6 Man Table Poker Strategy

Posted on 7/25/2022 admin

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It’s usually a single table of 2, 6, or 9 players, although more popular poker sites can fill multi-table Sit and Go’s. Every player starts off with the same amount of starting chips. Aside from Turbo variations blinds are increased every 8-10 minutes. Prizes are given to the top 2 (6-player events) or top 3 (9-player events).

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6 Man Table Poker Strategy Against

Introduction

Rules

While 9 or 10 player tables still make up the majority of poker tournament formats – 6-max is catching up fast. This article compliments the many poker tournament strategy basics articles here at SNG Planet by highlighting some strategies which are specific to the short-handed tables.
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Six Card Poker is a poker variant game played heads up against the dealer. The object of the game is to win by having a better five-card poker hand than the dealer using six cards.
The game is played using one standard 52-card deck. The game uses standard poker rules for scoring and comparing hands.
To begin, the player makes an Ante Bet.
The dealer deals six cards face down to the player. The dealer deals to himself, three cards face up and three cards face down.
The player examines his cards and must either fold the hand, losing his Ante, or raise by making an additional wager that is equal to his Ante. Players may not share information about their cards with other players.
The dealer reveals his hole cards and compares his best five-card hand to the player’s best five-card hand. The dealer must qualify with ace-king or higher.
If the dealer does not qualify, then the player’s Ante bet is a push. The raise bet is resolved as follows:
- If the dealer's hand beats the player's hand, then the player loses his raise bet.
- If the player's hand beats the dealer's hand, then the player is paid 1 to 1 on his raise bet.
- In the event of a tie, the player’s raise bet is a push.
If the dealer does qualify:
- If the dealer's hand beats the player’s hand, then the player loses his Ante and raise bets.
- If the player's hand beats the dealer’s hand, then the player is paid 1 to 1 on his Ante and raise bets.
- In the event of a tie, the player’s Ante and raise bets push.
There are also two optional side bets, the Aces Up and Two-Way Bad Beat, which are explained below.

Analysis

The game was analyzed through brute force, combinatorial analysis. The following table summarizes the analysis results. The bottom left cell shows the house edge of 1.2717%. With an average bet size of 1.6987, the element of risk is 0.7486%. Table

Ante Bet Analysis

Outcome	Dealer Qualifies	Net Win	Combinations	Probability	Return
Player Wins	yes	2	1,040,023,036,938,350	0.272693	0.545387
Player Wins	no	1	755,514,209,224,548	0.198095	0.198095
Ties	yes	0	210,847,746,240	0.000055	0.000000
Ties	no	0	50,992,983,876	0.000013	0.000000
Fold	-	-1	1,149,186,512,820,950	0.301316	-0.301316
Dealer Wins	no	-1	2,937,744,249,924	0.000770	-0.000770
Dealer Wins	yes	-2	865,968,968,971,212	0.227056	-0.454113
Total	3,813,892,312,935,100	1.000000	-0.012717

Strategy

Two basic playing strategies are presented below.
Intermediate basic strategy:

Fold if dealer has a higher ranked hand using his three up cards alone. This rule supersedes all other rules.
Fold with ace-10 or lower.
Raise with ace-king or higher.
With ace-queen, fold if the dealer is showing an ace or king.
With ace-jack, fold if the dealer is showing an ace, king, or queen.

Simple basic strategy:

Fold if dealer has a higher ranked hand using his three up cards alone. This rule supersedes all other rules.
Raise with ace-king. Fold otherwise.

With optimal play, the house edge is 1.27%.
Using the intermediate basic strategy, the house edge is 1.48 %.
Using the simple basic strategy, the house edge is 1.63%.

Aces Up

Aces Up is a side bet based on the poker-value of the player's hand only. The following table shows what each hand pays, the probability, and contribution to the return. The lower right cell reflects a house edge of 3.30%.

Aces Up Analysis

Event	Pays	Combinations	Probability	Return
Royal flush	500	188	0.000009	0.004617
Straight flush	100	1,656	0.000081	0.008134
Four of a kind	30	14,664	0.000720	0.021609
Full house	10	165,984	0.008153	0.081530
Flush	8	205,792	0.010108	0.080867
Straight	6	361,620	0.017763	0.106576
Three of a kind	4	732,160	0.035963	0.143853
Two pair	2	2,532,816	0.124411	0.248821
Aces	1	751,332	0.036905	0.036905
Loser	-1	15,592,308	0.765886	-0.765886
Total	20,358,520	1.000000	-0.032973

Two-Way Bad Beat

The 'Two-Way Bad Beat' pays if either you or the dealer has at least a pair of aces and loses. The higher the losing hand, the more the bet pays. In other words, it pays based on the worse hand between you and the dealer, as long as they don't tie.

The following table shows all the odds. The zeros for the probability and return of a losing straight flush are not a mistake. The probability of that is about 1 in 25 trillion. Such a situation was the basis of the movie Honeymoon in Vegas, but I'm getting off topic. The lower right cell of the table below shows a house edge of 10.84%.

Two-Way Bad Beat Analysis
Event	Pays	Probability	Return
Straight Flush	10000	0.000000	0.000000
Four of a Kind	5000	0.000001	0.006250
Full House	500	0.000099	0.049370
Flush	200	0.000307	0.061440
Straight	100	0.000972	0.097168
Three of a Kind	35	0.004056	0.141965
Two Pair	10	0.034513	0.345127
Pair of Aces	9	0.015036	0.135328
Loser	-1	0.945016	-0.945016
Total	1.000000	-0.108367

Acknowledgments

Usually, I like to do my own math. However, in this case ShuffleMaster, who is marketing the game, kindly provided the math report by mathematician Cindy Liu, which the Ante bet analysis is based on. The Two Way Bad Beat is based on the work of Elliot Frome. I did the analysis of Aces Up.

Written by:Michael Shackleford

Remko Rinkema

Every year the World Series of Poker offers a wide range of variants and game types for poker players. Without question, one of the most popular choices is six-handed no-limit hold’em.

Many are familiar with full-ring NLHE, but the short-handed version brings significant changes to strategy, as WSOP bracelet holder and World Poker Tour champion Taylor Paur explained to us yesterday.

Paur has nearly $3 million in career live tournament earnings, the largest chunk coming from his victory in the most recent WPT Shooting Star in San Jose where he topped a 708-entry field to capture a $1,214,200 first prize. Paur won his WSOP bracelet in 2013, besting 2,071 players in a $1,000 no-limit hold’em event for $340,260.

The 26-year-old poker pro from El Dorado Hills, California also has experienced considerable short-handed success at the WSOP, twice making final tables in six-max events. Paur finished fifth in the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Handed Championship in 2011, then took sixth in last year’s $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event.

With a focus on players who are used to playing full-ring (nine- or ten-handed) NLHE multi-table tournaments, here are Paur’s six tips for those getting started with six-max tournament poker.

1. Overall Adjustments

“Just tighten up,” Paur begins when addressing how to adjust from full-ring to short-handed play. “Try to play solid. You’re better off not playing too many pots, and play the pots you enter to win.”

“That’s much better than trying to get involved in a lot of hands against good players,” he continues. “Just play the hands you play aggressively.”

2. Avoid Overplaying Hands

Many players new to six-max tournaments will overcompensate and feel they need to change their games dramatically from full-ring play. Paur warns inexperienced players against this, noting how in theory you don’t need to alter your game a lot.

“It is easy to overplay your hands, and a lot of people feel the need to change a lot of stuff when they play six-max,” says Paur. “In this format you just get into a lot more situations postflop where you need to be able to read hands with lesser strength hands, instead of just playing premiums.”

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“Inexperienced players get themselves into very big pots they can’t find a way out of,” he continues. “That’s how you see many people bust in the early levels of a six-max tournament, especially the lesser experienced ones.”

3. Blind Play

Since the blinds come around more often, adjustments have to be made when you’re playing short-handed. Paur explains how you should be defending your blinds more often and three-bet more, too, because the opening range from every position is a little bit wider.

“It’s up to personal preference whether or not you like to put in more three-bets or calls, and there are lots of different views on that. A lot of these GTO (Game Theory Optimal) guys seem to say that calling everything out of the big blind is the best way to go. I don’t agree with that. I like to mix it up based on how my actions are being perceived by the person I’m up against, [and from that I will decide] whether or not I’m going to three-bet or flat or fold. And, of course, it matters what cards I have.”

Also worth noting is the fact that the small blind presents a completely different situation than does the big blind. As Paur explains, the small blind is his least favorite position, and probably one from which to be extra cautious.

“I don’t mess around in the small blind,” says Paur. “I don’t believe people who mess around from the small blind, and I don’t expect them to believe me. I’m scared of the small blind — it’s like a pet peeve.”

4. Adjusting when Under the Gun

Things start to look up once you’re under the gun, but it’s still not a position from which to go crazy. One important point Paur makes is that those who are new to six-max need to start thinking of the positions at the table in a different way.

“I personally think of under the gun full ring as if it were 6-max, but it’s basically middle position when you’re full ring. My opening range is probably too wide, so I don’t take under the gun as serious as it sounds.”

5. Playing from the Cutoff

Things start to get fun when you’re in the cutoff, where open-raising almost feels mandatory if the right person is sitting to you left.

“A lot of your play in the cutoff depends on who is on the button,” Paur explains. “If it’s someone who’s not going to mess with you, you can treat it as if you are on the button. If it’s someone that’s willing to go to war, you might have to go to war.”

“On the other hand, you might have to tighten up a little bit, but that all depends on who your opponent is, and the flow at the table.”

6. Playing from the Button

The best position in poker — and it really doesn’t matter what format you’re playing — is the button. This is no different in six-max no-limit hold’em, and Paur closes out with some words of wisdom on playing six-handed tournaments from most fun position in poker.

“You can obviously play more hands from the button, just because you always have position and that is very important,” he says. “You have a wider opening range from the button, and you can play more hands.”

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