6 Max fundamentals for SSNL players

Some 6max Fundamentals

Now that I have decided to walk away from poker and pursue other ambitions, I have decided to give something back to community that I have received so much from. This comes from a player that played primarily (only) 6max 200NL, 400NL, and 600NL (when the games were fishy).

One of the hardest things I had to learn was the fundamentals of 6 max and how to play like a proper TAG for medium stakes. There is quite a lack of information on how to properly play 6 max TAG and I am mostly appalled at how the lower stakes players are completely missing out on the fundamentals. This post will merely cover the basics of 6 max, positional preflop play and image, and not quite on advanced play.

First thing I want to mention is position and the button. It is a no brainer to why position is so important in NL. Being last to act simply gives you a world of advantage over your opponents. That is why if you open up pokertracker and a large enough sample size, you will see that the button and CO is the most profitable position to play in.

I would also like to make a note here that you should almost never open limp. Open limping is just gross. Don't do it with suited connectors or whatnot. Raise rather than limp. Take down the blinds and move on to next hand. Open limping in 6 max is a very very big sin. DO NOT OPEN LIMP. Open raise.

For all you poker tracker statiticians out there, I play 22/18 and consider myself TAG.

When you are on the button and CO, consider yourself the gatekeeper. It is up to YOU to decide whether or not people get to enter a pot cheaply or not. And hell, why let them play out of position hands for cheap? Abuse the shit out of the button and CO. True tags understand this concept and abuse the shit out of the button. Hands that a true TAG will raise with if folded to them on the button / CO is: 22 -> AA, meaning every single pocket pair, every single Axs, every single suited connector, and a HUGE variety of high cards, A10o and better. That includes KJo, QJo. Hell, even any Axo if folded to them.

The reason you MUST do this is because:

1) you steal the blinds if they all fold
2) if they call you, they are playing a raised pot out of position and you have the advantage. Continuation betting with nothing often takes the pot down.
3) Flopping sets / monsters in unraised pots is basically a crap pot.
4) People are more likely to go broke on raised pots than unraised pots, they will bluff you more and ship more money your way.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?578668

One example of why you need to raise. Would I have stacked him in an unraised pot? Most likely not.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?578669

Another positional hand. If he doesn’t have an A, or draw, he folds to my raise. If he calls my raise, I can check behind for a free card. This play is better than calling his flop bet.



Example:

UTG limps, folds to you on the CO, you have 22. What do you do?

Answer: RAISE. How much to raise, 4-5x BB is good.

Example 2:

UTG limps, MP limps, you hold 22 on the button. What do you do?

Answer: RAISE THAT SHIT UP


If they call, you will take it down often enough with a continuation bet to make it profitable. And BTW, continuation bet 75-90% of the time. They will most likely fold a hand that didn’t hit.

So now that you understand basic fundamental button and CO play. It is time to figure out how to play UTG and MP.

UTG: You want to play real damn tight, fold suited connectors, fold high cards, fold Axs hands. But continue to raise pocket pairs in ANY POSITION. Pocket pairs have the ability to flop such powerful monsters that you just can’t fold them in any position. Raising pocket pairs is so mandatory. Assume 100BB stacks. You raise 44 in MP and get reraised. You call and flop comes 346, 2410, 410J, 345. You are stacking KK AA 100% of the time.
Don’t limp either. It is so transparent when a weaktight (who thinks he is a TAG) limps UTG, and calls you raise. He has small pocket pair or suited connector 99% of the time.
Continue to raise AJo and better. Folding QKo and KJo, as well as QJo is not bad play at all. These hands are pretty garbage out of position.

MP: You can still fold the QKo, KJo, or QJo, but start loosening up your standards. Start mixing up raising or folding those Axs hands, suited connectors.

Blinds: You want to play real tight in the blinds. Calling too many raises out of position is just a death trap. You don’t want to build big pots with marginal holdings in the blinds. Fold suited connectors, Axs, call with pocket pairs obviously.

But just because you are playing tight in the blinds doesn’t mean you are a big sissy either. Facing a button raise or an MP raise, if you hold hands like AK, AQ, JJ, 1010, RERAISE. It’s much much better to reraise these hands in the blinds that many SSNL players normally just call with.

Reraising these hands start to become advanced play so be careful. New players trying these things out often lose stacks because they are out of position and are bad post flop players.

Example:

You are in BB or SB with AK, AQ, JJ. UTG limps, MP limp, button limps. What do you do?

Answer: RAISE THAT SHIT UP. Raise it up to 6-7 even 8x bb depending on players. Take down the pot without even seeing a flop is better than checking and playing a multiway un raised pot.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?578721


Raising all these hands allows you to play raised pots against players that have no idea of positional or image. You will stack them more often than not. And don’t sissy up on continuation bets. Bet 75-90% of the time no matter board texture. Only if 2 people call you and u completely missed the flop can you decide to check and give up on the pot.

Example:

You have A8s on the button, UTG limps, you raise 5x BB and get called by BB and UTG.
Flop comes 48Q rainbow. BET 100% of the time if checked to you.

That covers the BASICS of positional preflop play.

Combo Draws

Another thing which I think is standard to most people but may not, is combo draws.

Hands where you have say 13-15 outs on the flop should be taken to the felt.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?578686

Here is an example of properly playing a combo draw. Same goes with open ended straight and flush draws. Play these hands strong and very fast. There is a ton of fold equity as well as getting money in being a 50/50 if they do decide to take their hand to the felt with you.

Best case scenario for the hand I played above is that everyone folds. Making them fold in spots like this is what makes playing combo draws this way profitable. You don’t profit by them calling a 50/50 shot. You profit making them fold.


I wanted to talk more about 2nd barrels, increasing range of reraising hands preflop, and pot control, but that is a bit more advanced than the basics and maybe I’ll write something later on.

In conclusion. Don’t make dramatically changes to your game. Start implementing one concept at a time. Don’t start raising 6-7% more hands just because I told you. Start one different hand at a time and slowly make changes.

I hope this helps the struggling low stakes player out there. If you keep these strategies and tactics in mind, it will definitely improve your play.

good post

reraise the CO occasionally on your button with relative trash if he knows what he's doing

and don't let the button steal your blinds all the time; if you have a hand a decent hand liek 9Ts or AJo 44, don't be afraid to repop him occasionally. it's much better than calling and also keeps him from messing with your blind too much, as well as greatly imrpove your image.

Hmmm, just realized I didn't talk about image.

I think my next article will be about image and changing gears.

chris230502281 or whatever his name is really needs to read this

yep

great article this will definetely help out a lot of people
looking forward to the 2nd

i love the re-steal from the blinds to the CO/button raise :3

another thing you might wanna talk about is adjusting when the table starts to cut down to like 3 or 4 players and maybe a little heads up

im wondering your reason for leaving poker?
even if u dont play full time, isn't it a lot more convienient to play part time rather than work some shitty job?

Many personal reasons for leaving poker.

Im not gonna leave poker for some shitty desk job. Im leaving it for something I believe is better for me.

But, out of the 5 reasons I have for leaving poker: "making a living off of the worlds misery" is one of them. Probably ranks on the lower 4th or 5th reason though.

--- Nuked ---

Oh you're crackyoface on ftp, I've played with you some I think

I agree with most of this, looks like solid stuff

i didn't read it at all but i assume it sucks terribly based on how short it is

rofl

oh noes! im educating the fish! Watch out 5000 nl players, the 100 NL and below players are coming after you.

I think it was pretty good considering I only covered positional preflop play and 8 lines on combo draws.

On October 27 2006 11:34 Pokerintheface wrote: chris230502281 or whatever his name is really needs to read this

yes i did need to, pokerintheface, thank you for pointing it out...you must be cruel to be kind... ty

decent read, ty Tien

http://www.pokerhand.org/?578668

One example of why you need to raise. Would I have stacked him in an unraised pot? Most likely not.



i'm not following this part. could you explain it a little. and what does "stacked him" mean? thanks. very useful thread.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?578686


also on this hand because the villain had an openended straight draw, you are basically saying to always take these to war so neither of you misplayed the hand?

this is kind of obvious to me, my problem is facing tough lags. Say 100 BB deep, dude raise button 4x, u got ak raise him to 13x, u bet 60% pot on flop that u missed and the fucker float u(surprise!), i never know what to do when this happen (i tend to cf turn which sucks).

u didnt go deep enough into post flop, which is tough part, i think everyone here got a good idea that pocket pairs should be played pre flop, but how to play them properly post flop im not so sure.

can this be applied to NL100/Nl50 as well?

On October 28 2006 15:23 Floofy wrote: this is kind of obvious to me, my problem is facing tough lags. Say 100 BB deep, dude raise button 4x, u got ak raise him to 13x, u bet 60% pot on flop that u missed and the fucker float u(surprise!), i never know what to do when this happen (i tend to cf turn which sucks). u didnt go deep enough into post flop, which is tough part, i think everyone here got a good idea that pocket pairs should be played pre flop, but how to play them properly post flop im not so sure.

if you do the same thing a lot, decent laggy players are going to run you over in position with silly shit like float/resteals and what not. you have to get really out of line and make moves they don't expect, like check/raising blank flops as the preflop reraiser. you also definitely have to check/raise allin on the turn when they call the flop and you were the preflop aggressor. this is something i do with overpairs vs. aggressive players all the time. an even trickier line is to check flop, bet turn if he checks behind, and check/raise river. (i'm assuming the board is good for you in all cases). finally, induce bluff raises by betting in a manner you know your opponent will read as weak. for instance, sometimes i play with "lags" who read pot-sized bets as strong in reraised pots, but who read 3/4 or 2/3 pot-sized bets as weak, and tend to get confused by really small bets. so i bet 2/3 pot a lot with good hands, because they bluffraise it freely. you should also open push good rivers, even for multiples of the pot, if you think your opponent will put you on a busted draw. like say you 3bet AA out of the blind against a lag on the button. he calls, as expected, and the flop is like 445 with 2 spades. you check, he checks behind. turn is the Ts. you bet something weakish, like 1/2 pot, and he raises, and you think for a bit and call. River is an offsuit queen, and you open push. he often calls w/ tons of pocket pairs, TX, etc. etc.

On October 28 2006 15:10 jkpickett wrote: http://www.pokerhand.org/?578686 also on this hand because the villain had an openended straight draw, you are basically saying to always take these to war so neither of you misplayed the hand?

Villain played this hand like a fucking dumbass. check miniraise he did to me? I pushed with 15 outs or whatever and he called with 8.

When you have so many outs that can make you win the hand, take those hands to war. Going allin like that will potentially flush out hands that hold higher flush cards. Like that snyder dude that just called my flop bet. He could easily have flush draw higher than mine and making him fold in that spot is +EV.

On October 28 2006 13:33 jkpickett wrote: http://www.pokerhand.org/?578668 One example of why you need to raise. Would I have stacked him in an unraised pot? Most likely not. i'm not following this part. could you explain it a little. and what does "stacked him" mean? thanks. very useful thread.

lol

stacked him means take all his money. fish feel obligated to take marginal holdings to war with you on raised pots.

If say I limped 99, and he limped, and the flop came as it did. How much money do u think i would have won there? most likely end up check folding.

On October 28 2006 15:23 Floofy wrote: this is kind of obvious to me, my problem is facing tough lags. Say 100 BB deep, dude raise button 4x, u got ak raise him to 13x, u bet 60% pot on flop that u missed and the fucker float u(surprise!), i never know what to do when this happen (i tend to cf turn which sucks). u didnt go deep enough into post flop, which is tough part, i think everyone here got a good idea that pocket pairs should be played pre flop, but how to play them properly post flop im not so sure.

Well yea this is kind of obvious. Atleast to me my concepts felt obvious to me.

Its just when I flip through the hand histories on the right side column I see small stakes players making such atrocious mistakes preflop.

I only covered positional preflop play because its easier to have a basic game plan for preflop play than post flop.

Post flop play is just too long and difficult to explain in writing.

On October 28 2006 15:36 shaneomac wrote: can this be applied to NL100/Nl50 as well?

I think this applies to nearly all limits.

thanks for answering my questions, but i wasn't clear on one of them. you said he playing like a dumbass on the hand with the 8 outs, but i thought in your article you said to play open-ended straight and flush draws fast and hard. did you mean both straight and flush draws or seperately? would you play the open-ended straight draw (with no flush) and flush draws (with no pair-9 outs or so) fast as well? hope i cleared up my question.

meant to ask you earlier; when everyone folds to you in the small blind, what does your range include?

is it pretty much like UTG, but you limp in more often?

open ended straight + flush draws are like 56s on a 3s4x10s board.

thats what i meant

12+ outers

when it's folded to your sb, i usually raise the bb (assuming he's reasonably tight and not explicitly tough) with anything playable like 7Ts, 9To, K9o, A3o, 22 and pitch anything else

in the bb you can raise the sb with an even wider range profitably and usually take it down fairly easily

but don't do it constantly; do it just enough to win extra money and keep your sb from limping, but not enough to get him flustered enough to make tricky moves like limp/rring or c/r bluffing you, so that it doesn't get too difficult to play

thanks man, looking forward to your next write - up !

On October 29 2006 06:44 Pokerintheface wrote: when it's folded to your sb, i usually raise the bb (assuming he's reasonably tight and not explicitly tough) with anything playable like 7Ts, 9To, K9o, A3o, 22 and pitch anything else in the bb you can raise the sb with an even wider range profitably and usually take it down fairly easily but don't do it constantly; do it just enough to win extra money and keep your sb from limping, but not enough to get him flustered enough to make tricky moves like limp/rring or c/r bluffing you, so that it doesn't get too difficult to play

i was doing the opposite; way too weak tight

On October 29 2006 06:44 Pokerintheface wrote: when it's folded to your sb, i usually raise the bb (assuming he's reasonably tight and not explicitly tough) with anything playable like 7Ts, 9To, K9o, A3o, 22 and pitch anything else in the bb you can raise the sb with an even wider range profitably and usually take it down fairly easily but don't do it constantly; do it just enough to win extra money and keep your sb from limping, but not enough to get him flustered enough to make tricky moves like limp/rring or c/r bluffing you, so that it doesn't get too difficult to play

QFT, Green Plastic videos really emphasis this.

Punish those SB that complete instead of raising your BB.

Punish the BB when you're in the SB with any playable hand.

don't think this would work too well at 400NL and above though

not really, you could probably be a winning player (probably not by much though) at 400NL-600NL by following these bare essentials + some basic postflop skills

Just wanted to say that this was a really good read for a n00b like me

On October 30 2006 09:47 DustySwedeDude wrote: Just wanted to say that this was a really good read for a n00b like me

Same here, go for part II !

I got raped by a one outer today.Maybe I could read this and prevent that from happening.

77 vs 42

4472 ALLIINNNNN river 4 gg... fucking poker

i played it like u said but i run the last week like 20k hands very bad it means on nl 50$ 6 max four table -14 buyins
mostyl nice suckouts!!!!!

Like I said at the bottom of the article, take each change one step at a time. One session at a time.

Too many fools try to change everything at once and that is just catastrophic.

I try everything I remember and like next time I’m – on a session even thought I played it sober I’ll like reread your post and try to remember something new. Works wonders.