Apr 23, 2010

Epiphany

I'm sitting in a game that's pretty tight. I don't have long to play, so I don't bother switching tables even though tight games are pretty tough to make good profit in. It's a 6 player table, instead of a 9 player table, which I tend to prefer.

So with it being a tight game, I'm being more selective about what cards I throw money into the pot with and especially about what position I'm in when I get said cards. Obviously, with 6 instead of 9 players, blinds are coming at you faster. So that's 2 ways I'm limiting (and possibly eliminating) my profits. Then it dawns on me that there is a 3rd way. With only 6 players, there is only 3 "mid positions". You know, those positions between the big blind & the button. This means 1 true mid, 1 late, and 1 early. Early needs really strong hands to come into the pot, while late needs less strength.

In 9 player, you have 6 "mid positions". This means there is no true mid, 3 early and 3 late. That's more positions where you can play more liberally. You have to couple this with the fact that there ARE more people waiting to act behind you if you're in that first late position, but you are still over halfway through the positions. This means that you have a bigger window of playing medium-power hands. You get a medium power hand as first to act (directly after the big blind), your most profitable decision is to fold it. Position matters. A lot.

With these things in mind, and the better chance of having a weak player at the table to siphon chips from (of course, there is also a better chance of an extremely talented player, but you can adjust strategies for him) a 9 player table is far superior to playing on a 6 player table on average. You can't say always, because you could have 5 weak players at the 6 player table and 8 strong players at the 9 player table. Then your profits will be far greater at the 6 player table.

I think I'm going to avoid 6 player tables I'm not moderately sure of from now on. Good lesson learned on this table today. Even if it did cost me money to learn it.

Started: $50, Low: $39.80, Current: $63.50, Time: 5 hours, Profit -$13.50, PpH: -$2.70
Goals: $4.0/hour on 25¢/50¢ tables.$7.50/hour on 50¢/$1 tables

No comments:

Post a Comment