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Part V-C: Six Player Tables
Online poker sites mostly provide a mix of six
player tables and full ring games. Six player tables should not
be something you are afraid to sit down at and play, since they
resemble full ring games enough that you only have to modify your
basic full ring strategy moderately in order to be successful.
You loosen up on your pre-flop calls or raises slightly. Instead
of being in a hand an average of 18 to 20% as you would in a full ring
game, you should average around 20 to 25 percent in a six player
game. Following that, your strategies remain pretty much the
same as they would in a full ring game, making all the regular
adjustments for the fact that there are a few less players in the
hand. By making adjustments I mean adjustments in your
assessments of the likelihood that other better hands might be have
been made. With a third less players, the chances of any
particular hand being made is also less.
The biggest difference
in a six player game is the speed of play. It moves a lot faster
than a full ring game and online the players tend to be a lot more
aggressive. If you are sitting at a six player table which is very
aggressive you might have to cut back on the level of your calls and
raises as you would in a larger ring. Excessive player
aggression always means that the other players are calling and raising
with generally inferior hands, and so you must tighten up relative to
what they are doing, but when it comes time to act, be no less
aggressive than they are being-the only difference is that you will
have the goods to back up your plays, while they will rely on inferior
tactics such as raising into straight draws, and other such poor plays
which can not hold up over time against a strong fundamental strategy.
The other important factor to consider is the increased value
of your table image. With the less people in the ring with you,
the importance of your table image rises. If you do have a run
of bad luck in a small ring, then the other players are more likely to
key in on that-they will smell blood and try to move in and finish you
off, playing even more loosely and poorly. It is difficult in
this situation to combat an entire table of players, where in a sense
they are playing together against you. If you get the sense that
that is what is happening, then it is time to leave. Even using
correct poker strategy in this situation, if the regular response
factors of the entire table have altered due this scenario, many of
the different plays that you would use in a normal situation will just
not work.
So while I would not recommend a small ring as the
very first table that you sit down at when learning to play, I would
recommend that you try it out before too long. However, it is
best to start out in a full ring if you are just sitting down for the
first few times, in order to take advantage of the slower play.
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