I’ve been checking out some blogs lately, especially people who are doing personal bankroll challenges – trying to get their BR to a certain point in x days. I’m not doing one of those challenges, because the amount I can play is limited by work and family responsibilities, but I figure I can read about them and gain some knowledge, and perhaps expand my game a bit.
The one thing I’ve taken from all these challenges is that all these people are playing 6max. I’ve always eschewed 6max because the game is very aggressive – lots of contested pots, lots of reraising. It forces you to really trust your reads and make some aggressive plays and questionable calls. You have to re-evaluate your starting hand requirements, and your postflop aggressiveness. These guys are showing me that the game is profitable though.
The big reason? More hands equals more opportunities for better decisions than your opponents. In lots of cases, people are playing 8 tables and 125 hands per hour. I’m playing 4 tables at about 55-60 hands per hour at a full table. If I could manage a winrate similar to what I have now at a full table (7 PTBB/100), I’d double my $/hour by playing twice as many hands, and making better decisions than my opponents. Really, I don’t think I could maintain that kind of winrate at 6max, but it’s leaving me curious. I do think I could play 8 tables if I had enough screen real estate, but I only have one monitor, so I’m stuck at 4.
With that in mind, I may try a little 1 week experiment – playing 4 tables of .01/.02 6 max. At the end of the week, I’ll compare my stats (PTBB/100, hands per hour, $ per hour) against my .01/02 full table stats, and see where I stand. It will slow my bankroll growth for a week, but I’m curious to see how it goes. If I can handle the aggressiveness, I may try a week at .05/.10 and see how that goes. If it’s obvious that I can’t handle it, and I lose more than 5 buyins (due to poor decisionmaking, not due to suckouts), I’ll go back to my standard game.
I’ll keep you posted on whether or not I decide to do it, and how it goes.
