6-Max Texas limit Holdem is a variation from the normal full ring limit games. This variation is played more aggressively and with greater potential profit for the better players. Because more hands are dealt per hour, more decisions are made per hour. This can be a great advantage to the player that known their way around the six chaired table.
In 6-Max, while you should still play a tight and aggressive style, a few more hands can be played as openers. Hand values change quite a bit from a full ring game to a 6-max game.Pocket pairs are more valuable in a 6-max game. In early position, the first two positions after the blinds, you'll want to muck the baby pairs, 22-66. In the cutoff and button typically play all pairs if there has been a caller ahead of you. And you can open raise with the higher pocket pairs all the way down to 88 or 99 depending upon the character of the table. Raise with ten-ten and up.
Hands with two cards of ten or higher go up in value in a 6-max game. While you might fear the risk of being dominated with hands such as King-Ten offsuit and Queen-Ten offsuit in a full ring game, because of the limited amount of opponents these hands are more likely to hold up in 6-max. You can strongly consider open raising with any hand with two cards ten or higher.
Suited Aces are much less valuable in a typical 6-max game. Usually there will be limited participation in the hands and the pot odds just won't be there for any kind of speculative hand. Also, because raising is much more prominent, it's harder to see the flop for just one bet. Suited connectors face the same problems only more so. Be very careful playing speculative hands in 6-max. Know the character of your individual game and only play them late if conditions are just right.
Really turn on the afterburners when you get one of the monster starting hands. Pocket pairs AA through JJ are extremely strong in a game with few opponents. They are much more likely to hold up unimproved in 6-max. Also, because your opponents typically play looser and see more raises you'll get a lot of action at times.
Strong hands such as Ak, AQ, AJ, and KQ ( suited and unsuited ) need to be played strongly! Firstly, there's always the chance of winning the hand unopposed. Secondly, if you hit on the flop you likely be in the lead. And if you have position after the flop, your pre-flop raise opens up many deceptive options depending on the table's actions.
In this introductory segment we've taken a look at the differences of starting hand values versus a regular full ring game. In future articles we'll explore other areas such as post flop play, blind play, and bluffing.
