So I got the itch. I'm pretty bored and uninspired by 6max right now given my performance in the last 3 or 4 months, so I decided to try something new. Being a degenerate action junkie (not really, I have no gamble ) I swapped some bucks with Pureklas over to FTP and decided to try to build up a roll playing 15 buyins at NL100.

The first day I lost 1.5 buyins and was feeling a little uneasy. Today, not so much


I ran very hot, mostly just draws hitting at the right time and TPTK holding against TPGK. I played 53 people today and of them I think that 4 or 5 were decent. The rest varied from very bad to atrocious, and I varied from pleased to doubled over laughing. One opponent in particular was quite good and aggro; I played him in a very fun match for 200ish hands while recording a video to swap with a buddy from 2+2 who's also learning heads up. Finished up -3.25 in the match, that bastard. Learned a ton though.

I absolutely loved playing, even when losing in a match. The decisions are way more interesting and they come thick and fast. When I'm grinding 2/4 it can be exciting just because the games play so aggro, but 1/2 is just so incredibly dull I can't stand it (especially when I lose).

I'd really like to become a competent HU player so I think I'll play probably 20k hands or so and see how it's going, then consider getting a coach. I made some observations today that I think I can work on:

1) I cbet too much. This is really a function of having hundreds of thousands of 6max hands under my belt and not much else. I know this is a leak because I played a bunch of people who cbet too much today and c/ring them liberally on the flop shows a large profit.

2) I don't vbet thin enough. I played a few droolers today who folded to <20% of continuation bets and I didn't make correct adjustments against them (raising bigger preflop, potting streets for value, vbetting 3rd pair no kicker)

3) I don't 3bet enough preflop: around 9.5% preflop, most of the time for value. This is because...

4) I don't get 3bet pot dynamics HU. In aggro 6max games, you have to be more willing to defend your opens and shove over cbets in 3bet pots with gutters, overs, back door draws, whatever. That's not too tough to master, you just need to learn where and against who, and then shove flops. In the HU games, I was getting lost OOP because the SPR for a typical HU rr pot is much larger than the 6max equivalent. So this is a part of my game I can't copy and paste from 6max. I kinda shy against running big bluffs in 3bet pots at NL100 too.

5) I'm not so hot OOP. Following the SSNL HU vids here the gameplan so far has been to play very tight OOP and just bring the rukus from the button. Against decent opponents, that's not good enough for me. I experimented with c/ring a lot of flops against certain opponents which was cool, but generally I struggle riding marginal made hands like MP middle kicker to showdown. I know I shouldn't be folding it on the flop because pairs are hard to make HU, but turn and river spots can get sticky. I might post some hands.

So that's what I'm gonna work on for now. I'll mix in HU with my 6max play and see if I can get my newfound rungood to transfer.