that range. I opt to go with my read since there’s a flush draw out and let him do his thing, plus I’m a little worried about him folding 44/66-TT if I double this. So I think he bets his entire flop continuance range here, and even if he doesn’t bet pocket pairs he’s probably more likely to call the river with them than the turn.

He obliges and bets 12BB making the pot 29BB and leaving him with 60BB. A PSR is to 53BB so I opt to just shove for value.

5 comments:

  1. I too am enjoying the 6max experience having played 100 nl FR multitabling for many months.

    I too was amazed at the strange plays there.

    forgetting about the win rate for a minute what is so good about 6max is it allows you to get into the aspects of no limit that really interest me, namely hand reading and post flop bet sizing and strategy. you can actually play a bit of poker
    the sh stackers pushbots that are kiiling the plo and FR games dont proliferate due to, i assume, the higher blind costs and the greater amount of manaics who will call their 2D shoves with ATC. Hallelujah
    I found FR somewhat more difficult due to it being so much more likely that at least someone actually has something, and your repping is what they actually had, etc.
    plus set mining aint nearly as profitable at 6max
    i would say there is more variance, and defo more manaics = more crazy sukouts.

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  2. Haha Just wait for the sick variance 6-max sessions ;-)

    Hey, about that challenge stuff...

    I am going to use a pretty aggro bankroll management.
    If I have 15 bis for 25nl I am already making the move

    So .. since you are never ever going to be at 50nl in a month (i believe in you BUT 6-max IS different ;p) we can start the challenge as soon as I hit 25nl..

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  3. Pretty sure I'll be at 50NL within a month... :)

    I'm looking at 10-20k hands max of 25NL. Even if I only 4 table that's 25-50 hours. 25 hours = 2 weeks for me.

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  4. alright, good luck with it

    Don't underestimate 6-max because it seems people are just spewing money

    Regs will get reads on you, ranges changes a lot compared to FR and you might feel like TP/TK is almost always good in this game, it's def. not :-)

    gl

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  5. Line looks pretty good here against an unknown. I'd think anything that has you beat would have check-raised the flop. This just looks like a draw trying to buy the pot on an unlikely scare card.

    Welcome to the world of 6max.

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