Stealing 101. Flyboy sent me some of his steal stats this week... and I'm still scratching my head. He's been stealing A LOT in late position in the $10NL FR Rush games he plays. His steal win rate has been also correspondingly high. The convention wisdom says that you should be stealing at around 40% in late position in a FR game, but he's been stealing at a much higher number. In fact, he's been experimenting with near-100% stealing when it's folded to him in one of the last three seats. His last few 400-hand sessions resulted in around $4 profit from stealing alone. Impressive.
I've looked at my own stats, and I typically steal around 38-42%. My overal win rate is around 8 BB/100 in the $10 and $25NL games. I'm curious what Flyboy's overall win rate is. According to my shaky early morning math, he's making about 5BB/100 alone from stealing. I'm even more curious how much better I could do if I bumped up my steal percentage to numbers like his. I'll probably focus a little on this aspect of my game this week. I'm also planning on scouring the forums for the collective horde's thoughts. My suspicion is that as you move up in stakes, you can get away with less and less of this blatant stealing. I.e., at the $10 tables, Flyboy's grand theft larceny probably works; at the $50 tables I bet you start to get your own pockets picked a lot. In other words, you need to remember to adapt your game to the stakes you're playing at.
Harrington's Latest. I picked up Harrington's latest book, Harrington on Online Cash Games. The good news is that it's much better than his last two books on live cash games, which, IMHO, were very basic and simple-minded and filled with more than a few misleading and incorrect pieces of advice. In this new book, he covers 6max play, including a few chapters dedicated to poker tracker and HUD set-ups. Generally a good book, with a lot of interesting and useful advice, but I've also got some criticisms, too. He gives some advice in the book that I'm not 100% sold on. For instance, he recommends that a new player to NL cash should start at the 6max tables before trying the full ring. I personally think this is bass-ackwards, as the 6max game is a much more aggressive and fast paced affair. It also requires higher level thinking, plus, because the blinds hit you so much faster, you're necessarily getting involved in many more hands and pots. For a beginner, I think full ring is definitely the way to start. There are other similar quibbles I have with the book, but overall it ain't too bad and is definitely worth a read.
Cash v. Tourneys. Well, my luck at both SnGs and Tourneys hasn't improved. I'm (a) running incredibly bad (had KK cracked in both my last two games); and (b) not adjusting properly to tourney blind changes. There is definitely a skill aspect to tourneys that I need work on. In contrast, my cash game results continue to chug along with a steady profit. A year ago, I would have said I was a winner at SnGs and a break-even at NL cash. Now the opposite is true. I need to continue working on both, but with an added emphasis on tourneys.
NL v Omaha. I'm currently playing about 75% of my cash games in NL Hold'em, and the remaining 25% in Omaha. I'm winning very strongly in NL, but just barely breaking even in Omaha. I've noticed that my "style" of play is more tight-passive in Omaha, which feels more comfortable to me, but also is costing me some pots. In the coming months I need to work on more aggression in the Omaha games. The last Omaha session I played I told myself it was a Hold'em game, and I played much stronger. The overall results showed an improvement.... right up until I had a set of aces cracked. Like all things poker, the name of the game is finding sweet spots in your play. Be aggressive.... but not too aggressive. Steal a lot... up to a point. Tighten up your game.... but not too much. Win big..... and lose little. Yada... yada....yada.
RIP. Finally, the town lost one of its better known poker players this week. Steve Schulman, aka Farraday, died of a stroke this past week. Steve had spoken at my weekly poker strategy session, plus he was a fixture in the MPT crowd. His results at big tournaments were often reported in the MPT newsletter, as he seemed to have a knack of taking down big 5-figure wins on a regular basis, both online and in live tourneys. In this past WSOP alone, I heard he won three seats into the main event.
Life is short, fellow poker players. Winning is important, but so is living. Get out there and have a life. Tell your loved ones you love them, laugh with your friends, do the things that make you happy.... and then come back to the poker tables and hit 'em for all they're worth.
All-in for now...
-Bug
I think if you look at what Harrington says about 6 vs full ring, he says that it is harder to move from full ring to 6 max than it is from 6 max to full ring, thus you are better off learing 6 max play 1st.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that it is easier to lose faster in 6 max and until his book have generally not done well with 6 max. What I think may help the beginner is his basic stuff in the 1st section and the range of starting hands he suggest you can open with. If you start out that tight you're not as likely to lose your shirt.
Anyway, my 1st 6 max attemps in both cash & rush I came out on the plus side. Looking forward to the rest of his book.