Playing Short-handed for Fun and Profit (tons of awesome content)

[Monty Cantsin]

I hit a personal milestone tonight. After 22,202 hands, I am now showing a profit at 5/10 6-max. I am over 62 dollars IN THE BLACK - giving me a win rate somewhere in the neighborhood of .03 large size bets per 100 hands. I know it's considered "uncool" to brag about winrates around these parts, and sure, maybe I'm just running well, but I'm confident that a rate this high, or even higher, is sustainable long term.

Ok, maybe this is not so impressive for those of you who've been killing this game from day one. For whatever reason, I've really struggled with it. After my first month or so I was down close to 200 bb. I dropped my regular game back to 3/6 but kept playing the occasional 5/10 6-max table with these parameters:

1. One table a time, and as much of my complete attention as I could muster. When I got bored or distracted, I quit.

2. I was playing to learn and improve, not to make income, so I didn't worry about playing lots of hands. In contrast to the marathon eye-gouge-a-thons I subjected myself to in the beginning, I was playing shorter sessions under the right conditions.

3. Table selection. I forced myself to do the necessary game-scouting work that I'm normally too lazy to do. I wouldn't sit down at a game without at least one player I recognized and felt I could outplay.

4. Gametime window. Ok, maybe I'm late to the party on this one but holy cow PT's gametime window rocks. I could never make this work before locally stored hh's but now it works like a dream.

I'm not sure how much these changes have affected my bottom line, all my results up to this point - good and bad - could simply be 6-max's brutal turbulence jerking me around, but just the process of re-thinking my approach and changing my habits has given me a big mental boost. I'm happy to be back at square one, and looking forward to more ladders and fewer chutes.

/mc

[Grease]

Use playerview. It's like a gametime window on your Party Poker screen. It's amazing, but I don't know the link. I'm sure someone could put it up. Glad to hear you're in the black.

[J.R.]

I'm not sure how much these changes have affected my bottom line

I am. You're a better player for it, and that fact will prove itself out in the long run. Congrats.

[Freakin]

It's all variance. You're just getting lucky. You could never sustain that WR for a long period of time.

Congrats on pulling through it. Here's the link to PlayerView. It's life changing.

Freakin

[Danenania]

I experienced a similarly shaky start when I first moved to 6-max. Now I feel confident in the 10/20 and have taken enough from it to build a roll sufficient for 15/30 full. It's not an easy transition but it sure pays off. Keep working at it.

[Monty Cantsin]

Wow. Playerview really is great. Thanks for adding content to my thread!

/mc

[sfer]

That first paragraph is awesome.

Well done.

[SomethingClever]

*Hijack*

I can't get Playerview to install. I've installed that stupid .NET thing, I think, but it never works.

Help!

[belloc]

[ QUOTE ]
Here's the link to PlayerView. It's life changing.

[/ QUOTE ]

And for those people like me who can't remember anything, the playerview URL now comes in this yummy new flavor: www.playerview.net.

[BusterStacks]

I'm really glad to hear this, after < 5k hands, I am 200bb in the red. Currently I am getting my ducks in a row for a 3rd strike at this game. Oddly enough, I have no problem with the 5/10 full, but I fall apart in 6max. Congrats on your success, I know at least for me the knowledge that I can beat the game is worth more than the money at this point. Keep it up!