Ask Gripsed Anything About Cash Games

Hey All!

I have been playing Poker for 15 years and invested the first 8 years of my career playing cash games. I have always felt this is the 'best' form of poker for anyone who wants to make consistent money or is considering going pro/part time as a poker player. In 2011 I was extremely fortunate to meet and room with Greg Merson for 12 months and he greatly reinforced the importance of focusing on Cash Game poker over Tournament Poker.

There are just so many more factors in cash games over which you have control that you have to give up in tournaments. In my eyes when it comes to cash games YOU are the boss, whereas when playing tournaments THE HOUSE is the boss, and you're on their schedule. And as a poker player, a huge reason you play is to be your own boss right?

In addition to playing millions of hands of poker, I've also studied dozens of poker books and gone thru all the high end training programs online from $49-999 and have a lot to share. I'm happy to point you in the right direction if you're looking for study material.

Please post any questions you have about cash games here (other than specific hands, those goes where I will also be active) and I will respond to all of them to the best of my abilities : )

Looking forward to helping you increase your confidence in the realm of cash game poker. And I'm excited to seeing your increased profits as a result of knowing what you need to know! Teaching is a huge passion of mine, and I believe it's the best way to learn, so let's work together to become the best poker players we can be!!!

Hey! nice to have you here!!
I've watched a couple of your videos
Are you playing any cash atm? live or online?
I'm mainly a 6max cash player. playing from 20NL to 100NL atm.
But now I'm moving a bit towards the apps.
Also I'm looking for a decent cash course to buy. Could you point me in the right direction?
I was looking at upswings 6max educa course or the HU course. Cause I think the HU course will be beneficial in most spots.
Or would you suggest another?

Thanks for doing this!

My Pleasure

Thank you for welcoming me to the community!

I watched a bunch of your tournament strategy videos, including how to win your freeroll tourneys videos years back. Awesome to see you here Gripsed!

Hey Alu!

I went thru the educapoker course in the fall and can say that it is an extremely complete program. If your goal is to learn GTO play, how to construct ranges on all board textures, playing IP/OOP, with the lead and without the lead, this is a great program.

I haven't gone thru Doug's HU course, but I have been told good things.
From what I understand he teaches you how to build ranges effectively.

The thing with educa's course is that you have the range building power of PIO, And given that he covers both in position and out of position play, you're learning a ton of heads-up stuff with this program. The fact you also get to learn multiway 3-4 handed spots (which he uses pokersnowie to solve) is a nice bonus.

And speaking of bonuses, Doug does a couple of modules with him as well which leads to some very good discussions, on exploit vs GTO approaches, and ultra deepstack play

Another program which is significantly less expensive than those ($249 instead of $999) is Charlie Carrel's Poker Masterclass, which focuses on smaller stakes and on the approaches that do well at those limits. He covers a lot of exploitative plays and things that can be used immediately.

What I liked about Charlie's class is there was more live play (as opposed to hand reviews) and discussion with students, where it got really into what real thought processes are like, and how to adjust to opponent types in the moment. It was a lot easier to digest than the theory heavy courses that go thru the solver.

So honestly, it really comes down to your learning style and your budget.

And for anyone reading this post who wants to learn the fundamentals of solid play for a lower investment, Upswing's "The Lab", Run it Once's "NLHE from the ground up" and Raise Your Edge's "Elementary Cash" are all great programs.

I'd also expect we see a lot more courses rolling out over the next year... rumor has it Fedor is dropping one soon. Side bets on what the price point will be on that one!

I played a hand on 888, villain raised 22 from the button, hero call from 88, flop 3 3 A 4 5, villain on high flop, turn, I went from All in on the turn and river 5, what a chance not to is facing a human?
Maybe the question sounds stupid, but these guys make me feel confused, including suspicious of the site itself.
Not difficult to find in online poker marginal hands winning from hands premiuns, making sequence, the chance to make a sequence is small and I see this happening frequently, which contradicts the mathematical probability of poker.
I'm not talking about 88 vs 22.
What is the chance that you are facing a bot, and what is the chance of outgoing cards not being by chance?
It seems that the software chooses who will win.

Hi thwenth,

I don't quite understand your question. In poker the best hand will not always win, even in many of the most favorable situations the best hand is an 80% favorite and not 100%.

Randomness determines who will win, and while the software is the place in which the randomness happens, it is not choosing one player over another.

The key with this issue, of anger, of disappointment, or feeling thigns are rigged against you is to evaluate your level of entitlement.

If for whatever reason you think you deserve more, to win all the time, to do better than others, then you are experiencing entitlement which is unhealthy and doesn't serve you. If however you accept the reality that everyone wins their fair share of hands, and just as often as they will get lucky do to will you, then you can play from a health place.

If entitlement is in your game, it's better to address this before playing more poker. When you have unrealistic expectations about how often or how much you should win, you will usually end up experiencing disappointment which can lead to beliefs that the game is rigged against you because your mind is trying to rationalize/justify your position that you should win.

Hope that helps!

What to do to beat the $ 1 / $ 2, NLH, limits of pokerstars?
I'm losing a lot, how to be profitable in the cash game, which videos do you recommend?
Thanks in advance.

Hey thwenth, what material have you studied so far?

I'm a big fan of Charlie Carrel's Poker Masterclass
As he gives real examples of live sessions and how to apply the techniques.

If books are more your thing, here's a great list that you can draw from

Hope these recommendations help, I'm really confident that you'll enjoy charlie's teaching style and the books will help supplement the knowledge he offers

I love the fact that CardsChat rocks! Thanks for attracting real live poker stars si that we the simpleton (TravelerLloyd) can gain some sort understanding of poker.

Nice to join you Traveler Lloyd
I love the fact that CardsChat rocks too

I found what I was looking for, how does this cash game work, can I quit at any time ?, is it easier to cash in on the cash game or sit in go tournaments?

That is correct, in cash games you can sit with whatever amount of money you want (up to a table maximum) and you can quit whenever you want.

It takes a different skillset than sit n go and tournaments, but you have control over a lot more in them than you do in tournaments. And you can play much shorter sessions which is ideal for a lot of people.

I built my original bankroll up playing Cash Game and encourage everyone to play them over tournaments. (Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey also agree with this sentiment!)

I have been in a serious rut lately. I have had two split pots in one sitting and when I checked only the poker site won on the rake. I got back less both times than what I put in.

I have had my aces sucked out on 3 times in a row on all in, I have had my KK sucked out on 3 times in a row all in and when I say sucked out, we would go all in and the villian is holding like Q9s or in one case A4o and hit a flush or straight and I may havge two pair or a set and I have not done anything with the JJ or QQ, haven't went all in with those, but the flops has alwasy brought and A or K and heavy betting into me. All these hands I useually could say I split on all in's but this month I have lost over half my bankroll because of that, makes me nervous to go all in anymore!

My bankroll consited of 10 b uy ins online as I am afraid to live more of that on there and the stakes are $25 NLH, $10 NLE and $2 NLH, I had to go down because I was loosing everything, the one site I am left with $12 and they only have $10 NLH no $2 NLH.

I think I am going to try tournaments with the remainder on there until I make a comeback to have 10 buyins or go bust! What do you reccommend?

Please elaborate a little bit.

1- How long would you say it takes for a recreational inexperienced player to become a winning 0.50/1 NLH and 1/2 at live casinos assuming he is smart and eager to learn?
2- Do you feel that there is a big skill gap between these 2 types of game?
3- Your video about the books is about 5 years old. Is there any book that came after that you would recomend for the type of games described on question 1?
4- Besides the Charlie Carrel masterclass, is there any other online product/course/etc that you recommend me to study? (For the games specified on 1 as well)
5- I have read "The course" by Ed Miller and I ordered "The Theory of Poker" by David Sklansky and "Caro's Book of Tells, the Body Language and Psychology of Poker" by Mike Caro. Are these good books for what I am looking for?

Thanks for your answers!

Bought your tournament books years ago....Still have it ha, Agree with you 100% on cash games.

What hands are players 3 betting with from blinds at 1/2? I have noticed players squeezing with AJ AQ os. I really don’t understand blind play.


My biggest leak is playing hands from blinds. Is KQ an auto fold from blinds? Any hands you don’t recommend playing from blinds? What hands do you play with in the blinds? Thanks again for your time, keep up the great content.

Im enjoying your FREE course on Udemy. Is there going to be a more advanced course to follow there?

Hi Evan, I love seeing and learning from you. What a great venue cardschat is. Words cant describe what an asset this site is to the community. Having you and others as resources is just unheard of.
But back to what I wanted to talk about. Lately, I been playing 25NL 6 man cash game. With all of us more or less in the 30-40bb range. It seems lately, I have been running into the following situation, Im in middle position, first guy folds and I raise 3x bb with 10/ace and i get a raiser from behind go all in. What is generally the play here? I have been folding to the big raise although many times i feel as if though I am being bluffed. But of course Im worried about blowing off my whole stack.

Hello, thank you for sharing your knowledge and helping the community.

So, I'm at university as a student and as an income I've chosen poker. It has worked fine for me but eventually I'm going trough some bad downswings. I know I need to improve my bankroll management, but I have another question for you now.

What is the best way to play against very lose/aggresive players? I am usually playing very tight in this scenarios, but still when I get a good hand such as AKs, AA, QQ, KK I put in a big raise pre flop and still get called by too many players. If I raise much more, no one will call and I`ll lose the hands value. So, I find myself in a situation that often I put a lot of money pre flop, get called by too many people, commit to a good hand and end up losing AA vs 9Ts or some other BS.

What is your experience and how do you play in a very aggresive/lose table?

Thank you

If you're capable of reloading your bankroll then it's fine. It sounds like you're playing part time and for pleasure as well as the hope's of winning some money so playing MTTs is fine.

If you decide you want to give it a go to grind on a more serious level then I would advise having AT LEAST 40 buy-ins for the limits you're playing, in some cases you may even want 100.

That way when bad luck spells come (which they will) you'll have more than enough of a bankroll cushion to ride it out. And when the good luck spells come as well, you'll still be able to play at the same limits so things will balance out.

Sorry to hear about your bad run though, it's never fun when luck goes against us!

if you're talking about 5 Card PLO (which is not my specialty but I know a bit about)

The best hands would be
AAJT9 (double suited to the aces so you have 2 nut flush draws and a broadway wrap)
QJT98 (double suited where you have the ability to flop a ton of nut wrap draws and block out other flush draws)
AAKKQ (again double suited where you have the ability to make top set 2 ways)

if you're talking about Big O which is 5 card PLO high low

The best hands would be
AA234 (double suited to the aces, nut flush draws, and uncounterfeitable low draw)
AAK23 (double suited to the ace for wrap low draw and some more high hand potential)

In both games having Aces give you a meaningful edge preflop, but because most of the money typically goes in postflop having hands that make nut draws (suited aces and big wraps) is where the biggest value will be.

You want hands that you can play confidently on the later streets where the bets are biggest

Hope that helps!

P.S. For more on this topic I really like the books by Jeff Hwang

Thanks Harold!

There will 100% be some more advanced courses to follow there.

I'm planning to upload my MTT course there (which is also available at http://gripsed.com/mtt)

And I'm going to be working on a fresh version of the cash game course over the next 12 months in preparation for a new book I'm putting together. Although to be fair, just about everything in that first course still rings true, there's just a bit of fine tuning and precision I'm going to add in

Generally with hands as weak as ATo this is going to be a fold. You have enough stronger hands you can 4-bet all in with to ensure your opponent isn't getting the best of you.

That being said, if you have 3-bet stats on them and see they are 3-betting in those positions 15-20% of the time, ATo becomes right on the line but still not that strong. In fact a better hand to 4-bet jam with would be KQs because most of their 3-bet bluffs will be with Ax and so you don't want the ace blocker in your hand.

Now I digress, the easier adjustment to the situation is to tighten up your opening range even more so than you can 4-bet all in a higher % of the time when you open. It may seem kind of crazy but opening 88+, AQ+ will allow you to do this, and if they aren't adjusting their 3-bet ranges you'll be getting the most of them a ton of the time.

You can also consider raising to just 2x or 2.5x since you're playing with shorter stacks and can easily get all in on the river with these open sizes. It will also cost you less when you have to fold to the 3-bet and give you better odds when you want to call it with your suited broadways and good but not great pairs.

Hope that helps, and know that they are risking quite a bit in that spot so it's ok to be folding 67% of the time out of position (and ideally more like 50% of the time in position)

Thanks for your positivity as well, brought a big smile to my face

Hey Vini,

Thanks for your question. Because it's a very in depth topic I'm going to offer you a couple of videos to supplement my answer. The short of it is though try to find the raise size that ONE OPPONENT will call, you want to get heads-up. There is a line between the size that 5 people will call and the size that nobody will call... it's your job to find out what that is.

If there are a lot of limpers and you raise it up and they all fold that is actually a good outcome too because you pick up a ton of big blinds with little to no variance. Another option if you're concerned about getting outdrawn and outplayed on the later streets is to simply buy in short. If you buy in for 40BB or so then you can easily get all in by the turn in most spots and the LAGs will be punished for playing too lose vs a short stack.

Here's a video for playing loose live games
And here is a video for adjusting to LAGs specifically (a big takeaway is to trap them and let them use their aggression against themselves "rope a dope")
Good luck on the grind, it can certainly make you a very solid side income in soft games!!!

Thanks for the support brother, I really appreciate it!

As for your question, you need to be consider a few more factors in making your decision. You're asking about what hands to play, but the more important thing is AGAINST WHAT TYPES OF PLAYERS ARE CERTAIN HANDS PLAYABLE. Opponent type first, specific situation second, hand third.

Some more info on this idea is elaborated on in my Preflop Checklist Video
When considering what hands to play from the blinds I need to know WHAT RANGE OF HANDS IS MY OPPONENT OPENING (from the position he/she opened from) and based on that a simple solution is to play the top 50% of that range.

So for example, facing a button raise of 30-50%, playing all broadway hands is completely fine, something like 15-20%. From the small blind it would typically be by 3-betting, and from the big blind we can flat call if we are closing the action.

If however the open is from under the gun , say a 10-15% range, well now I'd only really want to continue with 99+, AQo+ and maybe my suited broadways. Vs that stronger range I'd usually continue by flat calling.

Ask yourself, if I 3-bet will he/she continue with worse hands than mine?

If I just flat call, does he/she have hands in their range that I'm ahead of?

These are the sort of things to be considering when deciding your range to play.

For a more thorough breakdown of blind strategy I highly recommend Peter Clarke's course "From the Ground up" on Run it Once. It's really easy to understand and has great images to help solidify the teachings.

Here's a link to get it http://gripsed.com/ftgu

If you get it thru that link Run it Once will give you a free month of Essential Videos
& I'll give you a free copy of my MTT Guide (http://gripsed.com/mtt)
(just forward a copy of your e-mail receipt to contact@gripsed.com and I'll reply!)

Hope this post helps to get you looking at the situation more from a poker player's perspective and takes you beyond the simple "what hands can I play in this seat" mindset

Hey Navy,

Great questions, thank you for these!

1. It's more about the quality of your practice than the amount of time you put in. If you're studying good material, being disciplined in your play, and game selecting well, I honestly think you can become a winning player in under 3 months. The strategies to do well in the lower limit games really aren't that complicated and a smart disciplined player can thus turn a positive winrate very quickly (probably under 100 hours of play)

2. No, there is very little skill gap between 0.5/1 and 1/2 NL. The jump to 2/5 however has a bit more of skill gap and then the jump to 5/10 has a significant skill gap. The first 2 limits in my experience play very similarly, and it really depends on who's sitting in the game.

3. Excelling at No-Limit Hold'em by Jonathan Little & crew - https://www.amazon.com/Jonathan-Littles-Excelling-No-Limit-Holdem/dp/1909457442
There are some other more advanced books on the market but they are overly complicated for 1/2.

4. Yes, Alex Fitzgerald just came out with an INCREDIBLE course specifically for making a living at small stakes cash game. "Master Small Stakes Cash Games in One Class". - http://mastercashgamepoker.com (I've always been a big fan of Alex's work and this is his best program) It's a follow-up to "How to think like a poker player" which Pokernews recently did a review on

Peter Clarke's course on Run it Once is also good but it's more geared towards online play. For live play the 2 programs mentioned above will give you literally everything you need and your time investment to complete them is <20 hours)

5. Those are the perfect books. Theory of poker gives the bigger picture of poker, the course teaches you how to play each limit, and the tells will help you make expert decisions. I would also add "The Mental Game of Poker" to the list by Jared Tendler as it will really help with emotional control. "No Limit Hold'em for Advanced Players" by Matthew Janda is also quite good and very recent.

You've basically got the curriculum for dominating any live cash game with all the above resources. I really appreciate you asking this question because I think a lot of people are going to benefit from this little program outline.

Good luck and Happy Stackin on the tables, check in in a few months to let me know how you're doing!

Thank you so much for taking the time to asnwer all these questions, it does help me a lot when it comes to deciding where to invest my time on. I will check in a few months and let you know how I am doing!

PS: I tried replying to your PM to say thank you for the heads up but I do not yet have the minimum number of forum posts to be able to PM people.

Thanks for the advice

I have a question regarding buy-in's for 6 max/full ring....which is more favorable, higher stakes buying in the minimum (20-40BB) or the full 100BB at lower stakes? I tend to play low stakes compared to micro, buying in the minimum. BCP does have "short" tables where I can buy-in for 20BB as opposed to 40. I'm also getting rakeback, and at micro stakes you rarely have a substantial raked pot, so that's something else to take into consideration.

I like PLO, but I enjoy NLHE the most, even though I don't play as many hands as PLO of course...too much variance in PLO...

I take flops about 30-35% of the time playing NLHE...

Also, what's a good win % of hands played/won, on average? And flops seen/won? It seems I average around 25%-30% of played/won....

Thanks again!

Thank you for your reply and explanation. I will look into that book also.

i seem to do ok and often double up, but i soon start losing anything i have won
when do you recommend i leave ?

The optimal buyin depends on what your skillset is. If you play well in deep stacked pots and know how to apply pressure on your opponents from in position buy in deep. If you feel you make more 'guesses' in deepstacked pots or play too lose from early position buy in shallow.

Also when buying in shallow it's better to do it on regular tables than on shallow tables. One of the edges of buying in short is that the other players are playing ranges suited to deep games, and are thus playing suboptimal vs your stack. You can pick up a lot of BBs by playing a simple strategy of 3-bet/getting in the top 10-15% of hands or so and there's nothing they can do to defend other than tighten up (which they'll never do)

If I recall correctly have 30-35% Won when saw flop is fine, and anything above 50% won at showdown is solid. But focusing on these stats can be misleading as they don't factor in the size of the pots you are winnings.

I would pay more attention to playing solid ranges and playing most of your hands in position as opposed to fighting hard for pots out of position.

Hope that helps!

This is very common with newer players. I would find what stack size you are comfortable with (be it 40, 80, 100, 200 big blinds) and set a hard rule that anytime you get 50% above that amount you leave the table and switch to another where you can buy in for the amount yo want.

Alex Fitzgerald has a great piece on this when talking about his "old man coffee" strategy in http://mastercashgamepoker.com

Playing deepstacked is much more challenging, and if the deepstack players are in position on you it's a big disadvantage. If however you have position on them it's in your favor.

When you are comfortable playing all stack sizes then the questions around quitting are
1) Is the game good?
2) Is my seat good?
3) Am I playing good?

More on that topic in this video
Cheers!

Hi Evan ,


Recreational player here -apparently- and new to cash games. I started playing what else 2NL 6max regular tables, not zoom, on Pokerstars. I really don't like zoom because you need much time to gather stats on your villains and sometimes I use my table image.I want to improve my deep stack - post flop play.

I started with 4 tables and the next days Pokerstars announced the 4 tables limitation, OMG right?

I am considering moving up to 5NL but I really don't know if I am ready and what is the bankroll required. I have a small size on 2NL , I am doing pretty well IMO , but still I have only 13.500 hands till now.


Thanks

First off, I really respect your awareness on regular vs zoom games. Poker is so much about gathering information on your opponents to use it to your advantage later, and zoom completely takes this away! Kudos to you for sticking to real poker and staying away from 'poker crack' as the industry insiders used to call it.

I actually think that the 4 tables thing is a good thing. Playing a mass amount of tables is actually extremely bad for our eyes, mind, and mouse hand, it puts a huge amount of excess stress on us and can mess your brain up. Dusty Schmidt wrote a great article on it.

It also means you'll run into less grinders and can prioritize that all so valuable GAME SELECTION, because if you only get 4 games, might as well choose the best 4 right?

As for moving up, I'd say anything between $125-150 is enough to justify 'taking a shot' a 5NL, and if it goes well you can keep playing there, if it goes poorly just rebuild.

If you are exercising good game selection and cherry picking the best tables when you play in the higher limit I think you'll find that the competition is relatively similar to what you find at 2NL.

The main thing is to not psyche yourself out about the larger amount of money that are in play, continue to think about everything in terms of big blinds and I'm quite confident you'll do just fine. It's always the same game, just different color chips!

I was skeptic about this transition because let's be honest 2NL it's like a circus. No need for balancing, no need for light 3betting, no need for blocking bets and all that stuff , just value betting till the end haha.

I will take a shot the next days in 5NL with 4 tables and see how it goes

Thanks again Evan, I appreciate it

Hello, I am new to poker and I love playing MTTs, so that I will be a successful player, do you agree that I need to go through every penny possible?



micro stakes.

thank you very much.

No, you certainly don't, and if you invest time studying you can move up the limits much more quickly. In fact what you study is more important than what you play in your first year on the tables.

Here's a training package which will get you well on your way (and it's free )
http://gripsed.com/free-poker-training

And if you want some more MTT Videos to watch in the meantime (maybe have running in the background while you grind) check out this playlist I made https://www.gripsed.com/how-to-win-poker-tournaments

Good luck!