Goodbye 6 max

Well, it's been just a little while. I think last blog I was really getting into the idea of not being results oriented, and that's still true. I did however fail at playing 6 max. I was going OK, playing maybe a little too tight, but there were problems.

I want to first explain some issues I have with 6 max. Firstly, when you datamine a decent percentage you soon realise some spots are not so profitable. What you actually find is that restealing off stealers is profitable, set mining with SC/PP's vs EP nits is profitable, and folding medium strength hands against tight ranges or OOP is also a good idea. So that's fine, but it leaves little left. Obviously its up to you to open up some more, but I'm finding myself making most money from 3 betting loose buttons, as even when I flop big I'm either not getting paid, or still losing. So you play 4K hands, get few great spots, and when things aren't going your way, the week is spent folding, getting it in bad, or getting rivered. Not pleasant. Also when you are waiting, waiting, waiting for a good spot, get a bad beat, but have fish on the table, you feel reluctant to just get up and take a break, but it's necessary. So I find myself grinding 2 hours straight without a break, and really just playing 1 hour good and 1 hour bad because of that. And if you do take a 15 minute break to clear your head, then it's another 30 minutes of table selecting to find good spots at the table. Nothing worse than getting on the 50 VPIP table to see two nits on your right and two loose aggressive players on your left.

So lets analyse reads. You make a read a player has check raised as a bluff. The rest of the session he never check raises you. I guess the problem I'm talking about is I'm watching players, getting reads, and it rarely gives me much help, as I rarely get into pots with people. If I'm only raising 15% of hands, I'm probably playing 5% of pots postflop, so in a 100 hands might play one hand against that guy I got a read on and he doesn't check raise anyway. Then I never seem him the rest of the week. I guess what I'm saying here is not so much reads are pointless, and certainly if you are getting reads off the loose fish on your right, that's great, but overall, even if you play 22% of hands, there isn't a lot to do but fold a lot, and bet when ahead or can get folds.

It just isn't that interesting to me, and especially when "running bad", it's very hard to untilt. What I mean is you get frustrated when AA < KK PF, then QQ < 99 in a 3 bet pot on 642r, and then you get 2 nights where not much happens. It makes you not want to grind. Then as soon as you start to get tired or tilted, you are discouraged from leaving the tables for 20 minutes for several reasons.

So hello HU. Cash or SNG, doesn't really matter, this is a game I can play. Now I've chosen HU SNG's for now, as they are a little easier again to untilt. I listened to half 1 of Bart's interview with Tommy Angelo, and he talks about physically sitting up, taking some deep breaths and refocusing. This has been a HUGE problem of mine. I sink into the couch, grind, grind, grind, and my mind gets further and further away from important issues. It's been a lot better recently, but still not ideal. Now I can play a couple of SNG's, do this excersize and focus on what's important. OK, how am I feeling, do I jump right back into the games, do I need a break, am I tired, am I tilted? OK, now take appropriate action.

So for now I'm HU SNG guy, playing the $55 turbos on Full Tilt. I do wish to move into HU cash at some point, but really want to play some HU SNG's for a while, at least til the end of the month. I figure I'll have played about 4-500 SNG's by that time, so I should have a pretty fair idea of how I'm playing them by then. Already I'm about 80 SNG's in and it's been swingy as anything. I'll report on this in another blog.