Max Holdem
Posted : admin On 7/12/20226 Max Texas Holdem is a dream game for a good poker player, with more hands being played per hour and therefore more winning decisions for the better players. Typically the worse players are drawn to the game as its much more exciting than 10 player Texas Holdem because theres so much more action, more hands per hour, more raising. This is a discussion on spin n go or max holdem? Within the online poker forums, in the Tournament Poker section; 3 or more player? More prize or more chance? What do you think?
Many Texas Hold'em players transition from full-ring games (nine or 10 players) to six-max poker, as it allows you to play more hands per hour and there are fewer opponents to keep track of.
6 Max Poker
6 Max poker or short-handed poker is the most popular form in cash games. It’s popularity has surged in the last 10-15 years. This is probably due to the fact it combines the appeal of fewer opponents with rewarding a looser playing style. Look on any poker site cash game lobby and you will see the numbers – players prefer 6 max to full ring. The sharks tend to prefer this format too and will prey on weak opponents who do not make the necessary adjustments when moving from a nine or ten handed game. This article is dedicated to those of you new to 6 max or considering playing it. This 6 max poker strategy guide is mostly focused on cash games but can also be applied to tournament poker.
You Must 3 Bet More
There are some schools of thought that advocate a 3 bet or fold playing style. I do not subscribe to that theory being the best way but there’s no question you must 3 bet more in shorthanded games. You need to be aggressive, particularly in position. You will be playing more hands and you only connect on 1 in 3 flops so it is necessary to mix in some 3 betting to ensure you have the aggression and also aren’t reliant on hitting the flop to win.
Looser Hand Selection
If you are uncomfortable playing more than the very best hands, 6 max isn’t for you. You will lose too much in blinds and antes if you are not prepared to play more hands. Throw away your hand charts, as you won’t need them for 6 max. With fewer opponents, you are less likely to walk into premium hands as often. In a full ring game, you are folding your ace ten from under the gun, not in 6 max. Remember, if you open under the gun in 6 max, you only need three folds to your left to be playing in position.
Bluff More
Playing short-handed affords a lot more bluffing opportunities. You will quickly realise that weaker hands will win at showdown. In a full ring table with multi-way pots, a strong hand is often needed to win. Not so for 6 max games – one pair will often be sufficient. This means you can run more bluffs and try more moves to win. I am not suggesting you go crazy and re raise every flop bet but feel free to some flop check raises against those who c-bet too much or 4 bet the LAG who keeps 3 betting you. Bluffing effectively is a must for 6 max poker so look for opportunities.
Learn Continuation Bet Strategy
A shameless plug for our continuation bet course but it’s true, you need to c bet properly in 6 max. In most low stakes games, there are 2 types of mistakes players are making. They’re either not c betting enough or c betting far too much! Don’t fall into either category. Consider the opponent, flop texture, your hand strength and position before firing a c bet. You need to identify whether it’s a c-bet that is likely to work. This is not easy to do, in an instant. With our course, you will learn all this and more and it will become intuitive.
Thin Value Betting
Value betting is absolutely essential to winning poker. After all, you need to extract more from your opponents than they do from you, when you have the better hand. You need to value bet a lot thinner in 6 max poker games. A softly softly approach will not do you any good. If you’re checking back rivers in spots when your hand is best, you’re probably making a mistake. A thin value bet can be a small bet or an over-bet. If you are on unsure which is appropriate, err on the side of caution and value bet small. This will protect you from the bigger mistake of overplaying your hand. As you gain experience, you will be able to identify scenarios where a larger value bet will work.
Take More Notes
As you’re playing against fewer opponents, there’s even more reason to know them better. Watch them closely, pay attention to the hud stats, and take notes diligently. If you have more information, you are more likely to make better informed decisions. You will know their strengths and weaknesses and can react accordingly. They fold to 3 bets a lot? Great! Three bet them like there’s no tomorrow. They fold overpairs to wet boards? Fantastic, an over bet bluff is likely to work! They don’t 4 bet bluff? Don’t stack off with pocket jacks! As you can see, note-taking will significantly impact your decision making. It may seem tedious to type up notes but trust me, it’s for your benefit and your bankroll too.
Play Fewer Tables
Short handed poker is going to take more of a mental toll. You’ll be involved in more pots, taking more notes and in more awkward situations. This is in contrast to the monotonous nature of full ring poker which affords you the chance to play more tables. One of the first tips I offer players I mentor is to find the right balance of game type and number of tables. Most prefer 6 max but are handicapping themselves by playing too many tables. This varies player to player but suffice to say, you will play better with fewer tables. This doesn’t mean you have to one table, perhaps you’re intelligent enough to play 8 tables and maintain a high win rate (rare). The key thing to remember is that each table you add on, the less concentration on each table on average.
By Rob Smith
Introduction
In today’s online cash games, most poker sites offer three options for table size: Heads-up (2 seats), full ring (9 or 10 seats), and 6-max (6 seats). Over the last couple of years, the 6-max tables have become the most popular by a significant margin. There are a number of reasons for this:
- More hands per hour. As there are fewer players to make a preflop decision and usually less players to a flop, the game runs a lot quicker than when at a full table. While this may not improve winrate in terms of BB/100, it can make a big difference to your BB/hour winrate, purely because you’re playing more hands.
- More action. Similar to above, but not only are you playing more hands per hour, there’s more flexibility to play a larger percentage of preflop holdings. The beauty of 6-max is that there is no “correct” style. You can profit playing very tight and solid, or extremely loose and aggressive playing every other hand (If you are extremely skilled post flop!)
- Nowhere for weak players to hide. In a full ring game, there may be one or two very weak players at the table that you would like to play as many pots as possible with. Even if they are directly on your right, most of the time you can’t raise to isolate with weaker holdings due to there being too many players left to act with position on you. This isn’t usually the case in 6-max, and allows for many more profitable situations for strong players.
- Rapid improvement in skill level. You will generally be playing more post flop poker and contesting more pots than you would in full ring. This should allow you to gain experience at a much faster rate, and therefore improve quicker.
I used to play full ring almost exclusively, but one day I thought I’d try out 6-max for the reasons above. After a few fundamental adjustments to my play (and 10 buyins down later), I found myself winning in a more profitable and quite frankly, more entertaining game. If you are a full ring player who has always wondered about 6-max but you’re afraid of either “getting blinded away” or “playing too many marginal spots”, then this article is for you.
Variance
If there’s one reason I hear more than any other for not playing 6-max holdem, it’s that the variance is too high. Some people simply don’t want to endure the downswings associated with a higher variance game of poker. While it is true that your standard deviation per 100 hands will be higher in 6-max than full ring, this should not be a factor in whether you play the game or not. We are supposed to be playing for the long term! If you are adequately bankrolled, then you will do better playing in the game which earns you the most money per hour, regardless of the variance. Remember, variance doesn’t alter your mean winrate, just your spread of results around that winrate. This means above it too! Most players forget this. When you have a monster session and finish up 6 – 8 buyins, do you put it all down to playing well? Or are you aware enough to be able to say “In that session I ran way above my average winrate due to variance.”
Be Observant
With a maximum of only five opponents, you have the opportunity to pick up on, and exploit you opponents’ tendencies much more rapidly in a 6-max game. This is the core skill you need in order to make the best decisions and extract the most profit. You need to know if the player on your left will 3-bet you lightly preflop, or if the guy opposite you pushes top pair too hard. Who will fire 2 or 3 barrel bluffs, and who plays strictly fit or fold on the flop? All of your profit comes from exploiting your opponents’ mistakes, and you can only do that if you know what those mistakes are.
NEVER Open Limp Preflop
This is the only hard and fast rule I am going to give you in this article. While it’s possible to employ a profitable strategy involving preflop limping, it’s extremely difficult to balance and relies on expert post flop play. For the vast majority of players, it’s simply better to raise any pot you want to enter first. 3 or 4 times the big blind will do it. If you limp, not only will you be isolated out of position a lot, it will be more difficult to build big pots with your monsters. It also makes hand reading a nightmare, especially if you let the blinds in for free.
Throw out that Starting Hand Chart!
Choosing whether to enter the pot in 6-max is very much a function of the observations you have been making. For this reason, starting hand charts will only get you so far. For a start you DON’T have to play more hands than full ring. This is a very common misconception. You generally want to be playing, and raising with a lot of hands from the Button and the CO (Cutoff), but playing very tightly from UTG (Under the Gun) and MP (Middle Position). What these hands are depends on your opponents, and their positions at the table.
So let’s come up with a couple of examples to illustrate this. Here’s a 6-max table with a typical range of opponents. Assume 100BB effective stacks:
SB Tight Passive & predictable postflop
BB Loose Passive & Calling Station postflop
UTG Loose Aggressive
MP You
CO Tight Aggressive, passive on turn and river
BTN Semi-loose & Aggressive preflop, tricky/deceptive
In the above example, if UTG folds, what range should you open with?
You have to stay fairy tight. You are in early position, and there’s a loose aggressive player on the button. I would open:
AA-22, AJs+, ATo+, KJs+, KQo, QJs, JTs
A fairly tight range of mainly premium hands.
Now keep the same players in the blinds, but put yourself on the button. What hands will you open with now if everyone folds to you? A typical range:
AA-22, A2s+, A2o+, K2s+, K7o+, Q6s+, Q8o+, J7s+, J9o+, T8o, 97o, any suited connector, any suited one-gapper, any unsuited connector.
Obviously this is a huge range of hands. In fact, a lot of players will open any two cards here! The reason is that the raise is often profitable in itself against two passive players in the blinds. Especially when combined with a c-bet on the flop (see the next section.) Hopefully you can see that how many hands you decide to play is down to your specific table, your style, and your postflop skill. Just remember that if you’re in any doubt, it’s best to play tight and solid. This still gets the money, even at 6-max.
C-Betting
C-betting is the bread and butter of 6-max holdem. If you raised preflop and get one or two callers, you will be betting most flops whether you hit or miss. These bets should be somewhere between ½ and full pot size. How to choose what size in this range depends on a number of things:
- Flop texture
- Number of opponents
- Opponents tendencies
- Balance
- Own hand strength
C-betting is a topic that requires an article in itself to cover properly, so I won’t attempt to reproduce that here. Just be aware that part of the reason you are raising so much preflop is to take the pot down often with a c-bet on the flop.
Wield Position (No, even more than that)
Most players know that position is to your advantage in NL Holdem, but they simply don’t use it as relentlessly as they should. When you have position, especially on the button, you should be raising a lot of pots. On a tight/weak table, it’s difficult to go too far with this. Raise any limped or unopened pot on the button with all but the trashiest of hands.
Position can be used to exploit different opponent types in various ways. If you have a weak TAG on your left who calls from the blinds too much but gives up too easily post flop, you can raise all sorts of hands from the button and cutoff. You can then apply pressure and 2 or 3 barrel him depending on the situation, making him lay down the vast majority of his range. If you are playing with a loose passive fish on your right, you can also isolate with a wide range. Unless he picks up a big hand, he’ll mostly be check/calling to the river, allowing you to choose where to value bet, and where to check behind. These are the sorts of situation where position gives you a huge advantage, so make sure most of your hands are played in position.
Manipulating Pot Size
I touched on this in the last section. In headsup pots, if you are in position, you always have the option of closing the betting for the current street. This is crucial to manipulating the pot size. It allows you to check behind against LAGs when you have a strong draw and are suspicious of a check raise, draw cheaply against passive players, or value bet calling stations when they check to you on every street. Don’t get caught out pushing top pair all the way to the river though (Unless you are playing a known fish). I know this is shorthanded, but against good, solid opponents, relative hand values won’t be that far from full ring when it gets to the turn and the river and big bets are going in.
Plan Yourself out of Trouble
The biggest decision in most NL hands is usually made on the flop. Mostly you’ll be in raised pots, hopefully in position (if you are isolating correctly!) and it’s at this point that you have to decide what your plan for the whole hand is. DON’T call the flop without a plan for the turn based on whether your opponent bets or checks, or a nasty card falls. DON’T bet if you haven’t thought about your plan if you face a check raise.
Max Holden
Often, I’ll plan the whole hand on the flop, regardless of what falls. Say I raise As Qd from the button and get called by a very bluffy LAG from the big blind. The flop comes
Ad 8h 3c
And the BB bets into me. Here, I’ll sometime decide to exploit his bluffing tendency on such a dry board by calling every street, and raising/value betting the river depending on how the board looks. The point is, I had a plan for future streets. Your plans can change, there’s nothing wrong with that. Just make sure you have some to start with.
Push Your Draws
Due to the aggressive nature of 6-max, you need to be pushing a bit harder postflop than you would do in full ring. Most people know this, but they go about it in completely the wrong way. Instead of pushing hands with an almost guaranteed decent amount of equity, they start value betting their top pair no kickers and middle pairs more, building pots that are far too big when they could be a huge underdog.
A much better approach is to semibluff your draws pretty relentlessly. This has 2 main advantages over pushing mediocre made hands:
- You have a solid amount of equity on the flop againt all but the very biggest of hands.
- You build a big pot if called, so if you do hit, it’s much easier to stack your opponent.
Max Holder
The second point is quite important as a lot of players forget to take this into consideration. If you play your draw passively, not only does it LOOK like a draw, cutting your implied odds, but when you hit, it is going to be difficult to get all the money in without help from your opponent.
So, as a default I always look to bet my flush and straight draws on the flop, and usually the turn too. The exception to this is against very aggro players where it’s often better to check and call, guaranteeing you another card with good implied odds, than betting and being raised off your draw. Also, combo draws should be played even harder than this as they usually have around 50% equity, and with fold equity added in they are hugely profitable. You should aim to get the last bet in (all in) on the flop with hands similar to these:
Max Holdem ประวัติ
- Open Ended straight draw + Flush Draw
- Top Pair + Flush Draw
- Middle pair + Gutshot + Flush Draw
- Nut flush Draw + 2 Overcards.
All these types of hands have a lot of equity with 2 cards to come, and need to be played as fast as possible.
Max Holden Nj
Be Aggressive
If there’s one thing you need to take out of this article, it’s to be aggressive. There are countless profitable styles you can employ at this game, but virtually every single one will centre on being aggressive. Don’t be afraid to use your chips as a weapon, and force your opponents into difficult decisions. Remember, you only profit when your opponents make mistakes. Give them a chance to do just that.