Tips for live cash games ??

Anyone have any tips for me ? im about to go play my first live cash game... no limit 1 2 and im putting $200 down. ive already set up a seat and will be waiting for me.. im kinda excited but nervous aswell!!!

ask other people if they have played live a lot, if people havnt played much live, most have the same tell.

They act strong when weak and weak when strong

i like that one... so i should act weak when im weak and strong when im strong... i really am going to try to change strategies throughout the game.. in about 30-45 min intervals. like playing aggressive.. and then nott.... and so on.

Don't worry too uch the level of play at a normal live 1-2 game is generally just less than the penny tables online.

Biggest tip: whatever you want to raise preflop, double it (at least).

yes but this is the only legal table in my town... so lots of pretty good players play there cuz thats the only place they can play :P

Don't worry that much about physical tells. Just play rock tight. People play live for entertainment usually, and that means they want to entertain themselves. They do this by being loose, playing a lot of hands, and gambling.

So play your premium hands & play 'em hard. And don't be afraid to chat it up. Create a gambling atmosphere. Order some drinks, and generally have a good time. Don't go there with your sunglasses on, acting like some pro who is there to take their money. No one wants to play with that guy.

My favorite tell:

When the three cards are revealed on the flop do not look at the cards. Instead, watch the people's reactions to those cards as they are revealed. You can always look at the cards later, but you only have a second to see people's initial reaction to them.

If they stare at the cards, the cards probably didn't help them.
If the glance quickly back at their chips, the flop was good for them and they're going to bet.

But otherwise, at most live games you can just sit back and play premium hands and let people hurt themselves on your big hands. IE, play tight.

When you fold, stay focused on the hand. Watch other people and how they bet, look for patterns etc...

Don't hit on the hot waitress while you're in a hand. If you want to pick up chics, stand up and go to a bar.

standard 1/2 online raises are 6-8$ ... for live its much different, the standard raise is 10-14$ (pretty much doubled) and at a loser table ull see a lot of 15-17 raises preflop, and it doesnt even mean they have a good hand... theres a lot of players who play bad hands like K9 K10 Arag etc out of posistion, etc... so just know that going in, ull be able to spot the players who do that fairly quickly by how active they are at the table... good thing about these players is most of the time, unless they are a very very good LAG, they will have a hard time laying down TP, so u can make mad money by just playing tight then smoothing raises by these raisers with strong aces, or small pairs in hope to hit then hit them where it hurts, theyll pay u off. just remember in live games, like the guy said dont show up in sunglasses being a d bag, it might be appropriate in a 10k event to play that way, but for a regular 1/2 game 98% + of the players will not be paying attention to u, especially outside of a casino, easy money is to be made at live games, its the easiest money to be made in fact... a live 1/2 its not out of the question to end the night up 600 ++ on a really good night u can be up as much as 1,500-2,000... just play SMART, and ull be fine, whether ur tight or lose it dont matter, post flop play is where the money is to be made in live

Ummmm.... OK.

I haven't seen anything like giant raises preflop playing live, and that's pretty much what I have been doing the last two months. If anything, you get WAY more limpers preflop then you'll probably be used to.

And I have no idea what you said in the rest of the paragraph, my brain started to hurt just looking at it.

I can attest to seeing large raises like that preflop, and still being called. Depends on the table and your image honestly. I'm not a regular but when I play down in A.C. (Borgata and Taj) its better to be putting in larger raises b/c people like to gamble. You will honestly just have to observe and make a note of what works in raises and doesn't against your opponents.

Like you said this isn't a casino though and it is a local game. Just make sure no ones colluding and that it is a clean game; you should be fine.

Interesting thought but not quite accurate, I stare at the flop when I hit or have an over pair to the board, then assess draw possibilities before making a decision. As a 1st time live player, my advice is watch the player as they look at their hole cards when it's their turn to act post deal pre flop. If they are new to live play, they will be slightly embaressed by you watching them ( if they notice ) and may very well blush, you must not mistake this for them having a monster, if they blush watch their hands, trust me, they will shake if they have a monster. I once had a guy freak out when he hit top pr on the flop and I squeezed every $ out of him with a pkt overpair to the board in a B & M casino with no str8 or flush draw. The other thing to understand in local live games, their will be players there who think they know your financial status, ie. they will try to push you off a pot just because they think they are "better off" than you are, or you cannot afford to lose. When you reconize this type of player ( usually retired ) pound the backside off them, check reraise and all in them, because this type of player is also "smug", they know best, put the boots to them.

Well thanks for the tips guys and i sat down at the table for 6 hours and played only premium hands and others didnt quite clue in.. but still managed to lose $22 total.

i had played 3 hands in the first 2 hours. and 2 of them were me in the BB just limping in. and the other hand was a $200 pot where other player pushed all in on the flop with KK and i had 77 on a 4 5 6 rainbow flop. i spiked my 7 on the turn. it was a loose play but i liked my chances.

Later on i slow-played a set of 5's against top pair top kicker AJ. the guy was sitting just to the right of me and he says to me "didnt know you were that strong" i say "thats called slow playing" lol. he was chapped after that and that was the end of his day :P

i took my lunch break being up $320... playing super tight and was happy with my play and just planned on enjoying myself chatting it up only playing premium hands. but thats when i was getting dealt good hands but getting beat by hands just a bit better:P

lost $90 when a played pushed all-in on a 9 6 3 rainbow flop with 9 Q and he hit his 2 outer on the river to beat my 10 10.

lost $130 when i did a strong re-raise PF with A10 clubs on the button with about 6 limpers. one guy called and hit my flop which was 8 8 10. guy checks to me and i bet about half pot and he flat calls. A on the turn and then i try to slow play it so we both check the turn. river is a nothing 2 and he bets out $50. enough money on the pot for me so i just flat call. he ends up having a boat A8. loose play PF but he played it well after the flop.

i then threw away AKd on a 9 8 6 rainbow flop after i bet $25 on the flop and the guy re-raised me to $90. i had him on pockets or Ax and just didnt like my chances.

All in all it was fun, good experiance. wish i walked away when i was up $320 but was hard when i felt so good and continued to play tight and good. just some luck sucked. :P

if their eyes start to blink rapidly after seeing the flop. FOLD UNLESS U HAVE THE NUTS. If their heart starts beating really hard and you see their chest pulsating. FOLD UNLESS U HAVE THE NUTS BUT IF THEY ARE DOING THIS THERE'S A GOOD CHANCE U DONT.

i find this useless information... how often does anyone have the nuts

I think it changes from game to game - but I've certainly seen / played in live $1-$2 games where the standard pre-flop raise is $10-$15.

Having lots of limpers is also a common one. Sometimes you'll even see both in the same game: people will either limp, or make it $15 to go.

Anywho, both seem to be like a contagious bug: if one player starts it, pretty soon the whole table will be doing it.

Congrats on your first game pitter - being down $22 isn't too bad a result, particularly when it sounds like it was a long session. One big pot going the other way is all it takes to turn that around.

Oz, I figured your recommendation would be to tip the dealer well.

Tipping dealers is actually discouraged and/or illegal here depending on where you're playing (it's definitely not allowed in casinos). That, and the games I deal are rarely for real cash anyway, so it rarely occurs to me

If I ever make it to Vegas to play I'm clearly gonna have to retrain myself.

The cash game in my casino is £1/£2 NLH. It's generally very loose,with £10 preflop raises being common, and then getting called by most of the table.

My strategy last time was to sit down with £50 and wait to shove in my stack when I thought I'd be able to steal. Stealing blinds is pointless, but stealing a raise and a limper to a raise proved useful. I then later got aipf with AK vs QQ vs TT and hit to end up standing up with £168

At our casino it's not a member of casino staff that deals so we tip her. It's illegal to tip casino staff here.

Yeah Oz, good point, I will retract a little of my total blanket statement that big raises don't happen. I just don't see them as much as other strange plays... well, like a bunch a limpers - huge raise - all limpers call.

Oh, pitter, make sure you protect your hole cards both when looking (trust me, people will sneak a peek) and when you play a hand (just don't use a stupid small fuzzy bear or anything, a poker chip will suffice).

Down $22 after 6 hours of 1st time live play is a very cheap lesson. If you play the same players agian and you should from what you say, I hope you took in everything that went on at the table. You obviously attained a very tight agg rep, did you attempt to raise to steal in the right position? Although the blinds don't increase at a cash table there are times when stealing pots is very profitable, monster starting hands at a live table may be 1 or 2 an hour because your playing a lot less hands as opposed to online, make hay when you can, if you get reraised it's easy to let go but give it a while before you fold so not to give away the steal attempt.....good luck next time

There were a couple people i were worried about because they always seemed like they wanted to play me. but when i had the chance i would pick on these 2 sisters who were really easy to make steals on... even out of position.

It felt like i had my hole cards on my forehead when i played against these couple people. but i just avoided big pots with them unless i was 90%+ sure i had the best hand.

i plan on either playing cash game or sit n go every 2nd saturday, as i get every 2nd saturday off from work :P

Hopefully next time ill hang on.. or take the win

Then you are unique. This is one of the most reliable tells in poker.

Let me grab Karo's book...
Tell #16
Reliability is 98% for weak players, 96% for average players, and 90% for strong players. I don't think he has any other tell listed with that high a probability (other than #15, which is basically the same thing and he says, "In some games, average players could be big winners if they did nothing but look for this tell and play their normal game.")

Admittedly, I was eliminated from my last big because I was certain a flop didn't help the limper ahead of me, so I shoved with middle pair. It didn't help him alright, but he was slow-playing Aces.

Far be it for me to disagree with the mad genius Mike Caro but... well... I disagree with Mike Caro.

The tell is that if they stare at the flop for a long time they've got a weak hand, but if they only take a quick look then they've got a strong hand, right?

While it probably works a lot of the time, I don't think it's 98% accurate, or even 90% accurate.

Take a weak player that flops a straight, for example. They'll stare at the board for a while just to make sure that yes, their T7 definitely slots into the J98 board and they've definitely got a straight.

Also, some players will have a "rabbit in the headlights" moment when the flop a big hand - they might keep staring when they flop top set or something.