Ed Miller's 6-max Article

When will Davids NL book be in stores?

[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.

[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.

[wonkadaddy]

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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.

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sort of agree w/you. conceptually the point ed makes is powerful, but the example just isn't characteristic of the play at even 3/6, and definitely not higher. folks just don't call that passively w/crap.

[koolmoe]

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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.

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sort of agree w/you. conceptually the point ed makes is powerful, but the example just isn't characteristic of the play at even 3/6, and definitely not higher. folks just don't call that passively w/crap.

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From my experience playing 5/10 6max at Party in the first half of this year, I'd say that there are definitely players that loose and passive. They may not be a dime a dozen (maybe more like 1 in 20), but if you datamine, you'll find them. At least I did 6 months ago. YMMV.

The key (to me) seems to be finding a seat where you can isolate such players and not get aggressively and routinely three-bet preflop by players to your left.

The thing I liked about 6-max is that some of the sick beats you see there more often turn tables into tiltfest feeding frenzies than you see at full table games at the same stakes.

[Nottom]

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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.

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sort of agree w/you. conceptually the point ed makes is powerful, but the example just isn't characteristic of the play at even 3/6, and definitely not higher. folks just don't call that passively w/crap.

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I see players like this all the time in the 3/6 game. Its not most people so you can't use this as a blanket strategy, but I'd say there is usually at least one of these types at every other table I play at (part of which is likely table selection on my end). Sometimes even when that guy is around it doesn't mean you are in a position to fully take advantage of him, but when you can Ed's line should be a pretty standard thing and shouldn't be new to anyone with any 6-max experience.