6-Max

I don't know exactly why but I always seem to do it. Things will be rolling along quite nicely at the tables and then I'll suddenly have the need to become a playmaster in order to squeeze the maximum value out of my hourly. I'll start by changing the winning formula from a tight-aggressive approach to a cold-4betting happy, 3bet-isoing aggro superstar. Of course, my hourly does not increase as I evidently learn that while I may try to rep the nuts, they actually have it. I either do that or I try a different game (see PLO experiment from the past).

This time, I'm trying a different game again :) Over the past few days I've been playing a bunch of zoom 6-max. I've dabbled in 6-max before of course but have never really focused on it 100%. The reason why 6-max is appealing to me is because it's a much more realistic approach to get SNE. You earn much more VPPs at 6max relative to full-ring at comparable stakes and I also think that the ceiling for stakes/profit is higher at 6max. Zoom 500nl runs all of the time and there seems to be much more higher-stakes 6max games running than full-ring. Not that my sights are set on those tables but it's always nice to have something to chase.

Anyways, all of this info isn't exactly new to me and I didn't just have some sort of epiphany but for whatever reason, I now have a craving to learn and play 6-max :/ I do think that it's important to play something that you enjoy playing, especially when you're mass grinding for something like SNE, in order to stay engaged and motivated toward your goals. The full-ring grind is great and even though winning at any game isn't easy, I've been able to consistently win there for 4 years and know it will be there for me if and when I fail at 6-max.

I do think that if I'm going to attempt to increase my daily VPPS, I might as well do it early rather than before it's too late. I'm a big advocate of working hard but also smart. That said, I could easily be back at the full-ring tables as early as tomorrow ;). I'm not sure exactly how much time and money I want to invest into this little experiment as it's gone pretty poorly so far. Obviously I've got a lot of work to do to become a better player but I think that I've been making strides and getting a bit better everyday. I'm down about 13 buy-ins but ten of that is EV so I think that my play has been almost good enough to breakeven but I also am not going to wait a long time to find out. It's a bit unfortunate that this will be cutting into my monthly profit but that's just taking the short-term into consideration and the potential payoff of beating 6-max could be big later on in the year. I would imagine that if I hit a loss of 20 buy-ins that I'd probably frustrated enough to go back to full-ring, at least for now. Hence my statement that I could "be back at the full-ring tables as early as tomorrow ;)."

My ankle is feeling much better since the fracture about a month ago but I still can't really do much. I've abandoned the crutches for the most part and haven't taken any Tylenol in weeks but the ankle is still pretty weak and I've been trying to keep my weight off it for the most part. I have an appointment coming up in about a week to see that it's healed properly and then I can start doing some rehab on it...I can't wait to be able to exercise again and get back out on the ice.

I managed to get downtown on the weekend for my uncle's 50th birthday dinner at the Shangri La in Vancouver. It's not the usual spot for our family gatherings (very luxurious) but we had an amazing 5-course dinner and I actually ended up having 7 because my girlfriend didn't like a couple of the seafood plates :D I had a bunch of wine too, which ended up spoiling my plans of waking up at 4am to watch the Canada-Sweden gold medal hockey game. My alarm went off and I knew it wasn't going to happen but I did get up to watch the replay at 10:30am and didn't check any social media so I didn't know the result. It was awesome to watch Canada win gold again even though the game was pretty uneventful as the Swedes were outmatched in pretty much every way.

Alright, I'm off to bed. My friend Ben is in town for a job interview and is crashing on my futon tonight so I'll probably start the day tomorrow going for a coffee (somewhere close enough to hobble) and breaky and then get back on the felt. Just a few more days until the monthly review, which I have not checked but am no longer thrilled about to say the least. Talk soon,

gl at the tables!