Tuesday 28 July 2009

Make the switch?

I need a break from full ring NL

I feel like I've been running pretty bad for the last 30k hands but I know for a fact that about 75% of that is actually bad play. I seem to be losing my patience with the FR game and have been running into incredibly strong ranges a lot and getting owned.

Today was kind of a breaking point running 5 BI below equity, but equity was only breakeven. I just feel like my game needs room to breakout a bit from the nitty handcuffs of FR. I'll probably still put in some decent volume because I'm getting close to retaining Supernova for the year - currently 80k VPPs and want to finish that off and get the milestone bonus. But I want to start focusing on 6max and PLO.

I have had huge difficulties switching to 6max in the past since I can't get beyond the FR hand ranges wrt hand reading. People say it's the same game with 3 seats removed, but I always find that the dynamic is completely different - a lot lighter imo.

And I don't think that the SSFR grind is something that I'm wanting to do. Mass tabling is starting to lose it's appeal for me, especially with the changes to the VIP program which are already implemented in the 6max games and will be in the FR games as of next year.

I see a lot more potential in the bigger fish pool of the 6max games compared to the FR reg-fest and can see myself playing a lot higher there than in the FR games if I can catch on to it this time. I think I'm starting to really like the prospect of playing more hands against a lot more of the real action-junkies. I plan to 4-6 table it and want to be a lot more aggressive with my bankroll, too, since only having 6 buyins on the tables feels so much less risky than having 18 buyins out there despite the higher variance. I think it's time to start basing my game around reads and lines and exploitation instead of solely on HUD stats.

I also find PLO to be rediculously interesting and love the basic strategy behind it. I find the fact that flopping (multiple) draws to the nuts is better than flopping the nuts so intriging. And people have such a limited understanding of the game and don't realize that Ts9s8h7h is a monster starting hand multiway compared to AAKK. I get consistently berated for playing "trash" in multiway reraised pots and I love it.

Example: people overplay the nuts with QQ65 on 478 flops. You are going to be in a world of hurt if I repop you with QJT9, JT98, T986 etc and even more so if I can add flush draws to that. Wraps are so awesome! It's just unfortunate that the pool is quite small - this game needs a lot more airtime on TV.

So a preliminary guide I'm going to try to follow:
* Finish off 100k VPPs at 50NL in the next 1.5 months, probably just 24 table nit it up and get it over with.
* Start 25NL 6max and 25PLO 6max - 10k-20k hands each 4-6 tabling to get a feel for the games again
* Be comfortable with 75BI rule, take shots at next level with 75BI if I'm comfortably beating current stakes, drop back if I lose 10BI. Using my existing BR this is easy up to 100NL/200NL.
* Willing to currently withdraw 1/2 of profits for the month to cover life expenses up to $1k. Everything else stays in the BR.

5 comments:

  1. 6-max is the shit bro ;-)

    check my latest post, maybe we can both start at 10nl six max and make it a 'who can move up to 100nl the quickest'

    The one who wins gets a 1 bi from the level he is playing.
    So if you hit 100nl first, and I play 50nl, you get 50$ from me

    Peace!

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  2. 6-max! I watched one of your videos and you played like a 6-max player. This is a link to a poker buddy who switched to 6 -max last month and loves it.

    http://microstakesbankrollbuilder.blogspot.com/2009/06/june-2009-review.html

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  3. hey guys, thanks for the comments!

    TDK I will have to consider this, although I am quite confident I am going to be starting at least at 25NL as everyone appears ridiculously terrible so far. Pure valuetown in all 5 seats on every table imo.

    HAL, thanks for the link! I will definitely check out his blog.

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  4. I'm also gonna be playing a lot of 6max in August. FR went well this month but I'm feeling a bit burnt out.

    Unfortunately a quick -4BI session at 25NL 6max yesterday confirmed that I've forgotten how to play 6max, lol

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  5. Happy, you'll have to keep me up to date with HHs to get me back into a 6max mindset.

    On the other hand, maybe I've actually been in a 6max mindset for the last month considering all the spewing I've done lately.

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