Cash Game Tips

[khicks26]

play tighter out of position. big hands and PP. play a wider range in position.
you can download pokerstove and use the top 20% of hands for this. heres the link PokerStove: Poker Software and Analysis.

[Upward_Trend]

Okay folks - here's a juicy question for you: (perhaps just some venting)

Last night I sit down and play 02/.05 nl; pretty innocent stuff I figure. I've been winning a few bucks here and a few bucks there per hour in the previous weeks play. BUT, this night I can't win. I take KK to the river with nothing on board and lose to AA. I take KKK to the river and lose to a straight (that was hit on the river) etc. etc. ect. while each time being fairly aggressive with my bets showing strength. In the end I lost about $15 over a period of 15 minutes with big hands but coming in 2nd.

Anyway, I guess I asked myself after the fact what I could have done differently and I couldn't come up with an answer. I had good hands and played each one well being beat out on the river 8 times out of every 10. So I didn't reload that table and moved on just to have the same thing happen over the next 10 minutes.

So I quit the money tables and went to a tourney - (I place 102 / 600 - or something like that - BIG start but then the cards fell apart).

Is there a question? hhhhmmmm.... how about "why is it some nights you simply get the chit kicked out of you regardless of your cards or tight play?"

[khicks26]

Originally Posted by Upward_Trend

Okay folks - here's a juicy question for you: (perhaps just some venting)

Last night I sit down and play 02/.05 nl; pretty innocent stuff I figure. I've been winning a few bucks here and a few bucks there per hour in the previous weeks play. BUT, this night I can't win. I take KK to the river with nothing on board and lose to AA. I take KKK to the river and lose to a straight (that was hit on the river) etc. etc. ect. while each time being fairly aggressive with my bets showing strength. In the end I lost about $15 over a period of 15 minutes with big hands but coming in 2nd.

Anyway, I guess I asked myself after the fact what I could have done differently and I couldn't come up with an answer. I had good hands and played each one well being beat out on the river 8 times out of every 10. So I didn't reload that table and moved on just to have the same thing happen over the next 10 minutes.

So I quit the money tables and went to a tourney - (I place 102 / 600 - or something like that - BIG start but then the cards fell apart).

Is there a question? hhhhmmmm.... how about "why is it some nights you simply get the chit kicked out of you regardless of your cards or tight play?"

thats just the way poker works sometime. you have good and bad swings like
that. as long as you get it in with the best hand, thats all you can do. as for KK vs AA thats just a cooler, and happens from time to time. we all have these swings, but things allways come back around to you. sometime it just takes longer. you were smart to leave the cash tables and play a tourny, just to change things up. good luck and may the variance be with you.

[Dodgey]

As above really. It happens. Only two things you can ask/do if you are constantly getting rivered are:

1) If I bet bigger, much bigger, would they have gone to the river? If the answer is yes, then only play the nuts or move to another table

2) Are you slow playing trips/KK? even modest-slow playing? - if the answer is yes then you have your answer. Kind of linked to point 1) really

For me the key is to regard your money as lost when you sit down, that way when you get unlucky you can shrug it off and reload. It happens and it sucks but we can't all win all of the time :-)

Personally I move back to SnGs / MTTs to "cool off"/"forget about it" - although I don't play ring much anyway.

[Upward_Trend]

the swing has swung, I'm winning again,

But I am so darned paranoid I am only playing .03 / .05 nl just to reestablish my frame of mind.

Winning 5 out of the last 5 sit downs on cash games and placing "just in the money" in 3 out of 5 MTT's. (careless "all-ins" on the other 2)

Just to share where I'm at:
**MTT's - I need to work on my middle game - I have no trouble making it there but then the big blinds and indecision (plus the careless "all inners") seem to work on my comfort level. I'm doubbling my buy in but since I play micro's it's more for the experience at this stage.
**Cash Games and MTT's - rather then rely on a program to tell me the chances of making a hand are or winning a hand based on what I was dealt I created a spreadsheet and am tracking "my" percentages as if I played every hand right throw to the river. WOW I tell ya - the results are very interesting. (high pairs definately rock Dogey).
**I am avoiding the large bets unless I am "certain" that I am a winner - "protecting my cash" so to speak - there's another hand right after that one as Dodgey said. (the biggy was throwing QQ on one occasion).

Other then that - I am having fun tracking my win lose percentages --
NOW FOR THE MIDDLE GAME WORK!!!!!

[Mist]

Originally Posted by Dodgey

Only two things you can ask/do if you are constantly getting rivered are:

1) If I bet bigger, much bigger, would they have gone to the river? If the answer is yes, then only play the nuts or move to another table

What you should be asking in this specifc situation is:

1. Am I giving Villain the right odds to call me and if he'd call would he be making a +EV move?

Just because people make -EV calls and get lucky doesn't mean that you in anyway should change your strategy and handselection. That's like throwing money down the drain.

In the long run you gain by their mistakes and make a profit of it.
A pokerplayer just has to accept the fact that variance is a bitch, really.

[Poker Orifice]

Originally Posted by Dodgey

I see your point (I referred to calling up to x5 , not betting, with a reasonable pocket pair) - it does contradict what I said somewhat, perhaps that's a leak in my game. One of the things I constantly do is call reasonable preflop raises with pocket pairs, purely on the hope of hitting trips. The immediate pot odds don't make sense, but it's the implied ones that do, as if you hit your trips you have almost certainly got plenty of action from the initial raiser. It's one of the circumstances I think I win most on.

I will 'set mine' quite often on the tables but am not going to do so if my opponent is short-stacked or doesn't have enough to make stacking him off worthwhile for me. For me to contemplate setmining..... I need my opponent to have a min. of 12x his opening bet in his stack to make it a +EV play (preferably 20x). Often in micro limit cash games you will see alot of the players sitting down at the table with the min. buy-in, hoping to play lottery-style with a quick double-up on a shove preflop, or stopngo play on flop. Not worth playing on the table if I see more than a couple of shortstacks.

There's alot to the cash game style of play.... much more than one first understands or sees. It's much different than tourney-style play.
There are some excellent reads online in regards to cash game play.. especially 6-max. GL!