Poker Article

Strategy tips for playing cash games

Cash games require different skills than poker tournaments. In this poker article we will teach you some of the required skills for cash games.

Important Basics
Stack sizes. The biggest difference between cash games and tournaments is the stack sizes. While at a tournament you are often playing with a stack of around 20 big blinds, a cash game is most often played with a stack of 50 to a 100 big blinds. In a tournament most of the decisions are made pre flop and on the flop. When you have such a 'deep' stack in a cash game, you will be faced with a lot more decisions on the turn and the river. More chips in front of you means you can make bigger mistakes. While its almost never a big mistake in a tournament to move all-in on the flop when you have two aces, this can be a big mistake when you have 100 big blinds or more in your stack. In fact, you should be looking to bust the players at the table who are making these kinds of mistakes. Wait for your opponents to make big mistakes. Have a lot of patience and wait for your opponents to make big mistakes. This means playing more suited connectors and small pairs and try to flop big. If you can get them to push their whole stack in with an overpair on the flop, you can take all their chips when you make two pair, a set or even a straight. This also means you should be playing your big pairs a lot more carefull. Make a big bet on the flop, but be carefull when you get reraised or even when your opponent flat calls you, you should be proceeding very carefully. Play your position. In a cash game, position is even more important. Because there are more decisions on the turn and river, you want to be in position when making most of these decisions. Do not call raises with speculative hands (small suited connectors and such) when you are out of position. On the other hand when you are on the button with a raise and a call in front of you it is a great time to call with your 5h6h and try to stack a player who makes a big mistake on the flop or the turn.

Example hands : You are sitting at a $1/$2 cash table with $200 in front of you. Most of the players at the table have around the same stack size. You are under the gun, look down at AhAs and open the pot for a standard raise to $6. The button and the big blind both call. The flop looks pretty good for your aces, 2s8c9h but with the possible draws this would not be a good time to slow play the hand. You bet out for $12, a little more than half the pot. The button now raises to $30, a very small raise to which the big blind folds. What hands could your opponent raise here ? You have shown a lot of strength so far, he is not likely to be bluffing. If he had an overpair, he would have reraised you pre flop, so you don't put him on JJ/QQ/KK/AA. He could have a straight draw with 67 or 10J, but why would he raise so small? He is obviously not trying to get you to fold. It is actually very likely that your opponent has called with a small pair and made a set here with pocket 2's, 8's or 9's. This is a very tough decision, especially since you are out of position for the entire hand. Your options are to raise him to about $75, but what if he pushes all-in? In that case your aces are not likely to be good but you have so much invested into the pot already, you may have to call anyway. If you just call and try to re-evaluate on the turn, what are you going to do? You are out of position against your opponent so if the turn comes a blank, you check and he bets $50... Now what? Even though you may think you still have the best hand, it's probably best to fold and wait for a better spot. You should be the one trying to make a set and stack a player, not be the one that gets stacked. You are sitting at a $1/$2 cash table with $200 in front of you. Most of the players at the table have around the same stack size. A player under the gun raises to $6 and you look down at 8s8h. You decide to just flat call the raise and try to make a set. You are in position with a good hand against a player who has raised from early position (representing a big hand), if you flop a set you are likely to get paid off. The big blind also calls and the flop comes 2s8c9h, making you a set of 8's. The under the gun player bets out $12 and you value raise to $30 thinking he cannot possibly fold for such a small raise. The big blind folds and the under the gun player thinks for a long time before pushing his whole stack in (another $180 or 90 big blinds). You instantly call with your set and get a nice grin on your face when he shows you AhAs. He can only improve his hand with another ace, so you are a huge favorite to win the hand. The turn and river do not bring him an ace and yo u rake in a huge pot.