Poker Full Ring Strategy
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- Poker Full Ring Strategy For Beginners
Full Ring Micro Stakes NLHE Strategy Full ring micro stakes no limit Hold’em is the single most popular variety of cash game poker on the internet. This is where some players go to start out, others go to live, and yet others go to die. The exact ranges you open-raise with, call with, and 3bet with will vary from game to game. For instance, I open all pocket pairs from UTG in a 6max game but typically only open 66+ from UTG in a full ring online game. This is the starting hand chart I suggest using for full ring and live players. And for 6max players I suggest this one.
Carl “The Dean” Sampson is a well known poker player and author, and is currently a Cake Poker sponsored pro. Carl will be contributing to Poker News Daily on a regular basis, and you can also read Carl’s blog on his website PokerSharkpool.com
With the preponderance of six-max ring games now dominating the online scene, there doesn’t seem to be an awful lot of theory on full ring games with between eight and ten players. At the lower stakes, good sound solid play will still get the money; but as you move up and your opponents are more alert you will definitely need to think about adding some randomisation to your play.
I will refer to the medium stakes levels of NL400 up to and including NL1000. Whilst it is certainly correct to randomise your play further up the ladder, many players who are coming up from NL100 and NL200 are doing so with their same old predictable game and their results are suffering because of it.
Let us take a look at an example from NL600 where having some randomisation will help you. You are sitting in the hijack seat with the 10d-9d and this nine-handed table has been playing very tight so far. The player who is in the UTG+1seat and the most active player on the table opens for $18 while sitting on a $450 stack.
It is folded to you, and in most cases you have a straightforward fold here: your position isn’t good and neither is your hand. You have a speculative hand that is basically designed for deep stack poker, and although you have a $600 stack (100BB), your opponent is in fact sitting on less so your effective stack is only $450 unless another player to your left with a bigger stack decides to get involved.
Re-raising is obviously out of the question – while re-raising does in fact serve the purpose of injecting randomisation into your play, it is clearly overstepping the mark to do so here, especially in a full ring game.
You have a choice between calling and folding, but you should not be calling many raises from this position anyway, as you have several players behind you who are still to speak, and it only takes one of them to raise again and you will be forced to fold and never have the chance to see the flop. But if you can ascertain that the opening raiser is somewhat aggressive then you can possibly call this bet around 20% of the time for randomisation purposes. As you begin to move up through the levels then you should at least start to consider sometimes calling raises like these, especially if the players to your left are less inclined to enter with a raise.
Why do you need to randomise your play? I would have thought that this question was rather obvious: whenever you enter the pot in this situation, you simply cannot let your opponents narrow down your range to just a handful of possibilities! In fact it would be better to three-bet with the suited connector here every once in a while than allow yourself to be read in this way.
Now I fully realise that there are many players out there who under no circumstances whatsoever would ever contemplate calling a raise with a hand like this even if the circumstances were right. There is nothing inherently wrong with this style of play, and never getting involved from the hijack with a hand like 10d-9d to a raise from a rather active player is certainly not bad poker.
In fact there are many players who firmly believe that image plays are of far less importance in online poker. But please remember that when you make a play of this nature then you are essentially not doing so to create an image as such but to randomise your play. While it can be argued that this all ties in with your table image, the primary objective is to create a situation in which your play cannot easily be interpreted by your opponents.
Also it is the very nature of online poker that makes randomisation so critical as you enter the mid-stakes levels and beyond. Encountering more and more players who are using tracking software or who have significant amounts of data on you is going to leave you severely handicapped if you fail to randomise.
So whether you agree with the play in the example or not, this is something that you are really going to have to think about at some stage as you move up from the NL100 and NL200 levels.
Poker Full Ring Strategy Game
Carl “The Dean” Sampson is sponsored by Cake Poker and can be seen at www.cakepoker.com/thedean and at www.pokersharkpool.com
The key difference between full ring and shorthanded cash games involves the number of poker players. Full ring is essentially a standard poker game where nine or ten players are seated. While some poker rooms offer a maximum of five seats in their shorthanded cash games, most are usually limited to a maximum of six seats, which is why they are commonly referred to as “6-max” tables.
The 6-max cash games are hugely popular online. Some poker players prefer these shorthanded cash games simply because they like to play against fewer opponents and they get to see more hands. Others prefer the standard full ring cash games, perhaps because they’re more like the cash games that are found in live poker venues.
Strategic Considerations
Even though the only difference between the two formats is the variation in table size, they play very differently.
Starting Hand Selection
Full ring cash games allows a player to play tight by being conservative with their moves and holding out and only committing when a very strong hand comes their way. Since the blinds are paid more frequently and there are fewer players in shorthanded games, starting hand values go up significantly. When you play 6-max cash games you need to play more poker hands and play them more aggressively. Anything that is playable in mid-position in a full ring game is generally playable in any position in 6-max games. You’ll also find that you can be the first raiser much more often when in late position, simply because there are fewer players.
Aggression Adjustment
Without a doubt, one of the most important separations between a full ring and a shorthanded game is the level of aggression. If you’re making the switch from full ring to 6-max cash games then you already know that you need to open up your range of starting hands. Aggressive play is always important in poker, but even more so in shorthanded games because you must maximize your ability to play and win with marginal and lighter holdings. This does not immediately relegate the more traditional full ring conservative players, but overly tight play will certainly can count against you. In the same vein, shorthanded games can sometimes tempt players to loosen up too much and play too many weak hands, which can lead to their downfall.
Positional Considerations
Poker Full Ring Strategy Chart
Position is important in all forms of poker as it is obvious that it is more desirable to act last rather than first. Playing a hand from early position In a full ring cash game is a much bigger disadvantage than in shorthanded games, since there are more opponents who can enter the pot after you’ve acted. However this doesn’t mean your table position should be disregarded when playing 6-max. Players are more likely to miss the flop in shorthanded games which makes position very valuable post-flop. If you’re out of position then you’re opponents will have more opportunities to exploit you by stealing pots when you miss the flop.
Increased Opportunities
6-max cash games are more profitable for skilled poker players. If you’re fortunate enough to be seated with an inferior opponent then you’ll be involved in many more pots with them. This means you can exploit your edge over these weak player far more than you ever could in a full ring game, simply because there are fewer competing players. The skilled poker player also benefits from playing 6-max games because of the wider range of hands that are played, and the knowledge of how to play these hands against weaker opponents, who might be clueless.
Bluffing and Value Betting
Although there are increased opportunities in shorthanded games and it is generally easier to bluff, you need to temper this with the realization that your fellow poker players know that aggressive play is the order of the day and you’ll get called much more frequently. That is the bad news – the good news is that due to the prevalent mind set in shorthanded games your value bets have a much higher likelihood of being called.
In shorthanded games you may be able to confuse your opponents by making value bets that are larger than normal. These larger bets may seem like bluffs as they appear to be discouraging a call. The contrarian nature of poker (strong is weak and weak is strong) many times makes an opponent even more willing to call. Try betting about one and one half times the pot as a value bet and you might be surprised at how often you’ll be called.
Poker Full Ring Strategy Calculator
Higher Variance
You’ll experience larger swings in shorthanded games. This is simply because players will be involved in more pots with weaker hands, and betting them more aggressively. Your style of play will influence how much variance you personally experience. If there is greater variance in shorthanded games, then it stands to reason that handling the highs and lows will require a larger than normal bankroll than full ring games.
What Should You Play?
This will depend on your style of poker and your thirst for action. If it’s action you crave then shorthanded play should be your game of choice. By nature of the fewer number of players, you will be forced to play more hands than when at a full table. The playable hand values go up significantly and since there are less players to act behind you, aggressive play is essential. You simply cannot just sit there and wait for premium cards.
If you’re starting out then it’s generally better to begin by playing full ring games. This will allow you to build a solid foundation and learn the basics of good cash game play with less risk to your bankroll and your ego. Once you’ve gained the necessary experience and skills you can then progress to the shorthanded 6-max tables and get a feel for what kind of mixture of patience and aggression that’s required to succeed.
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Poker Full Ring Strategy For Beginners
By Tim Ryerson
Tim is from London, England and has been playing poker since the late 1990’s. He is the ‘Editor-in-Chief’ at Pokerology.com and is responsible for all the content on the website.