The Swinging Ways of 6-Max

I think I'm finally starting to get a feel for why people say there is so much variance involved in 6-max. For about the past week I've been hitting the 2/4 6-max tables on Party as I try to start getting back into the swing of limit cash games. For most of that time I've been running pretty badly overall. As evidence I offer the fact that I'm losing with QQ, breaking even with TT and I've made a grand total of 4 flushes which I've taken to the river. A good example would be a hand I had tonight when the CO raised and I 3-bet from the small blind with AhTh. The flop came AxKh6h and I bet out, the BB called, the CO raised and I 3-bet figuring I had pretty good equity. The turn was a blank and I bet out and the CO called. Then, the river was an offsuit 6, missing my draw for me, but making my top pair with a T kicker now 2 pair with a K kicker and I figure I'm splitting a decent percentage of the time here. Of course not, the CO had KK. All those outs, and I hit nothing and still manage to pay it off big. Then there was the hand when my KK got called down to the river by AK, who hit an A on the river to beat me; and the hand where I raised with KK and got called by exactly no players winning me a whopping $3 in blinds. I could go on and on, but you get the picture. In fact, I went to the casino this weekend and couldn't even win in an incredibly juicy 3/6 game (I walked away stuck 3 BB).

All that said, I planned to play 200 hands tonight and with just a few to go I hit a mini-rush on both my tables. I closed out at 205 hands on the night and looked at the cashier to find that I was up almost $100 on the night. This after being stuck as much as $75 early on. Like I said, I'm really starting to get just how swingy this 6-max game can be. I've now played 827 hands, a total drop in the bucket, and almost solely on the back of tonights' mini-rush at the end I'm now at 2.99BB/100. I still have to play about 100k more hands to prove anything, but I think I can finally say that I'm starting to really believe that I can beat this game.

In other news, I actually am still running pretty poorly overall. I played a $20+2 on FCP tonight with about 130 players and only the Final Table getting paid. I started out down, but then won a race with 99 against AJ and starting aggressively building my chips until I was up to almost 4k. Then, I got about 1200 of my stack in against a shortstack when I called a small raise with 8h7h and the flop came 5h6hJd. He had A7o and the turn and river were both blanks. Chalk up another 18-outer that I can't hit. Then, a few hands later I ended up in a set over set situation when I flopped my TT ran up against JJ and AA on a board of JTx. Of course, I was running 3rd in a 3-horse race pre-flop on that one, but set over set still blows balls.

I've gone on long enough though. I'm glad that I'm finally starting to get back into the swing of playing poker. I'm also working on looking into a job as a dealer. I hear the big casino hear is opening a poker room and I plan to try my best to get a job there.