Why am I winning more HU?

[SeanFraley]

Generally I prefer to open a new 6-Max table, wait for the fish to sit down, and then leave when the majority of my opponents are nits or TAGs. As a result I spend a certain portion of my sessions playing heads-up until more than one opponents sits. My overall winrate has been bouncing around the 3-4PTBB/100 range at 100NL and I decided to start some heavy examination of my game to start finding the leaks and started by comparing the hands I play when the table is HU with the hands that I play with more opponents sitting and was rather shocked to notice that my when I filtered to show just the HU hands that my winrate was 9PTBB/100. Truthfully, I'm rather confused by this since I've always been under the impression that HU was a harder game to play and that my winrate would be hurt by the simple fact that I am paying a blind every hand. Admittedly, this is a small sample (30k hands played HU out of 100k total) but the rather large difference between two winrates indicates that some important difference is occurring in how I play when the table shifts to multiple opponents. Can any of the more experienced players possibly provide some insights as to what might be causing this, and even better can any of you who have some insight suggest what I might do to carry some of the winning play over into the full tables? I figure that it is probably better to improve my play versus multiple opponents than it is to switch over to playing heads-up.

[benve79]

There are for sure 2 main reason for a higher winrate:

1- larger fish/regular ratio
2- more marginal situations

-1- is pretty obvious. if there 2 fishes and 4 regulars in a game the money of the 2 fishes get divided among the 4 regulars, so the winrate of the reg is half wrt to 1 vs 1. its my impression that a 6max table on average has more regulars than fishes.

-2- hu there are many more marginal situations as well, so the edge of the better player gets enhanced imo (this is because as you say the game is harder).

so i think its natural that if you are a winner shorthanded you'll be winning more HU.
if youre doing so well hu you should also be doing very well when the game gets 3-4 handed, so u might want to check how u r doing from the early positions in a 6max game (utg and utg+1)

[svinto]

What benve79 said... I mean its really simple. At a 6-max table you might be a 12ptbb winner against one fish, 5ptbb winner against another and about breakeven against the regs. Your average winrate will be 3.4ptbb at that table asuming you play as many hands against the regs as you do against the fishes. At a hu table if you game select very well you can probably find opponents that you are 8ptbb+ winner against and that will be your winrate at that table.

[saddu]

my question most of the time after an hu session is.. why i still play 6-max??

[The72o]

what svinto said -RAKE !

[Rebo]

playin HU against a fish is just the ultimate way to boost ur winate
First of all it is very difficult to play and most people make so much mistakes ...

[Oki-Oki]

When I played HU and 6max at 100 a while ago, I payed about 1/3rd less rake playing HU fwiw. This is with a .50c rake cap, with a $1 cap you end up paying about 3x as much rake compared to the .50c cap.

[Oki-Oki]

Also HU you are in every hand, making many more marginal decision leadingto higher expected winrates for the player making better decisions.

[saddu]

Originally Posted by Oki-Oki

When I played HU and 6max at 100 a while ago, I payed about 1/3rd less rake playing HU fwiw. This is with a .50c rake cap, with a $1 cap you end up paying about 3x as much rake compared to the .50c cap.

at 50nl 6-max cap the cap is 3 ****ing dollars........ hu is 0.50 (at least on tilt) , i always thought that rake at hu low stake was a kik in the ass.. but for the hand i've played so far i've paid nearly same amount of rake hu.

[Oki-Oki]

Originally Posted by saddu

at 50nl 6-max cap the cap is 3 ****ing dollars........ hu is 0.50 (at least on tilt) , i always thought that rake at hu low stake was a kik in the ass.. but for the hand i've played so far i've paid nearly same amount of rake hu.

yeah i think that the rake at ssnl HU is often blown way out of proportion. Though there are some matches where you end up playing a ton of rake, mainly when you opponent never folds the button and always limps.

But I would say if you like playing HU, that you should use the rake as a reason not to. I still think you can win plenty of money imo.