In Full Grind Mode
We’re 12 days into February and I still haven’t played a SNG or MTT online outside of the Mookie/Dookie this year. Since big chunks of time are hard to come by these days, I’ve focused my attention on online cash games. 6-max no less.
I finally signed up with Cardrunners and went through Brystmar’s SSNL Guide/Video series for NLHE 6-max games. This was great since I hardly have any experience in 6-max cash. I’m starting out pretty low playing 2-4 tables of 25NL. Over the last two weeks, I’ve managed to get in a little more than 10,000 hands. So far the results have been pretty good.
Besides the good base I’ve gotten from the videos, I think the biggest factor in being somewhat successful over this very small sample size has been table selection. I’ve become obsessed with datamining using Pokertracker/PAHUD and note taking/fish finding.
The formula so far has been to find the 40-50 VPIP tables and just play a solid, aggressive game. Before I sit in at any table I look up my list of fishy friends to see if they are playing and then go from there. Once I finish my session, I take some time and review the hands played that I won and lost the most money. Besides using the playback feature in Pokertracker for this, I’ve also started using PokerEV software. This software is free (beta) and is great for analyzing hands, seeing how lucky or unlucky you are running and the hand replayer includes VPIP/PFR/AF stats.
The goal for the rest of the month is to get in at least another 10,000 hands so I have decent sample size to review. If things are still pretty solid, I’ll move up to 50NL and continue the grind.
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Since I have a date with a ladder and a bucket of paint, I won’t be able to make this…
Be sure to play and trash talk chat-banned Chad.
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Awesome. I’m glad the 6 max nl games are treating you well.
Very nice! I think you’ll see that the CR offense will open up your cash game. I really believe there’s nothing really good out there right now to counter it, especially at low-mid stakes. It’s like the advent of the longbow against the longswordman.
You should watch all of the Taylor Caby (Green Plastic) videos because even though the stakes he plays in them are sometimes higher, the techniques are what you need. I liked the Brystmar videos but sometimes I found them tedious — watching Caby and CTS (Cole South) is like that scene in The Matrix where Tank is discarding all the routine training files and goes straight to the fun stuff — programming Neo combat skills!
Good hunting!
Mookie -
It’s great to hear that you’re diving into the 6-max NLHE games. Give it a bit of time and you’ll really start to love the games. There’s a lot of money to be made and the games are tons of fun.
At $25 NL/$50 NL, get used to spotting the weak players at the table and target them, just as you said. There’s no need to get tricky at the low-stakes tables. Play good cards, play position, and play as fearlessly as possible. Anytime you feel that you’re ahead in the hand and if the pot is big enough, don’t be afraid to push that stack in and take what’s yours.
I’ll be interested to see how well you do. You’ll be playing a hell of a lot more hands this month than I’ve played over the past couple years so you should progress pretty quickly.
Good luck!
Thanks for the feedback guys. I’ll be sure to add the CR offense to my list of must watch videos.