thinking about the past, present and future... 3/6?

[o0mr_bill0o]

I've been playing 2/4 for a while now. My father got 50 bucks free at party about a year and a half ago while I was visiting for christmas, so I played with that and turned it into 200. I opened my own account, transferred 50 from my dad's account to mine, and the rest is history. I skipped around a bit making marginal gains, and eventually SSHE came out and I lit on fire. Moved up to 2/4 pretty quickly, where I did okay. I made about 1.15BB/100 for my first ~12500 hands, and then I took some of my winnings to go for a vacation in Prague. After getting back I got real caught up in my various other activities (school, rugby, having an actual life). So I was away from poker for about a month. Then I reskimmed SSHE, and started playing again. Over the last 12500 hands I've gone at just about 4.3BB/100. fantastic. Is this sustainable? It doesn't seem quite like it to me, I know the first 6000 or so was just a terrific run of cards (AA held up 35 times in a row [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]). However, my win rate managed to hold relatively constant through some actual ups and downs for the next 6500 or so hands.

So here I am, and at my current winrate, I feel like I'm making some decent money and basically doing exactly what I want to be doing. However, 3/6 keeps calling me. The allure of a new challenge, plus the possibility of more money is certainly good. However, it seems to me that 3/6 is a very different game than 2/4 and that it may take a wholly different skillset than what I have developed.

so I find myself torn between the allure of more money and a challenge, and the safety of the status quo, which if it were all i knew to be possible would be very satisfying.

So I suppose I am asking for a few suggestions, what would you do if you were in my shoes? Do you have any recommendations as to specifically the general differences between 2/4 and 3/6, what kind of adjustments need to be made, etc. (I imagine there have probably been posts on this before, so if you can find a link, just posting that would be thoroughly acceptable). Also, what books perhaps apply more to 3/6 than SSHE? (I plan on going back and rereading TOP and HEPFAP).

[DMBFan23]

tighter, more aggressive. blind play more important.

move up, post hands, drop down if you hit a bad run. move up again later when you've rebuilt. soon you'll be playing 3/6 full time and you'll start to wonder about 5/10. lather, rinse, repeat [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[o0mr_bill0o]

[ QUOTE ]
tighter, more aggressive. blind play more important.

move up, post hands, drop down if you hit a bad run. move up again later when you've rebuilt. soon you'll be playing 3/6 full time and you'll start to wonder about 5/10. lather, rinse, repeat [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

yeah, i was thinking about just incorporating one 3/6 table in with three 2/4 ones just to start out (though I never did that before when moving up limits). then maybe taking it from there.

[MEbenhoe]

So I've been toying with an idea I've had for awhile now, and I finally feel its time to suggest it. There's all these posts of guys who are making good money at the 2/4 games. If you do this over a significant amount of time you should be able to put together a very inflated bankroll and be quite overrolled. At the same time everyone is talking about how bad the 3/6 game is. So why not jump straight from 2/4 to 5/10 6 max if you have the roll for it? I think this is a doable move for a good player and would hopefully greatly improve a players game.

Crazy or brilliant?

[Nick C]

My impressions of 2/4 are a few months old at this point, but here are some of the differences I've noticed after moving to 3/6:

The percentage of tight players at the table goes up.

Blind stealing/defense becomes a bigger part of the game.

The pots are less multiway in general, and people are better at finding folds. Getting paid off well with your big hands becomes more difficult. (As a result, I do more semi-bluffing and bluffing at 3/6 than I did at 2/4.)

The game can be trappy. People will sometimes wait until the river to raise you. And, unfortunately, in a heads-up pot against me, this really isn't such a bad strategy. (Disclaimer: I thought this was a strategy that players started employing more frequently at 3/6, but Crunchy and Grease have said that they've seen a lot of slowplaying until the river lately at 2/4 as well. So maybe it's just a Small Stakes trend.)

In my recent experience, the 3/6 LAGs pay more attention than their 2/4 counterparts and will change speeds and make some adjustments, after people start adjusting to them.

Anyway, I do think 3/6 is significantly more difficult than 2/4. But it's not like I suddenly felt like one of the fish at the table when I moved up. And there are times when I find a really good 3/6 table. But there aren't as many of those as there are at 2/4.

In any event, it sounds like you have the bankroll, and it also sounds like you've been very successful at 2/4. If you want to give 3/6 a try, I think you should go ahead.

[DMBFan23]

when I moved up to 3/6 I decided to drop down to 1 table for a session, and really concentrate. then, I added another 3/6 table. then, another. I did the same thing at 5/10, but that was more obvious cause it was 6max. I think that worked out better for me than mixing, I just couldn't keep track of the different blind structures and things like that. it was helpful to have one mindset about that sort of stuff as a multitabler

[RiverTheNuts]

[ QUOTE ]
So I've been toying with an idea I've had for awhile now, and I finally feel its time to suggest it. There's all these posts of guys who are making good money at the 2/4 games. If you do this over a significant amount of time you should be able to put together a very inflated bankroll and be quite overrolled. At the same time everyone is talking about how bad the 3/6 game is. So why not jump straight from 2/4 to 5/10 6 max if you have the roll for it? I think this is a doable move for a good player and would hopefully greatly improve a players game.

Crazy or brilliant?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think this is doable, however, I would mix a couple 2/4 tables with some 1/2 6 max and some 3/6 tables, even if it is slightly -EV so that you dont get bombed for 100 BB when you move up to 5/10 6 max...

I am the worst 6 max player alive, so maybe this only applies to me, but Im trying to help

[o0mr_bill0o]

[ QUOTE ]
My impressions of 2/4 are a few months old at this point, but here are some of the differences I've noticed after moving to 3/6:

The percentage of tight players at the table goes up.

Blind stealing/defense becomes a bigger part of the game.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is definitely one of my weakest parts of the game, I think. I feel like I really suck at blind defense. I do alright from the stealing standpoint, but defending and playing out of position I feel I'm not too good at. I don't mean to say I turn into a total fish, but I just don't feel very confident in it. Do you, or anyone else, have suggestions of either good posts that deal with this at length in a very generalizeable manner, or good chapters in books?

[ QUOTE ]

The pots are less multiway in general, and people are better at finding folds. Getting paid off well with your big hands becomes more difficult. (As a result, I do more semi-bluffing and bluffing at 3/6 than I did at 2/4.)

The game can be trappy. People will sometimes wait until the river to raise you. And, unfortunately, in a heads-up pot against me, this really isn't such a bad strategy. (Disclaimer: I thought this was a strategy that players started employing more frequently at 3/6, but Crunchy and Grease have said that they've seen a lot of slowplaying until the river lately at 2/4 as well. So maybe it's just a Small Stakes trend.)


[/ QUOTE ]

I've noticed this recently in 2/4 as well.

[ QUOTE ]

In my recent experience, the 3/6 LAGs pay more attention than their 2/4 counterparts and will change speeds and make some adjustments, after people start adjusting to them.

Anyway, I do think 3/6 is significantly more difficult than 2/4. But it's not like I suddenly felt like one of the fish at the table when I moved up. And there are times when I find a really good 3/6 table. But there aren't as many of those as there are at 2/4.

In any event, it sounds like you have the bankroll, and it also sounds like you've been very successful at 2/4. If you want to give 3/6 a try, I think you should go ahead.

[/ QUOTE ]

that's probably what I'll end up doing.

[MEbenhoe]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
So I've been toying with an idea I've had for awhile now, and I finally feel its time to suggest it. There's all these posts of guys who are making good money at the 2/4 games. If you do this over a significant amount of time you should be able to put together a very inflated bankroll and be quite overrolled. At the same time everyone is talking about how bad the 3/6 game is. So why not jump straight from 2/4 to 5/10 6 max if you have the roll for it? I think this is a doable move for a good player and would hopefully greatly improve a players game.

Crazy or brilliant?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think this is doable, however, I would mix a couple 2/4 tables with some 1/2 6 max and some 3/6 tables, even if it is slightly -EV so that you dont get bombed for 100 BB when you move up to 5/10 6 max...

I am the worst 6 max player alive, so maybe this only applies to me, but Im trying to help

[/ QUOTE ]

I assume anyone playing 2/4 has already played and crushed 1/2 6 max. If not it might be time to take this valuable little detour.

[JJH3984]

Read Jennifer Harman's section in Super System 2. Thats the S*#@$ right there.