Ed Miller's 6-max Article

[velvetdog]

I eagerly anticipate any of Ed's (or David or Mason's) books. I am wetting myself in anticipation of the NL book. Mason said NL was dead (essays Vol 1) but I think he was wrong - I need to read 2-3etc. Anyway the point of this ramble is that I owe Ed, David, and others big time. I am right now sitting on a short term 20+ BB win at 1/2 single table over 3hrs and I owe it all to 2+2., OMFG - I cannot even articulate the knowledge I have gained from you and Ed and David and Mason and Ray. I would be able happy to send you your bevarage of choice (or buy you live - I will be in LV in Feb on a corporate junket at bellagio). Thanks for everything - you have given me a 2nd career and I owe u big time./ Sorry I was not able to send u wedding present ED.

[WriterBoy]

I am interested in the 6-max side of limit. But as a newb I'd like a preflop consideration table.
A "getting started in 6-max," if you will.

[Gabe]

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I think it would be awesome if Ed were to write a 6-max book.

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No offense to Ed, but why are you guys so quick to jump on the idea of a guy who has very little experience in these games writing a book on them?

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Well, although he had little experience, compared to me, when he wrote his holdem book, I think it was the best holdem book I've read, and I'm pretty sure it made a lot of the people who read it a lot of money.

[axioma]

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I think it would be awesome if Ed were to write a 6-max book.

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i would not like this idea at all.

one of the reasons that makes 6-max profitable at the moment is that there is no cookie-cutter "guide" on the game, for those either too lazy or simply not able to work it out for themselves.

this steep learning curve is a good thing in my opinion. i dont want people to just be able to pick up a book and jump into the game with a reasonable formular right off the bat, let them do some work themselves.

any book that ed would write on 6-max, with all respect to him, would not help most of the 2+2ers on this forums who make 6-max their home a great deal, if at all really. it would help lazy newcomers to the game a hell of a lot however.

anyway, a 6-max book would not be comercially profitable i wouldnt have thought, so dont expect one from 2+2 any time soon.

When will Davids NL book be in stores?

[mojobluesman]

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I think you misunderstood my advice a bit. I recommend you prefer hands with showdown value (such as A6s) to those that don't (such as 98s). I recommend... against VERY LOOSE PLAYERS... that you bet your showdown hands aggressively (though not automatically) on the flop and turn.

Against tougher players, autobetting the flop and turn with unimproved hands will be trouble.

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I'm not sure I understand your advice completely.

I understand why you want to play the hands with showdown value.

In one way, I like playing against the fish because they showdown with any crap and my overcards will win more money than when they have the small pair and I check the river and lose.

In another way, I like playing against the tigher players because I can win with the inferior hand more often just by showing some agression and driving them off their small pair.

On a related issue, if you are out of position and bet your overcard against a fish and he calls the flop and turn and then you check the river and he bets, is that almost an automatic fold. The problem here is that once you check, you really don't know if he's trying to steal the pot with garbage because you didn't follow through with a bet on the river or whether is has the small pair.

[Rockatansky]

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I think my next book after working on David's NL book will be a novel.

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now this i find interesting. would it be a poker novel, or something completely unrelated? whichever direction you choose, good luck to you.

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I have an idea.. it's not poker-related. I may suck at writing novels, though.

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What, no TILT fanfic?

[MisterKing]

A concept I've found indispensible in the very aggressive 5/10 6-max games has been something Andrew Prock termed "The Wall." The strategy, essenitally boils down to this: when you have the initiative, bet; when you do not have the initiative, call."

Now, you won't want to use The Wall in 6-max NLHE games, and you won't want to use it against passive players either. That said, you will absolutely want to use it against maniacs and other LAG-types, plus perhaps unknown players who are exibiting an aggressive style in your first few hands of observing them. With respect to unknowns, there is simply no replacement for pokertracker, a solid HUD program, and data mining, of course, but you'll still see completely unknown players from time to time. My overarching point here is 1.) you should know most of your opponents ahead of time, and 2.) since you're playing 6-max, you'll find a much larger share of very aggressive to maniacaly aggressive players than you would in full ring games.

When would I advocate using the wall? Well, I'm not sure when it is optimal to use this strategy (and surely there are some better situations to use it and some worse), but I do know that when I have a hand that has showdown value, and I'm out of position against a very aggressive player, I frequently use it.

Just as Ed points out the inherent value in betting calling stations to death, there is likely an equal value in calling the raising stations to death. As far as I can tell, in many 6-max games there are as many of the latter type of opponent as there are of the former.

At any rate, I thought I'd throw the thought out there. Could be I'm repeating someone else or just pointing out the obvious... though I didn't really even think about "The Wall" or think deeply about its beautiful simplicity until after about 50K hands at 6-max. I certainly wish I'd been more thoughtful earlier on.

A rare instance in which I didnt think a Miller article was very good. The isolate 96o with A4s example just wont work in a 10/20 short game.

[Xhad]

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Mason said NL was dead (essays Vol 1) but I think he was wrong

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It was probably true at the time he wrote it; NL cash did all but die until televised tournament poker revived it.