Right now the 6 max no limit texas holdem is the most popular poker game online. The words “6 max” simply mean that the tables will have at most 6 players as opposed to the 9 or 10 players you can usually find for an example from the texas holdem poker tournaments tables. As I have long experience in playing the 6 max NL holdem games online I felt like I could share some tips with our readers. The tips should be such that even if you are new to the game you can digest them easily and can use them to improve your game – obviously all the tips might not fit your style and the way you play poker so treat them with little bit of a caution, but I’m sure everyone will find something helpful from this article. So let’s get started!
Best 6 max no limit texas holdem poker tips
1) Watch what your opponents do and take notes
If you are serious about playing poker and trying to win money it is important that whenever you are playing online poker you watch closely what your opponents are doing and take notes. For an example if you notice that certain player is repeatedly bluffing in a specific type spot you should take a note – the odds are that the next you will face a bet against him he is once again bluffing (though be careful as the best players know that you are taking notes and will mix up their game and actually have a premium hand in that spot quite often, but if you are playing against so called fish the note is extremely valuable). Maybe the most important note you can take is about the type of hands that your opponent takes to the showdown. Certain players let their hands go too easily and others never seem to be able to let their hands go. Obviously if you find a player that cant let a hand go you need to try to get the maximum value out of your opponent and bet against him with wide range of hands that you suspect might be the best in showdown. And the other way around: if your opponent lets his hands go too easily you need to bluff loads against them.
In live poker it is easy to keep track of what type of player each of your opponents easy, but in online poker you might in one day play against hundreds of players and even the best poker players in the world can’t keep track of every single of their online poker opponent’s tendencies.
2) Don’t overvalue the suited connectors
Don’t get me wrong: suited connectors are wonderful hands and certainly much better in NL than in fixed limit holdem (this is because you have much bigger implied odds e.g you can win a bigger pot with less investment). However many beginner players overvalue the suited connectors. The truth about them is that they are at their best when you can enter the pot cheaply and try to win a huge pot. The nature of 6 max is that there is often a raise and re-raise before the flop quite often when that that happens you are simply forced to fold your suited connector because you simply don’t hit a good enough hand often enough on the flop and are thus forced to fold the SC after the flop has been dealt.
3) Be willing to play aggressive
To continue the last tip: if you love playing suited connectors the way to play them in 6 max NL is aggressive. You can quite often justify three betting with them (making a re-raise after one raise has been made) before the flop even though you cant justify calling a re-raise with them. Overall if you are not willing to play aggressive, do lot of bluffing (against the right type of opponents) and go all in frequently the 6 max games most likely are not for you.
4) Prepare for bigger losing streaks than in full table games
This should be obvious, but still: because you are forced to play more aggressive and go all in more often the swings will naturally be much bigger than in the full table games. Because of this your should mentally prepare for the possibility that you will lose big amounts of money in a short period of time and make sure that when it happens you can still play as good poker as you can and not go on tilt. Also you should have a big enough poker bankroll set aside so that you can handle the possible big losing streaks. I recommend always having at least 50 buyins in your poker bankroll for the level you are playing, so for an example if you play $1/$2 6 max NL you should have a $10,000 poker bankroll.
I hope you found these tips helpful and can get something out of them to improve your poker game.
