6-max NL micro starting hand recommendation

[melioris]

For the past few months I have been struggling with the switch to 6-max from full ring. I have been playing some of both, but not doing great at 6-max. Earlier this month I decided to get serious about the 6-max game. In short, I think I was overemphasizing aggression and under-valuing position. So I get getting into too many marginal situations, and as a micro player my goal is to avoid marginal situations, as there are plenty of easy decision situations to get into down here in the slums.

So I did some hardcore analysis of my starting hand selection and build myself a little chart to help organize my thoughts. I would appreciate it if folks looked it over and give me feedback. The process was a little humbling for me, as I thought I had moved beyond “starting hands” chart for NL. But if I want to plug leaks, I figure I should start with the big ones. So here it is, tell me what you think.

Oh, and another tidbit, One-pair hands is a big loser for me. No real surprise there, but two-pair hands is also. That surprised me, but when I looked at it closer it was because I was overplaying PP on a paired board. YIKES….

[Aequitas58]

Wow, alot of this I don't agree with. Before getting into specifics, what are other people's thoughts?

[Boobie Lover]

I think this is fine if you are less than 120 BBs and you aren't confident in your postflop skills. Anything over that, and you should be playing suited connectors and suited one gappers.

[melioris]

Boobie, do you mean SC in general or UTG?

[Boobie Lover]

Mostly in CO & button to a preflop raiser. You can probably dump them in early position (although I don't) and should dump them in the blinds.

[melioris]

I'll transfer $9 on Party if you get into specifics.

[Aequitas58]

Sure. Briefly, because I'm at work (and this is not billable time), these are some things I'm unsure about:

- Calling reraising with all pairs 88-22. Maybe with the upper-echelon pairs in this range, but 44-22?
- Alot of hands that you fold UTG+1 (ATs, KJs, etc), I raise with. It's a shorthanded table.
- Again, I'm not always folding hands like A9 UTG+1. If you want to play laggy, you have to lag it up sometimes, and this includes playing these hands every once and a while.
- I rarely cold-call. I see that you're sometimes cold-calling with group 3 hands in later positions. Not for me.

Then again, I'm not Mr. NL 6Max, so take this with a grain of salt.

[Zybomb]

While I realize what you're saying (playing 76s suited and having a 9 6 2 flop and wondering where you're at), in general hands like SCs and small pairs are very easy to play post flop bc u know where you're at easily... hands like AA and KK could be the harder hands to play post flop (specifically on the turn and river) because it can be difficult to figure out where you are and if you're overvaluing an overpair (or being bullied too easily) and most of the time these hands go to the river unimproved

[Talking Poker]

Sorry I didn't get to this sooner... I meant to.

Looking it over, I think it's a good start, and especially if you are deep stacked, as Boobie said.

One thing that concerns me is grouping hands like AK with hands like KQs, AJs, and 99. I mean, yeah, these hands are somewhat similar in strength (although I'll pithc the KQs a LOT faster than I will the AK), but they play a lot differently in certain situations. I'm not calling a three bet with KQs UTG+1, but I'll 4 bet with AK if the situation is right. I guess your chart sort of suggests that... maybe I'm just not reading it well.

Unlike Lou, I don't have a big problem calling raises with as low as 22, depening on the stacks and if I think my opponent is capable of folding an overpair or not.

I'm not sure I like cold calling with the SCs in the CO, for example, especially the little ones like 34. I will open with all of those hands in those positions though and I will USUALLY fold to a 3 bet. If opponent three bets me a lot though and I have position, I am much more likely to call, especially with the SCs (I'll still pithc the trouble hands).

I will open with your bottom group of hands from the CO too, and occasionally from UTG+1 (but I usually fold them there). The same is true for some of your hands in the group above - I'll open with them sometimes from UTG+1 and even UTG, depending on the flow of the game, my image, my opponents, etc.

In other words, like everything else, "it depends," but I think this is a reasonable starting guide.