6 max vs FR?

This may be a very basic question... The perception I have from the forum is that the general concensus is that 6 max is more profitable than full ring. The question I have is... why?

Thanks.

Because it takes out the UTG positions, which mostly just waste time at FR, so you are able to play more hands/hour.

So using that logic wouldn't HU be even more profitable?

First off, HU is harder. Second, in HU you will be playing more hands, but you only have one person to take money from. In 6 max, you are able to take money from 5 other players and still play more hands. Also, in 6Max, you can throw away your crappiest hands, whereas, most of the time in HU, you play a lot more of your marginal and crap hands. If you ever notice, most of the pros will primarily be playing HU over anything else at the high stakes.

I prefer full ring. Easier to multi table, and you can play tighter.
I like hu as well, but its difficult to play more than one table when hu.
Dont mind 6-handed either though.

I started off as a FR player, so that's always where I've been more comfortable. There may be more profit potental at 6 person games, but the blinds are also coming around faster and the game is more psychological with less people. For me, it's a harder game because it's not what I'm use to.

6 max is less nitty than FR. Thus you will get paid off more.
However there are more marginal situations, so the swings are bigger.

Thanks for the replies. Here are some follow up questions/observations:

Following that reasoning a step further, wouldn’t FR be more attractive because you can be even more selective? Can’t you safely assume the 5 villains are also more selective w/in their range making the advantage negligible? Wouldn’t that only give you an advantage over the fishy players? Also, you now have to read and figure out 5 separate players opposed to just one HU where you can concentrate on exploiting only one person’s tendencies.

Isn’t that all based on your advantage coming from playing more hands against worse players though? And, since there are presumably better players playing 6 max than FR, decrease your advantage and therefore profit overall?

All based on the basic assumption:
More Fish = more profit
# fish FR > # fish 6 max
Profit FR > profit 6 max

Of course, the ratio of fish to good players is what is really important because if the ratio is the same in FR and 6 max, you play more hands against the fish in 6 max which = more profit. Which makes sense initially, but the problems I have with that line of reasoning is what makes a player fishy in the first place is that they play too MANY pots in bad situations (usually). Therefore, wouldn’t the wider hand range in 6 max somewhat negate this advantage? And in reality, isn’t the ratio of fish to quality players less in 6 max? Or are there more action junky / gambler types in 6 max? Keep in mind I have no real experience with 6 max. Maybe 6 max amplifies a player’s weaknesses?

Additionally, wouldn’t the ability to be more selective in the hands/situations you play in full ring actually increase your edge over poor players? In FR, when you do play a pot, you should be able to get into better situations with higher EV which = increase your profit and maybe even more importantly decrease variance? (If you can achieve the same $$/hr win rate with less variance… I mean, duh?)

The argument that you can play more hands in 6 max doesn’t make sense to me when you factor the ability to multi-table. I think most people agree you can play more tables FR than 6 max (correct me if you disagree). So really, if you play the # tables FR up to your mental capacity/skill you theoretically should be playing the same number of pots in a given time as 6 max but against worse opponents, in more straight forward, easier to read, situations. This all translates into increased profit in my mind.

Your stats in poker tracker (bb/100) are naturally going to be less in FR because you’re playing less hands per 100 dealt. But your actual profit in $$/hr is going to increase because you can play more tables. The assumption is you can play the same number of pots/situations, by adding a few tables, just with a greater advantage against a bigger pool of fish in those pots. And, you can do this with less variance!

Seems like a no-brainer to me. What am I missing here?

From one point fo view FR is more profitable because pots are larger, but at the same time is more slower than 6max, hands are longer, have to be patient.

In the other hand 6max, is much faster, pots perhaps are smaller because of less players, but is more dinamic.

If you play 2 tables at the same time you should play FR, will keep you busy, otherwise 6max.

Goodluck.

One advantage to 6-max is that it is less likely to be a multi-way pot when going to the flop because there are less people to call down to see a flop, so you have a better chance, depending on how well you play post-flop, of pushing that one person off the hand after seeing the flop, than you would trying to push say 3 or 4 people off the same hand after seeing the flop in a FR game. Your hole cards will hit the flop roughly 30% of the time, so the same goes with your HU opponent, so many times you will be able to push someone off the flop when it comes down to HU, which just doesn't happen as often at FR.

You hit the nail on the head right here. 6-max definitely amplifies a players weaknesses, because what you will see a lot of the time is weak players who will be playing like 40-50%+ of their hands because the game is going so quick and they see the blinds coming around and figure they need to play more, and they just play sloppy. When you are scoping out tables to find a good one, see if you can find someone who is at a couple FR tables and a 6-max table and go sit at his 6-max table, because I have noticed a lot of the time people will accidentally get into the 6-max thinking it was FR, and they are just slaughtered there. Little bit of wisdom for ya

Additionally, wouldn’t the ability to be more selective in the hands/situations you play in full ring actually increase your edge over poor players? In FR, when you do play a pot, you should be able to get into better situations with higher EV which = increase your profit and maybe even more importantly decrease variance? (If you can achieve the same $$/hr win rate with less variance… I mean, duh?)

Many of the great multi-tablers that I know play 18-24 tables of 6-max and none of FR, because you are still getting more action, just takes more skill to play that many.

Hope that helped.

Holy smokes! How do you do that without playing like a complete bot?

Haha, yeah that does give me a few more things to think about. Thanks for the response hamm. Would one of the other advantages of 6-max vs FR is that your big hands get paid off a lot more because "nobody has a hand" in 6-max?

That comes into play, although obviously it isn't always that nobody has a hand, but with only 6 opponents instead of 9 or 10, there is much less of a chance that someone will have one.

It really is interesting how much different the game becomes when there are 3 less people in it, right?

Its your perception, you tell us.

The multitabling aspects of FR make it more profitable than 6max.

lets say you beat 6max for 5BB/100 and FR for only 2BB/100 however 6 max you can play a max of 6 tables and FR you can play 18, FR becomes the mpre profitable.

So until you reach a point where 'playing like a bot' dosent work.. play like a bot and add tables!!

That always cracks me up when people complain about people playing like bots, but when they are winning players who cares

If I could play that many tables at a time I would be rich.lol. How the heck is that possible?

Concentration and experience

Actually I'd say HU is the most profitable form (in BB/100) of poker for a few reasons.

1) You choose your opponent. You never have to play POS short stackers or good players if you choose not to. You can stand up and choose a more profitable opponent at any time.

2) Ranges are extremely wide and good players who value bet well get paid off more frequently.

3) You have the fish all to yourself.

4) Ego and tilt come into play HU more than 6-max or FR. If I stack a player twice HU, he's much more likely to continue playing me in a bad state of mind to try to soothe his ego. When he's tilting he's more likely to stack off lighter or bluff more frequently, which make me even more $$ and makes him play even worse and before you know it he's donated 10BIs.