Moving to 3/6 (low content)

[Nick Royale]

I've just moved to 3/6 and yet again moved into my tight/aggressive shell, as usual resulting in very tight/aggressive stats and a good winrate:
Vpip: 13-14%
PFR: 11.3%
(jeez... just realised I'm only limping ~2%)

The PFR is pretty standard for me, but Vpip is about 3% lower than it use to be. I'm planning to remain at those stats as long as my winrate tells me to, it seems to me I'm unable to keep my winrate while loosening up. This could be a result of me being unable to play more hands while 6-tabling, rather than not being able to play these additional hands for profit if I had the time.

I've been serious about table selection since I first feared the opponents at 3/6, but it didn't take long to realise the competition sucks. I was told that 2/4 was worse than 1/2 when I moved up, but I've never heard of this poor 3/6 opponents. The tables I've been sitting at so far have been worse than the average 2/4 tables I've been sitting at, I understand it's mostly because my serious table selection.

I have been afraid of moving up a long time, but when moving up to 3/6 I realised I should have done it a long time ago. It was the same (probably even worse) before I moved to 2/4. This have made my progress through the limits very slow. It's probably as bad as taking shots when you're not ready since playing on too low levels doesn't help to improve your game as it should.

I put 1800$ at my empire account and plan to move to 5/10 6max when reaching 3000$. To have goals like this is perfect and improves your game greatly, I've never improved my game as much as the last month. I also plan to do some warm up on 2/4-3/6 6max on Stars before making the move to 5/10.

So my advice for all cowards out there is give it a shot!

[Roland19]

Good luck Nick and God bless. I used to play 3/6, then I got anxious and starting fooling around in the 5/10 6-max with only about 250ish big bets. Needless to say, I destroyed my bankroll and now I've been stuck at 2/4 for awhile and running stale. I hope your experiences are different!

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I put 1800$ at my empire account and plan to move to 5/10 6max when reaching 3000$. To have goals like this is perfect and improves your game greatly, I've never improved my game as much as the last month.

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Hi Nick,

Agreed for the most part - I'm all for hopping up levels as fast as you can, both to improve your game and for the obvious financial reasons. Just a brief word of advice on the 5/10 SH thing. I realise it's a way off in the future yet, but I think you should consider a bigger roll than $3k before you give it a shot. I'd beaten all full ring levels consistently up to 10/20 before I moved to 5/10 short and promptly lost $3000-ish over my first 4k hands (I'm beating the game now after some coaching and a further ~10k... testament to its extreme variance). There's a recent post from arkady in HUSH also, who is a much much better player than I, detailing how he lost 200BB in a day.

The swings at 5/10 short are unbelievable, and they're hard to appreciate until you've played the game a bit. You have to be able to lose $1k in an hour and not bat an eyelid, as this will happen a lot, and if that's 33% of your roll (I don't know how much you intend to keep behind as well as your $3k for this shot) I imagine it would be pretty difficult not to let this get to you. I have 1kBB for 5/10 short at the minute and wouldn't be comfortable with much less than 700BB.

[Nick Royale]

I've heard an awfull lot stories about the swings at 5/10 SH, and I get even more respect for those tables as I read this. As for the BR that's no problem since I've been playing 1/2-2/4 for almost half a year I now have a total BR at about 11k. Before I'm moving up I'm sure that must have increased.

But I'm glad for all advice I can get and your post will definately make me prepare even more before I move to 5/10SH. My main idea by playing 3/6 is to get used to higher limits. Do you think I should play some 5/10 10-handed before 6-max? I have heard these games are tough. What do you think about the 5/10-SH games, easy to beat but risk for major swings? What abut my plan playing some Stars 2/4-3/6-6max? Will that make me better prepared?
Thanks for your advices!

-Nick

[unimproved]

Hey Nick,

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What abut my plan playing some Stars 2/4-3/6-6max? Will that make me better prepared?

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Absolutely. I chatted to other posters whose games I respect about my plan to switch to short games and was advised that I should dabble in 2/4 and 3/6 SH games before jumping into 5/10 short. I didn't listen. I wish I had, both to get used to the different style you need to employ and the different styles you'll encounter, and so that the monstrous swings I'd run into wouldn't have been so psychologically damaging. After graduating from full games where losing $1k was a disaster, dropping $3k in a couple of sessions at 5/10 short was brutal and led to embarrassing desperation posts in HUSH.

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Do you think I should play some 5/10 10-handed before 6-max? I have heard these games are tough.

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As for the 5/10 full, I can't see it hurting to give it a try, though playing a good-size chunk of hands at 3/6 full first is definitely a good idea. 2/4 to 5/10 is quite a jump (I should know, I did it). In the same way as how the 1/2 is spoken of by .5/1ers, the 5/10 full just isn't the flat-out TAGfest it's rumoured to be. It's tougher than 3/6 which in turn is tougher than 2/4 as you'd expect, but it isn't unbeatable by a long chalk. It was my main game for a few months, and with proper game selection you can find some really good tables (hint: BBJ).

[college_boy]

Yeah 3000 isn't enough is a lot less than I would feel comfortable with.


edit: 2-4 3-6 is a good idea

[Nick Royale]

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After graduating from full games where losing $1k was a disaster, dropping $3k in a couple of sessions at 5/10 short was brutal

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Oh my God, this is going to be fun [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

[JaysonWeberFCP]

Oh and before you go shorthanded.. Get ready to feel helpless, you will confirm the fact that Poker Gods have feelings and enjoy watching you miserable after a few downswings. Hope you enjoy it, 6-max is highly addicting.

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I would highly suggest playing 5/10 10-handed before 3/6 SH, just to get used to the volume swings (money-wise).

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[Deleted response, misread post]

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Oh and before you go shorthanded.. Get ready to feel helpless, you will confirm the fact that Poker Gods have feelings and enjoy watching you miserable after a few downswings. Hope you enjoy it, 6-max is highly addicting.

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Agree with all of this.

[JaysonWeberFCP]

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[Deleted response, misread post]


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Good Save... Fixed, Blame it on my Post Count.