How to win at cash game poker

Or set a stop-loss limit to help you avoid losing even more money. These safeguards will help minimise your losses and play more A-game poker. It will solidify how the negative impact of that weakness tiling is affecting your win rate. Ultimately, knowing your weaknesses can help you to correct them and enhance your game dramatically. The winners in poker make their decisions with sound reason and well-thought logic.

Losing players especially those who are prone to tilt often make quick, brash decisions. These thoughts come from a place of desperation or emotion. Chronic poker gamblers, for example, will all too frequently call down when chasing a draw.

They may not even have the right pot odds - simply with the feeble hopes of hitting - one time! They wishfully dream about winning a big pot as a result. Injecting logic into the situation, solid players will realise if they are getting the right price to call. They will proceed to play in a profitably from there.

Say you use logic in poker and still lose. Contrast this with players who play emotionally. They are not thinking their decisions through, well enough. To play optimally, you should be paying as much attention as you can to your game s in progress. For live players, this tip is especially critical.

You may only play post-flop with of these hands every hour. These three tips will allow you to pick up as much information as possible on your opponent.

You can then use this info to profit from them even more! At almost all stakes except maybe the highest stakes , players will have certain tendencies that can be exploited. If possible, figure out what your opponents are doing poorly, so that you can win the most from them this way. If a passive opponent only calls with his draws, but then raises you in a hand, it might be time to find a fold with your overpairs.

If you take anything away from this list, always remember to find games that have weaker players. Make a list of your most frequent mistakes e. This will prime your mind to focus on those specific areas, which will help you avoid those specific mistakes. Over time, those leaks will go away using this process. But the game is complex, so there will always be something to work on. Make sure your warm-up routine stays updated. For some professional insight on how to warm up for a session, check out our 3-Step Poker Warm-Up Routine.

No one likes being a loser, especially when you have bills to pay. You may as well handle them the right way. A session Doug played against Ben Sulsky on September 29th, This can become especially tricky in cash games, where you can leave at any time. If you always chase your losses, you will play some long and frustrating sessions that end with an unnecessarily big red number. Doug Polk has 3 questions that he asks himself in these situations. Try asking these to yourself next time you find yourself stuck in a cash game:.

Every time you see a player limping you should see an opportunity to take their stack—or at least a big chunk of it—in a rather short span of time. Since most limpers are weak players, you will want to isolate them by raising over their limp with a wider range of hands. Forcing a limper to call your raise preflop, out of position, and with their weak range, is one of the most profitable situations in poker.

As far as sizing goes, find the perfect size to put the weakest hands in their range in the toughest possible spot. The general rule of thumb is your standard raise size plus one big blind for every limper. So, if you usually raise to 3 big blinds and there is one limper, you should raise to 4 big blinds.

For more, check out this detailed guide on how to destroy limpers. In preparation for this post, I reached out to both Doug Polk and Ryan Fee to ask for their most valuable piece of general cash game advice. When playing in cash games, the single most important thing is to be playing on an amount of money you are OK losing.

In this level it is very important to know who the players are and who the fish are because the skill range is so varied. If you are a good player you can play the player but you need to have the cards to back it up. Poker is about winning money. Your article is very good. Those who think it is not, will not be long term winners. I read and studied this strategy and i have to say i went to the casino the next week and left with a huge profit.

Its true just bet and wait for good hands and have patience, and of course position, position, position. Thanks for the awesome comment! All really good stuff and so good to hear it from your personal experience. GL at the tables! I flopped a flush draw, called a small raise from the raiser, who only had a pot sized bet remaining. The next card paired me and gave me a gut shot to boot.

He raised again, I reraised and got him pot committed. Made the straight to his overpair with one of my 14 outs. If he had bought in proper and 3 bet me hard or all in for like 2 or 3 hundred I would have had to fold.

This rule also means buying back in if you get low on chips. Add another or so to your stack and get back in the hunt or pack it up and go home with enough for a tank of gas. If they call and they usually do , then they probably are not getting proper odds to chase and you are more often than not going to get paid.

If they fold then your table image goes up. The flop hits me with a rainbow broadway which I check off. An early raise, a late position short stack goes all in, and I just call the all in as does the raiser. The next card is a blank and I raise big. The remaining hand calls. The next card is another blank, I bet again but not too big to scare him off. He calls and I show the nuts while he shows two pair. The huge bet on the turm was too tempting for him even though the 10 J Q was on the board and my bets are clearly repping a straight.

He was not getting proper odds to call to see the river to make the boat but called anyway. The all in also flopped the str8 but on the small end of it. I have many stories like this where I check-raise some absurd amount but they call anyway only to feel committed on the river and then to find out at showdown that they were chasing a two-outer the whole time.

Just bet big especially when you trap them and the fish will call. Buying the button is a bargain for the position it offers and I will if I take a break and the blinds have passed me, but at a new table waiting for the big blind lets you observe the table for a few hands.

With 10 seats and only 2 blinds you are more likely to sit outside the blinds when you arrive at the table. Wait for them. You can pick up a lot of info on the table by watching a few hands, especially when the table is soft.

If I sit down and each of the 6 hands I see goes with maybe one raise and a bunch of limpers otherwise then I probably sat at the right table. A table full of nits all the way around will make for a slow night and cautious play.

Tipping the wait staff properly and politely ensures that they will help to keep you comfortable. Being comfy lets me focus on the math and reads on the table. Again, these things make me play better so I try to create the environment that I play best in. If it puts people on tilt listening to me call out their hands at show down, or comment on their game or talk about whatever sport is on Tv then the better is for me.

Create your optimal table environment. I recall a guy once sat down at our table and tried to be a bully. I got in to a hand with him early on and bluffed him off a pot. I made sure to show the bluff.

He acted like it was all good but it just got him boiling. He went through a grand in 60 minutes and every other player at the table got paid off. He only got action when someone had him beat and he wondered out loud a few times about how shitty his luck was that night.

And it all started with an exposed bluff, along with some trash talking. But that environment didnt just help me grow my stack but everyone else too. A tuesday afternoon will be full of grinders, building their stacks off their initial buy-ins so they can bully and rape the few fish that trickle in on the weekday evenings. As long as your poker room is big enough there will be enough fish to go around, just make sure you know who are fish and who are making a living at your table.

The tables I play at are a little differnt its no limit but the min is and the max is People play so loose there ive been getting pretty frustrated, about a weak ago i raised preflop 80 with AK and had 2 callers A-3 and k-9 and lost when flop came k off suit and a river a 5. This is an excellent article. I only played online for fun at either Pokerstars or Full Tilt. Everything this author said is absolutely correct. And I was just really going to have fun!!

Love it!! Online however is a different story as you will find much better players even at this limit. GL and may your hands hold up against those 2 outters! See I have a bit of a dalima.. Where I live the casinos have just opened and the poker room is nice small but nice having 16 tables. So I think that my situation is different. Talk all the trash about this and that, thinking your the best player in the world I love all of you out there that think they are something special.

Poker is a game of situations no matter what your bankroll is. I see many people criticising this article…. As a beginer i think this article is great,it acctualy makes you a bit better and after you figure this on your own skin then you might be able to improvise something….

Really enjoy reading your articles. Drop me a line sometime and we can catch up. Fish always believe that they have all of the answers. What a bunch of tools you are. This is a solid winning strategy vs very unskilled players. Just pay attention so you know when and on whome to make your moves. It works well for me. Low limit cash games are all about getting maximum value, not trying to out play the fish. I have seen very loose agressive players do well in these games too but they tend to have wild swings.

Be nice when they river a mirical. Well, all I have to say is….. If the players are truly bad, there is more than one way to beat them. I do however realize that there is rarely ever just a full ring of donkeys. I mean, you do have to occasionally just throw a wrench in now and again to be deceptive. I just try to keep an eye out for my relative position to each player and adjust accordingly. I will open up my range if the better players are out of the way or sometimes I will call with hands that I know are beaten or raise preflop to isolate certain players.

I think one should always be limber as to the particular situation. One example I got two As in hand flop comes up A K K, I checked as I sometimes do, one of the fish went all in on A 5 in hand and another went in with K 10, needless to say I took 5x tourney chip lead over 2nd with 30 left on tables.

All in all, I think the author has very good advice for most players. But you have to remember, no matter how tight you or loose you play, this game still has a cretin amount of luck involved. But you have to remember, no matter how tight you or loose you play, this game still has a certain amount of luck involved. Very good piece. The whole concept is making your post-flop decisions almost automatic. Silly post. Using post-flop skills against a fish who has no clue what you are trying to do is futile.

If your post-flop skill is good enough to know when your outkicked, try not getting involved. So if your only loosening up in position and a good position only comes around 3 times per revolution, how loose are you?

Sounds a bit contradictory to me. What sums it all up is this. Everyone has an opinion. Exactly what did that accompolish? A pride boost. Nothing more, nothing less. I have also found slow playing an effective tactic with the players at this level.

Like the article said, you want to make your post-flop decision easier, against level 1, level 2 players, you can play more hands against them because their range is a little easier to establish…. I agree that there a lot of fish at the table who just have no idea what there doing. These guys make so many mistakes on the flop that you have to take advantage.

From time to time i can see you losing a pot when you think you got it but, this is where the skill comes in. You need to be able to get away from a hand when you just limped in for 2 dollar. Dont be going broke in a limped pot.

They play too many hands, call to much, and bet poorly. If you play tight you can value bet them to the poor house. It is easier to bluff a good player than a bad player. This is because good players think about odds, their cards, your cards, previous play, etc.

Bad players do not. They only think about their cards, and the pile of money. Thats not the guy I want on the other end of my bluff. Once your game evolves and you can classify good and bad players and their styles, you can practice playing them differently. If you plan on moving up in stakes then you will need this skill. Mike Caro plays even tighter than this. This article is spot on for the most part.

Most of the players at this level are unobservant and play their cards and not the situation. You need to value bet against them relentlessly. Once you have observed these players for a while and find their tendencies, you can loosen up a bit, but a TAG style usually works best. This is a very good article. Playing only premium hands in low blind games will make money consistently, if you can stand the boredom and resist the temptation to jump in to get what looks like easy money by playing loose, if you do then YOU become the fish.

That is where you really make money by getting max value out of winners and cut losses. In a game you can call into every unraised preflop pot and do ok if you get max value when you hit and know when to get out of beaten weaker hands. This is a good article for beginners. You should not play with marginal hands, even when in good position, specially if you are a beginner. However, and this might just be an unvoluntary omission, you should play some marginal hands to mix your game and not become predictable.

Nice article. I get in trouble when I start stealing blinds, and bluffing the wrong opponents. Yea, or this author was writing an article for beginners who may not know what the best strategy is. I play tight against fish, loosen up in position, and play loose-aggressive against the better players at the table.

Why play just one nitty, tight, boring style? Sign up to our newsletter! Visit Site. Newsletter X Subscribe to our newsletter Do not miss out on special tournaments and offers we do with our partners.

I confirm I am over the age of 18 years old. Recent Poker News. January 12, 3 minutes to read. Jan 26th: Hellmuth vs. January 11, 2 minutes to read. Ali Imsirovic wins 15th Highroller tournament within 12 months In Las Vegas, the high roller tournaments of the PokerGO Tour are beginning to resemble the groundhog day. January 10, 1 minutes to read.

Justin Roth. Scott Armand Louis Roksa. You are not going to win all the time maybe you are just a bad player. If you really want to become a long term winning player… You must play for BIG pots. Capitalize on it Try yourself to 3-bet near the button with suited one gapers or something similar, your going to get respect, they will fear your C-bet almost everytime. Im going to share a tip with all of you. I cant use the auto top off feature like how i can online i assume we cant And also we will be stucked with only one tables, and the games are much much slower.

So, what are the steps one should take if they were to make the switch? Please advise, Looking forward. Steve, how can I take you up on your offer? Wow, this article, while primarily accurate, has led to a lot of inaccurate comments. Wow… this guy is loose. My favourite hand is AA by the way. Good luck at the tables ladies and gents!

SMH: I think calling this article horrible is a little overboard. Play in Position and Play tight. Solly Thanks for the awesome comment! People play so loose there ive been getting pretty frustrated, about a weak ago i raised preflop 80 with AK and had 2 callers A-3 and k-9 and lost when flop came k off suit and a river a 5 i have trouble isolating people cause people are calling 20 dollors raises with nothing and i have 5 callers into a pot, how the heck can you put 5 players on a hand its tough.

Good Luck guys and stop listening to the haters on this thread!! Peace out!! You will quickly have many hands-on most regulars in your cash games, while it can take years to gather similar database for tournaments players.

Moreover, in MTTs your opponents will be playing different strategies with different stack depth so you will need millions of hands in your database to draw any conclusions. Therefore, if you are ready to put in some work in learning online poker cash games, you will be able to improve and move up the stakes much faster because you will have way more information at your fingertips.

Cash games have much less variance compared to MTTs thus you can get away with smaller poker bankroll. Obviously, if you are a professional player that is not a big issue for you, but if you are just starting out, it is very important because you will need less money at the beginning. However, the biggest benefit comes from smaller swings. It helps you ensure stable income without long losing stretches, which will make whole online poker experience more pleasant and boost your motivation to play.

These Texas Holdem tips are just a guideline helping you identify advantages of learning live or online poker cash game strategy and sticking with this format.

However, other formats have their benefits as well, and you should choose based on your goals. No matter which game you will play, make sure to learn it in a structured way to ensure long-term success. Online poker cash game strategy It is not a surprise that online cash games are the hardest form of poker.

Get the necessary tools Getting the best poker tools and software can turn breaking even player into a winner. Learn to balance your ranges Online cash games are quite tough, and the only way to combat strong players is to learn how to balance your ranges.

Attack weak players Most recreational players in online poker cash games are passive, so after identifying weaker ones, you have to adjust your strategy to exploit them. Do not be afraid to bluff Just like in poker tournaments , in cash games players bluff way less than they should — do not be one of them. Learn when to quit Learning when and how to quit your poker session is an essential part of any successful online poker cash games strategy.

Live cash game poker strategy Obviously, live games are a bit different, and you need to adjust your strategy to get better results. Play more hands from late positions It is not a surprise that live cash games are way more passive than online.

Isolate limpers If you play any reasonable stakes online, limping is basically non-existing. Adjust your strategy Most of the time, you will find at least a few weak players at the table who are just having fun and do not care much about the money. Use different bet sizing You should make some adjustments to bet sizing and choose healthier bets both preflop and postflop with your strong holdings. Take advantage of poker tells Lastly, poker tells plays a huge role in live poker cash games.

Avoid common mistakes You have much more room to make errors when playing online, and even without knowing it, you can make some of the mistakes.

Online poker cash games advantages Cash games have pros and cons like every other format. You can control your time One of the core online cash games advantages over tournaments is that you can control when you play and how long you stay at the tables. You have more options to improve In online poker cash games, you can quickly gather many hands in different spots and use that information to analyze your play using Holdem Manager 2 or Poker Tracker 4.

You need a smaller bankroll Cash games have much less variance compared to MTTs thus you can get away with smaller poker bankroll.