Stratégie Poker Cash Game
This is because 9 person and 10 person poker games are still very popular both online and in the casinos. And the core principles to beat these games are really quite easy. The best full ring poker strategy is to. Cash games are the pinnacle to making consistent money in poker. Tournaments may offer the opportunity for a big win, but they are going to deliver paydays on very rare occasions. With cash games. Live cash game poker strategy. Obviously, live games are a bit different, and you need to adjust your strategy to get better results. I already covered many Texas Hold’em tips and how to crush live poker home games in this article, but want to highlight the most important live cash game poker. A home poker tournament is different from a cash game. In a cash game players buy in for different amounts of money, and are given chips based on the amount they've chosen. Poker is a popular card game that combines elements of chance and strategy. There are various styles of poker, all of which share an objective of presenting the least probable or highest-scoring hand.
Many people struggle to break through in a big way in small stakes cash games. Perhaps they squeak by with break-even results or they even become minor winners. But most people want to win big. Indeed, for many that is the primary reason for playing the game.
The key to accomplishing that goal is to learn how to exploit the small edges most other people do not know about or do not apply often enough. In this article I am going to discuss five simple strategy tips that will help increase your profit margins in low stakes cash games.
1. Steal the Blinds
Most people think they do a good job of stealing the blinds, but many still pass up a lot of golden opportunities to do so. It is simply a fact that the button and the cutoff will be by far the most profitable seats for you at the poker table. Why on earth, then, would you not exploit the heck out of this when it is folded to you in these positions?
In my opinion, you can easily get away with stealing the blinds with 30% or even 40% of your hands in your typically passive low stakes cash games, live or online. Most opponents will simply let you take it down, only three-betting you if they happen to have a strong hand. Or even better, they will flat your steal attempt from out of position and then you can take down an even bigger pot with a simple continuation bet on the flop and/or turn.
The bottom line is that stealing the blinds is a highly effective way to increase your profit in small stakes cash games. Make sure that you are raising with anything that is even remotely playable.
2. Double-Barrel
Another effective strategy in passive low stakes cash games is to continuation bet the flop and then follow it up again on the turn. This is also referred to as a “double-barrel.”
The reason why this strategy is so effective is because many people at these stakes play no-limit cash games as if they were fixed-limit games. That is, they will call you on the flop but if you can follow it up on the turn with another bet, then they will assume that you are serious and let you have the pot.
This is a very effective strategy to use in particular against weak-tight opponents who won’t call you down with weak pairs or draws. Some players will even fold a small overpair if you continue to apply the pressure like this! Target these players more often by making another continuation bet on the turn.
3. Three-Bet Light
One of my favorite strategies against these same weak-tight opponents is to three-bet them light before the flop. By three-bet light I mean rereaise their open raise with a bunch of hands that aren’t quite premium — e.g., suited connectors, suited aces, and small pairs. I never do it with total junk. I always want to have some equity.
I will also do it more often when I am in position. This allows me to control the pace of the hand should they decide to call. This also allows me to get more value bets in if I manage to hit the board or to bluff if I feel like they aren’t confident about their hand.
4. Bluff the River
Once again the target here are the weak-tight opponents you see everywhere these days in small stakes cash games, especially online. Many of the players in this category do not like to go to showdown without a strong hand.
If you’re online and using a HUD, the WTSD% or “Went to Showdown” stat is crucial here. If an opponent is in the low 20s or less, then that is exactly the kind of player I want to be bluffing against more on the river.
It is important not to do it every time, though, and it is also important to make sure that your line makes some sense before firing that river bluff. By this I mean that given your previous actions in the hand, you want to find spots in which you could easily show up with several good made hands as well.
The river is often a spot where there is some big value to be made. Don’t just give up on the pot if you are against one of these nitty types who you think might fold. If you know that you cannot win at showdown, then sometimes you have very little to lose and everything to gain by making a bet.
5. Raise With Your Draws
One final way to open up your game and exploit the tendencies of weak opponents in particular is to play your draws fast. I mean significant draws such open-ended straight draws (8 outs), flush draws (9 outs), and everything better.
You already have plenty of equity with these hands, so it is a great strategy to play them like they are the nuts a little more often. One of my favorite ways to do this is simply to raise the flop and then bet any turn. This line puts a tremendous amount of pressure on opponents and really forces them to have a real hand in order to continue.
Once again, I will be targeting the weak-tight players with this play, a consideration that goes for pretty much every other strategy discussed in this article as well. There are still plenty of calling stations at the lower stakes and it is not a good idea to start bluffing up a storm against them.
Final Thoughts
The difference between the biggest winners and everybody else at any limit often boils down to how effectively the winning players exploit the smaller edges. And really what this means is taking down the smaller pots over which nobody else truly wants to fight.
Most players know how to play pocket aces before the flop or how to proceed after flopping a set. And everybody gets dealt these big hands in equal frequencies in the long run.
What the biggest winners do better than everybody else is win more than their fair share of the pots with their mediocre or even total junk hands. They do this by applying pressure in some of the key spots listed in this article.
Nathan “BlackRain79” Williams is the author of the popular micro stakes strategy books, Crushing the Microstakes and Modern Small Stakes. He also blogs regularly about all things related to the micros over at www.blackrain79.com.
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Many no-limit players like to keep the preflop betting small, see a flop, and go from there. They’ll limp into pots with hands like A-K offsuit, 8-7 suited, 6-6, and so on.
I take nearly the opposite strategy, especially in cash games with relatively deep stacks. I raise every single pot I play (except from the blinds), and I reraise preflop frequently both in and out of position. I do this because I believe that there are huge edges to gain every time the preflop pot is big enough to put stacks in play.
In Las Vegas, most rooms allow a $1,000 buy-in to a $2-$5 game and a $3,000 buy-in to a $5-$10 game. Furthermore, many players — not just the professionals — buy in for these amounts.
On the overwhelming majority of hands, however, the deep part of the stacks never sniffs the pot. For example, five people limp in a $2-$5 game. Someone bets $15 on the flop and $40 on the turn. The last $500-plus in everyone’s stack is simply not in play.
Even in single-raised pots, most of this money never sees action. It’s raised to $20 and called in three places. Someone bets $55 on the flop and $120 on the turn. Even a bet and raise on the river usually won’t get the last few hundred into the pot — and that itself is a very rare occurrence.
As a result, the typical $2-$5 and, to a lesser extent, $5-$10 player is completely unused to navigating pots where these deep stacks are fully in play.
At $2-$5, my experience is that most players simply fold too much in the big pots. From a theoretical perspective, a $400 all-in bet into a roughly $1,200 pot should get called in an average situation roughly 75 percent of the time. Only at this frequency does bluffing with all of your hands become a break-even proposition. If your opponent folds at all more frequently, it is right to shove that $400 with any hand that has no reasonable shot to win a showdown.
In practice, a $400 all-in river shove is called nowhere near 75 percent of the time in these games. In fact, it often feels nearly impossible to get these final bets paid when you actually have the nuts. This makes me extremely inclined to shove the river even when I have a little bit of showdown value. If I can get a fold even half the time, I’d much rather go for it than permit a showdown I might win only 10 or 15 percent of the time.
Because I think the typical player misplays them so badly, I build my strategy early in hands to create these big pot river situations. Preflop, I will reraise light with suited hands like A-4 suited and 8-6 suited, even if I don’t think I have a great chance to pick up the pot immediately. I’m happy to build the pot early to put stacks in play with a hand that will sometimes allow me to bluff the turn with equity.
In general, players at this level will misplay the flop and turn in reraised pots as well. It’s almost like they know they will badly butcher the river, so they play to avoid the big river situation. Here are a few typical deep-stacked hands that exploit my opponents’ tendencies to play it too safe in big pots.
A player opens for $20 with $1,000 stacks from three off the button. The button calls. You reraise to $85 from the big blind (BB) with A 4. The opener calls, and the button folds. There’s $192 in the pot and $915 behind.
The flop comes K 6 5, giving you a backdoor-flush draw, a backdoor straight draw, and an overcard.
You check, and your opponent bets $90. You call. There’s $372 in the pot and $825 behind.
The turn is the J. You check, and your opponent checks.
The river is the 5. You bet $280, and despite the fact that you’ve bet a good bit less than the pot, you can expect your opponent to fold well more than half the time.
Often your opponent won’t even take the hand this far. After you check the flop, he’ll check it back and just fold to a turn bet. Or, if he calls the turn bet, he’ll fold when you bet nearly pot on the river.
Here’s another hand type I play commonly. A player opens for $20 from two off the button, and next to act you make it $60 with 6 5. The blinds fold, and the preflop raiser calls. There’s $127 in the pot and $940 behind.
Strategie Di Poker Cash Game
The flop comes A 7 5, giving you bottom pair and backdoor-flush and straight draws. The original player donk bets $75. You raise to $175.
This raise ends the hand very frequently. Sometimes the player has a hand like A-J and will call the flop raise. Without improvement, however, he’s nearly always willing to fold after a turn bet and river shove. Furthermore, your hand has significant equity against a hand as strong as A-K.
If the flop donk bet is even smaller — say $55 — generally the read will be even more solid. I would be positively shocked in a typical Las Vegas $2-$5 game to see a player donk bet less than half-pot into a preflop reraiser and then, without improvement, call down a raise and turn and river barrels.
Final Thoughts
Best Online Poker Strategy
At the $2-$5 and often also at the $5-$10 level, many players who buy in deep tend to get lost in pots that put the stacks in play. Usually these players — if they are willing to stack off — will attempt to force the action at some point by raising or check-raising. If your opponent has dropped off into check/call mode, there’s an excellent chance you’ll eventually get a fold if you keep betting.
This is particularly true if an opponent has tested the waters at some point by betting into you for a relatively small amount. Take the A 7 5 flop from above. When the opponent donk bets $55 into $127 on the flop, he usually is thinking one of two things if you raise — you have him beat, or he’s tricked you into giving him action. If it’s the latter, you’ll typically see either a reraise on the flop or a turn check-raise. It would be uncommon for this player to be satisfied check/calling down.
Small Stakes Poker Cash Games
If it’s the former, he’ll bloat the pot a little and then fold. That’s how it usually goes.
If you want to make the most in deep cash games, look to put stacks in play early in hands by reraising preflop or raising the flop while the outcome is in flux. Then use your opponent’s bet sizings, reactions, and the turn and river cards to decide whether your opponent is likely to play for stacks or not. If not, unleash the bluffs. ♠
Poker Cash Games Strategie
Ed’s newest book, Poker’s 1%: The One Big Secret That Keeps Elite Players On Top is available now at his website edmillerpoker.com. You can also find original articles and instructional videos by Ed at the brand new site redchipoker.com.