P
pantoworld
Rising Star
Bronze Level
Online cash games come in two main forms: full ring, usually
with nine players, and 6-max, with just six players. (Heads-up,
which is spread at some sites for the higher limits, plays very
differently and we won't consider it in this book.) Given a choice,
should you play full ring or 6-max? Let's consider some of the
differences between the two games.
The first point to notice is that, in a theoretical sense, 6-max
is simply a full ring game in which the first three players have
folded. If this isn't clear, imagine that you're in a full ring game,
sitting in the fourth seat at the table, and the players in seats one
through three all fold. Is your situation in any way different from
sitting at a 6-max table with the same players and stacks and being
first to act? Clearly, the answer is no. The blinds are identical, thesame number of players remain to act behind you, and all the
players have the same stacks. Nothing has changed except that
three players no longer in the hand have elected to throw their
hands away.
One could argue that since three players elected to fold rather
than play, those hands were likely to have held small cards and
therefore the remaining deck should be richer in high cards,
making strong hands more likely. But even this argument is very
weak. Suppose, for instance, the first player elected to fold aceten,
the second player folded ace-four, and the third player folded
king-six. These are all standard plays in a full ring game, but the
effect is to remove three-eights of the aces and kings from the
deck. Rather than being heavy with high cards, the remaining deck
is in fact quite weak! Since starting requirements are so high in
early position in a full ring, most hands containing high cards
won't, in fact, qualify as opening hands and will be folded.
Therefore, what's known as the card removal effect is in this caSe
very small.
Although there might not be any theoretical difference
between 6-max games and that subset of full ring games where the
first three players have folded, that doesn't mean that the games
have a similar feel. In fact, they play quite differently for some
very good reasons.A range is
simply the set of hands that you choose to play in a given
situation. If you're under the gun at a full ring table, your opening
range is probably narrow. Many players might choose to open
only 5 to 7 percent of their hands in this situation. Why so few?
The reason is simple. When you open the betting, you'd like there
to be a good chance that your hand is actually the best hand at the
table.
With eight players to act behind you, what's the chance that
a hand that's better than 95 percent of all hands but worse than 5
percent is actually the best hand at the table? In order for your
hand to be the best, each of the eight players still to act needs to
have a hand drawn from the group of inferior hands. For one
player, that chance is 0.95. For two players, the chance is about 90
percent.
0.9025 = (0.95)(0.95)
For eight players, the chance is about 66 percent.
0.6634 = (0.95)8
So openinga top-5 percent range under the gun makes you a solid
favorite to have the best hand at the table. (Hands like a pair of
nines or eights, ace-jack suited, or any better hand, fit this
category.)If you're willing to open a top-10 percent hand, however, the
odds aren't quite as favorable. Now the chance that you actually
hold the best hand is about 43 percent.
0.4305 = (0.90)8
So if you open with a hand that's at the bottom of a top-10 percentrange, (say a hand like ace-nine suited or queen-ten suited) you're
actually an underdog to be holding the best hand at the table.
As more players fold in front of you, the card strength
required to have the best hand at the table steadily drops, so you
can open more and with weaker hands. By the time everyone folds
to the small blind, a hand of exactly average strength, say queenseven
offsuit, is even money to be better than whatever hand thebig blind may have.
In full ring games, players who open in early position are
marked with narrow ranges and pretty strong hands. As a result,
most players are going to be reluctant to call, even in position,
without reasonably strong hands themselves. The result is a tightgame.
In 6-max, however, the under the gun player faces only five
opponents and thus has a much wider opening range. This in turn
allows players to call his bets with a wider range of hands. In
addition, a wider opening range permits players acting behind to
reraise with a wider range of hands, or even bluff with a reraise,
hoping the opener had a marginal opening hand and will fold.
(This reraise is also known as a 3-bet.) As a result of the wider
opening ranges, the game generates much more action, which in
turn calls for better decision-making, which puts more pressure onweaker players.
Shouldn't full ring tables exhibit the same level of action and
aggression in that subset of hands where the first three players
fold? They should because theoretically the situations are
identical. But in practice they don't, except in the highest-level
games. Most full ring players become used to a slower, tightergame, and don't adjust properly when the first few players fold, or
when the table becomes short-handed.When
you play online, you're not restricted to playing a single table.
You're free to sit down at many tables if you wish, a practice
known as multi-tabling. Since full ring hands take longer to play
than 6-max hands, a multi-tabler can comfortably play more full
ring tables simultaneously than 6-max tables. Someone who can
manage eight full ring tables with relative ease might want to
restrict themselves to five or six 6-max tables.
Reason No.3: The blinds are at less disadvantage in 6-max. In
a full ring game, the blinds lose money, while the other seven
positions have a net positive expectation since they are never
required to put money into any pot. In a 6-max game, the same
general relationship is true: the blinds lose money, while the other
positions make money.
However, in a 6-max game the blinds lose less money than at
full ring. The reason is simple: Any particular hand in the blinds
is in a relatively better position at 6-max since there is less
likelihood that a stronger hand is out against them. But in order to
demonstrate this, the blinds must be more active with the hands
they have. This leads to the final point, namely
Reason No.4: There is more skill in 6-max. A tight, somewhat
mechanical style (also known asABC poker) can survive and even
show a decent profit in a full ring game unless the opponents are
quite good. Six-max games, however, require much more skill
because of the heightened levels of action and aggression, and a
simple tight style won't do nearly as well.
Now we come to the real question: If you aspire to be a
successful onlineWhen
you play online, you're not restricted to playing a single table.
You're free to sit down at many tables if you wish, a practice
known as multi-tabling. Since full ring hands take longer to play
than 6-max hands, a multi-tabler can comfortably play more full
ring tables simultaneously than 6-max tables. Someone who can
manage eight full ring tables with relative ease might want to
restrict themselves to five or six 6-max tables.
Reason No.3: The blinds are at less disadvantage in 6-max. In
a full ring game, the blinds lose money, while the other seven
positions have a net positive expectation since they are never
required to put money into any pot. In a 6-max game, the same
general relationship is true: the blinds lose money, while the other
positions make money.
However, in a 6-max game the blinds lose less money than at
full ring. The reason is simple: Any particular hand in the blinds
is in a relatively better position at 6-max since there is less
likelihood that a stronger hand is out against them. But in order to
demonstrate this, the blinds must be more active with the hands
they have. This leads to the final point, namely
Reason No.4: There is more skill in 6-max. A tight, somewhat
mechanical style (also known asABC poker) can survive and even
show a decent profit in a full ring game unless the opponents are
quite good. Six-max games, however, require much more skill
because of the heightened levels of action and aggression, and a
simple tight style won't do nearly as well.
Now we come to the real question: If you aspire to be a
successful onlineWhen
you play online, you're not restricted to playing a single table.
You're free to sit down at many tables if you wish, a practice
known as multi-tabling. Since full ring hands take longer to play
than 6-max hands, a multi-tabler can comfortably play more full
ring tables simultaneously than 6-max tables. Someone who can
manage eight full ring tables with relative ease might want to
restrict themselves to five or six 6-max tables.
Reason No.3: The blinds are at less disadvantage in 6-max. In
a full ring game, the blinds lose money, while the other seven
positions have a net positive expectation since they are never
required to put money into any pot. In a 6-max game, the same
general relationship is true: the blinds lose money, while the other
positions make money.
However, in a 6-max game the blinds lose less money than at
full ring. The reason is simple: Any particular hand in the blinds
is in a relatively better position at 6-max since there is less
likelihood that a stronger hand is out against them. But in order to
demonstrate this, the blinds must be more active with the hands
they have. This leads to the final point, namely
Reason No.4: There is more skill in 6-max. A tight, somewhat
mechanical style (also known asABC poker) can survive and even
show a decent profit in a full ring game unless the opponents are
quite good. Six-max games, however, require much more skill
because of the heightened levels of action and aggression, and a
simple tight style won't do nearly as well.
Now we come to the real question: If you aspire to be a
successful onlineplayer, should you play 6-max or full ring?We've explained why 6-max requires more skill than full
ring, but does this mean you should just run out and play 6-max
poker? Not really. The problem is that although 6-max requires
more skill, skillful players generally gravitate to 6-max, making
the games tougher. The net result is close to a wash.
If you're a skilled player at a given level, you should probably
show about the same level of profit playing full ring as playing 6-
max. (But your results will show a higher level of variance at 6-
max than at full ring because the wider hand ranges will result in
more all-in showdowns.)
So if you want to be a good player, concentrate on 6-maxfirst. Once you've mastered these games, you can then decide
which ofthe two forms you prefer. Even if you eventually decide
to play full ring, your skill at 6-max will prove to be a huge
benefit since full ring games often don't fill all the seats. As
players come and go, the table may have long periods of time
when the play is in fact seven- or six-handed. At these times, the
experienced 6-max player has a solid edge over the solely full ring
players who often aren't able to adapt to the increased
aggressiveness and action of shorter tables.
with nine players, and 6-max, with just six players. (Heads-up,
which is spread at some sites for the higher limits, plays very
differently and we won't consider it in this book.) Given a choice,
should you play full ring or 6-max? Let's consider some of the
differences between the two games.
The first point to notice is that, in a theoretical sense, 6-max
is simply a full ring game in which the first three players have
folded. If this isn't clear, imagine that you're in a full ring game,
sitting in the fourth seat at the table, and the players in seats one
through three all fold. Is your situation in any way different from
sitting at a 6-max table with the same players and stacks and being
first to act? Clearly, the answer is no. The blinds are identical, thesame number of players remain to act behind you, and all the
players have the same stacks. Nothing has changed except that
three players no longer in the hand have elected to throw their
hands away.
One could argue that since three players elected to fold rather
than play, those hands were likely to have held small cards and
therefore the remaining deck should be richer in high cards,
making strong hands more likely. But even this argument is very
weak. Suppose, for instance, the first player elected to fold aceten,
the second player folded ace-four, and the third player folded
king-six. These are all standard plays in a full ring game, but the
effect is to remove three-eights of the aces and kings from the
deck. Rather than being heavy with high cards, the remaining deck
is in fact quite weak! Since starting requirements are so high in
early position in a full ring, most hands containing high cards
won't, in fact, qualify as opening hands and will be folded.
Therefore, what's known as the card removal effect is in this caSe
very small.
Although there might not be any theoretical difference
between 6-max games and that subset of full ring games where the
first three players have folded, that doesn't mean that the games
have a similar feel. In fact, they play quite differently for some
very good reasons.A range is
simply the set of hands that you choose to play in a given
situation. If you're under the gun at a full ring table, your opening
range is probably narrow. Many players might choose to open
only 5 to 7 percent of their hands in this situation. Why so few?
The reason is simple. When you open the betting, you'd like there
to be a good chance that your hand is actually the best hand at the
table.
With eight players to act behind you, what's the chance that
a hand that's better than 95 percent of all hands but worse than 5
percent is actually the best hand at the table? In order for your
hand to be the best, each of the eight players still to act needs to
have a hand drawn from the group of inferior hands. For one
player, that chance is 0.95. For two players, the chance is about 90
percent.
0.9025 = (0.95)(0.95)
For eight players, the chance is about 66 percent.
0.6634 = (0.95)8
So openinga top-5 percent range under the gun makes you a solid
favorite to have the best hand at the table. (Hands like a pair of
nines or eights, ace-jack suited, or any better hand, fit this
category.)If you're willing to open a top-10 percent hand, however, the
odds aren't quite as favorable. Now the chance that you actually
hold the best hand is about 43 percent.
0.4305 = (0.90)8
So if you open with a hand that's at the bottom of a top-10 percentrange, (say a hand like ace-nine suited or queen-ten suited) you're
actually an underdog to be holding the best hand at the table.
As more players fold in front of you, the card strength
required to have the best hand at the table steadily drops, so you
can open more and with weaker hands. By the time everyone folds
to the small blind, a hand of exactly average strength, say queenseven
offsuit, is even money to be better than whatever hand thebig blind may have.
In full ring games, players who open in early position are
marked with narrow ranges and pretty strong hands. As a result,
most players are going to be reluctant to call, even in position,
without reasonably strong hands themselves. The result is a tightgame.
In 6-max, however, the under the gun player faces only five
opponents and thus has a much wider opening range. This in turn
allows players to call his bets with a wider range of hands. In
addition, a wider opening range permits players acting behind to
reraise with a wider range of hands, or even bluff with a reraise,
hoping the opener had a marginal opening hand and will fold.
(This reraise is also known as a 3-bet.) As a result of the wider
opening ranges, the game generates much more action, which in
turn calls for better decision-making, which puts more pressure onweaker players.
Shouldn't full ring tables exhibit the same level of action and
aggression in that subset of hands where the first three players
fold? They should because theoretically the situations are
identical. But in practice they don't, except in the highest-level
games. Most full ring players become used to a slower, tightergame, and don't adjust properly when the first few players fold, or
when the table becomes short-handed.When
you play online, you're not restricted to playing a single table.
You're free to sit down at many tables if you wish, a practice
known as multi-tabling. Since full ring hands take longer to play
than 6-max hands, a multi-tabler can comfortably play more full
ring tables simultaneously than 6-max tables. Someone who can
manage eight full ring tables with relative ease might want to
restrict themselves to five or six 6-max tables.
Reason No.3: The blinds are at less disadvantage in 6-max. In
a full ring game, the blinds lose money, while the other seven
positions have a net positive expectation since they are never
required to put money into any pot. In a 6-max game, the same
general relationship is true: the blinds lose money, while the other
positions make money.
However, in a 6-max game the blinds lose less money than at
full ring. The reason is simple: Any particular hand in the blinds
is in a relatively better position at 6-max since there is less
likelihood that a stronger hand is out against them. But in order to
demonstrate this, the blinds must be more active with the hands
they have. This leads to the final point, namely
Reason No.4: There is more skill in 6-max. A tight, somewhat
mechanical style (also known asABC poker) can survive and even
show a decent profit in a full ring game unless the opponents are
quite good. Six-max games, however, require much more skill
because of the heightened levels of action and aggression, and a
simple tight style won't do nearly as well.
Now we come to the real question: If you aspire to be a
successful onlineWhen
you play online, you're not restricted to playing a single table.
You're free to sit down at many tables if you wish, a practice
known as multi-tabling. Since full ring hands take longer to play
than 6-max hands, a multi-tabler can comfortably play more full
ring tables simultaneously than 6-max tables. Someone who can
manage eight full ring tables with relative ease might want to
restrict themselves to five or six 6-max tables.
Reason No.3: The blinds are at less disadvantage in 6-max. In
a full ring game, the blinds lose money, while the other seven
positions have a net positive expectation since they are never
required to put money into any pot. In a 6-max game, the same
general relationship is true: the blinds lose money, while the other
positions make money.
However, in a 6-max game the blinds lose less money than at
full ring. The reason is simple: Any particular hand in the blinds
is in a relatively better position at 6-max since there is less
likelihood that a stronger hand is out against them. But in order to
demonstrate this, the blinds must be more active with the hands
they have. This leads to the final point, namely
Reason No.4: There is more skill in 6-max. A tight, somewhat
mechanical style (also known asABC poker) can survive and even
show a decent profit in a full ring game unless the opponents are
quite good. Six-max games, however, require much more skill
because of the heightened levels of action and aggression, and a
simple tight style won't do nearly as well.
Now we come to the real question: If you aspire to be a
successful onlineWhen
you play online, you're not restricted to playing a single table.
You're free to sit down at many tables if you wish, a practice
known as multi-tabling. Since full ring hands take longer to play
than 6-max hands, a multi-tabler can comfortably play more full
ring tables simultaneously than 6-max tables. Someone who can
manage eight full ring tables with relative ease might want to
restrict themselves to five or six 6-max tables.
Reason No.3: The blinds are at less disadvantage in 6-max. In
a full ring game, the blinds lose money, while the other seven
positions have a net positive expectation since they are never
required to put money into any pot. In a 6-max game, the same
general relationship is true: the blinds lose money, while the other
positions make money.
However, in a 6-max game the blinds lose less money than at
full ring. The reason is simple: Any particular hand in the blinds
is in a relatively better position at 6-max since there is less
likelihood that a stronger hand is out against them. But in order to
demonstrate this, the blinds must be more active with the hands
they have. This leads to the final point, namely
Reason No.4: There is more skill in 6-max. A tight, somewhat
mechanical style (also known asABC poker) can survive and even
show a decent profit in a full ring game unless the opponents are
quite good. Six-max games, however, require much more skill
because of the heightened levels of action and aggression, and a
simple tight style won't do nearly as well.
Now we come to the real question: If you aspire to be a
successful onlineplayer, should you play 6-max or full ring?We've explained why 6-max requires more skill than full
ring, but does this mean you should just run out and play 6-max
poker? Not really. The problem is that although 6-max requires
more skill, skillful players generally gravitate to 6-max, making
the games tougher. The net result is close to a wash.
If you're a skilled player at a given level, you should probably
show about the same level of profit playing full ring as playing 6-
max. (But your results will show a higher level of variance at 6-
max than at full ring because the wider hand ranges will result in
more all-in showdowns.)
So if you want to be a good player, concentrate on 6-maxfirst. Once you've mastered these games, you can then decide
which ofthe two forms you prefer. Even if you eventually decide
to play full ring, your skill at 6-max will prove to be a huge
benefit since full ring games often don't fill all the seats. As
players come and go, the table may have long periods of time
when the play is in fact seven- or six-handed. At these times, the
experienced 6-max player has a solid edge over the solely full ring
players who often aren't able to adapt to the increased
aggressiveness and action of shorter tables.
