Nearly all poker players that come into the game do so with the intention of playing a maximum stack. Yet a very high percentage of them who do so never get to be able to play a deep stack properly. They end up bluffing away their entire stacks needlessly and they do not maximise their stack size when they should do. The implied odds in online poker these days are nowhere near what they used to be. There are several reasons for this and it is because the regs are better in areas like full ring but especially in six max.
Six max games was where the really good players concentrated a few years ago (and still do) because there was a greater ratio of fish to regs. The theory in six max is to isolate weak players and this means carefully selecting the proper seats and the proper strategy when you have such a seat. Also players with less than full stacks and minimum stack regs hurt a strong deep stacked players implied odds too.
So this leaves us in a situation where playing a minimum stack yourself is not only more viable for the majority of players but it is also a simpler way to play poker as well. It effectively reduces the game to only one or two streets and this takes away most of the complexity from the game. But playing a simpler strategy also means that you can play far more tables as well because your decisions do not require complex thought.
So a player who was deep stacking and making 10BB/100 at NL100 and playing six tables and seeing 70 hands per table per hour would be making 42BB/hour. But a minimum stacked player who was only making say 5BB/100 and playing ten tables would be making 35BB/hour. This is staggering when you think that one strategy requires a very high degree of skill while the other is very simple and yet the earn rates are very similar.
