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Informative Articles

A Brief History of the Baseball Glove
Baseball has long been praised as America's favorite pastime. Baseball gloves have been used for nearly as long as the baseball game has existed are a very integral part of the sport. The first baseball gloves were used in the 1870s and are very...

Advantages of Martial Arts for Kids
Martial arts are still considered a rather controversial subject, and the unfortunate misconception that they can promote violence is still present. However, just a little research will show any parent that martial arts promote the exact opposite of...

Home Run Statistics – Going Going Gone.
This was written prior to the 2005 season The home run. One of sports grandest sights. Whether it is a line drive that barely clears the wall or a pop up that glances off the foul pole. Or if it’s a shot that goes 40 rows back. It is still a home...

What to Look For When Buying Athletic Shoes
You've finally had to throw out those cross-trainers. They've been your companions through miles of workouts and it breaks your heart to have to dump them. It's been so long since you've had to purchase a new pair, you don't know where to begin. ...

Why I'd Rather Be A Slugger
Why I'd Rather Be A Slugger During the last NLCS, I asked Brandon Backe of the Astros what the hardest thing was for him in making the conversion from outfielder to pitcher in the minors. He said it was "not playing every day." That is why I would...

 
6-Max Texas Limit Holdem : Hand Values

6-Max Texas limit Holdem is a variation from the normal full ring limit games. This variation is played more aggressively and with greater potential profit for the better players. Because more hands are dealt per hour, more decisions are made per hour. This can be a great advantage to the player that known their way around the six chaired table.

In 6-Max, while you should still play a tight and aggressive style, a few more hands can be played as openers. Hand values change quite a bit from a full ring game to a 6-max game.Pocket pairs are more valuable in a 6-max game. In early position, the first two positions after the blinds, you'll want to muck the baby pairs, 22-66. In the cutoff and button typically play all pairs if there has been a caller ahead of you. And you can open raise with the higher pocket pairs all the way down to 88 or 99 depending upon the character of the table. Raise with ten-ten and up.

Hands with two cards of ten or higher go up in value in a 6-max game. While you might fear the risk of being dominated with hands such as King-Ten offsuit and Queen-Ten offsuit in a full ring game, because of the limited amount of opponents these hands are more likely to hold up in 6-max. You can strongly consider open raising with any hand with two cards ten or higher.

Suited Aces are much less valuable in a typical 6-max game. Usually there will be limited participation in the hands and the pot odds just won't be there


for any kind of speculative hand. Also, because raising is much more prominent, it's harder to see the flop for just one bet. Suited connectors face the same problems only more so. Be very careful playing speculative hands in 6-max. Know the character of your individual game and only play them late if conditions are just right.

Really turn on the afterburners when you get one of the monster starting hands. Pocket pairs AA through JJ are extremely strong in a game with few opponents. They are much more likely to hold up unimproved in 6-max. Also, because your opponents typically play looser and see more raises you'll get a lot of action at times.

Strong hands such as Ak, AQ, AJ, and KQ ( suited and unsuited ) need to be played strongly! Firstly, there's always the chance of winning the hand unopposed. Secondly, if you hit on the flop you likely be in the lead. And if you have position after the flop, your pre-flop raise opens up many deceptive options depending on the table's actions.

In this introductory segment we've taken a look at the differences of starting hand values versus a regular full ring game. In future articles we'll explore other areas such as post flop play, blind play, and bluffing.

About the Author

Chip Westley is the webbloger at Home Run Poker, http://www.homerunpoker.blogspot.com . Home Run Poker is a place for baseball fans that like to play poker to meet and arrange private online poker games.