Cash Game Poker Strategy

Hey Guys,
I'm new to the Cardschat Poker Community and I'm excited to get involved!
I am a professional Poker Player out of Canada and I'm looking forward to talking some Poker Concepts, Strategy, Math, and obvcourse Some Bad Beats!
First off i'd like to tell you guys a little bit about myself...
I am a Young Canadian Poker Player, I have been playing poker for a living for the past two years and I regularly am traveling around Western Canada to play NLHE Cash Games! I learned the game of poker when I was about 11 years old. I immediately knew I had a strong passion for the game and it never left. I have spent many, many hours, weeks, and months reading, watching, and talking poker to get to where I am today. I have stuck with my best game of Live NLHE Cash Games, this is what I am best at and this is what I stick too.

So there's a little bit about me. Now id like to hear from you guys. What struggles are you having in your Live No Limit Cash Games? What are you good at? What's some hands you had that you felt you didn't play well? What's some spots you had no idea what to do?

Ask away on this post or send me a PM. I will get back to you as soon as I can. You will also start seeing a few posts from me containing some vital Poker concepts and strategy as well as the odd sick bad beat or suck out. Keep a lookout for my posts and I hope to hear from some up and coming Poker Players!

-Durk

Hi. NLHE 6 Max ZOOM cash game on PokerStars.
I have a few questions that I hope you can answer. I'm having some issues with facing raises preflop. What hands should I 3-bet with? What hands should I call a 3-bet with? What hands should I 4-bet with and what hands should I call a 4-bet with?

If a TAG opens from UTG in a 6 max game what hands do you recommend flat calling this raise from in the CO and why?

I'm not OP but I'll hazard a guess. Surely some relevant factors in this decision must be villain's position, our position, villain's impression of us, villain's opening range and the type of opponents who are still left to act.

Welcome! I'm currently a part-time grinder (~20hrs/week), live (1/2), 10NLHE, 25NLHE online.

Quick question... poker trends come and go, but one I'm hearing about and seeing more occasionally is a bet sizing trend. In particular, c bets seem to be getting smaller, and pot control is a higher priority than it seemed in the past. Is this really happening universally or is it confined to certain games/structures? Appreciate a pros insight on this!

Also, be sure to check out the cash game hand analysis subthread. I'm sure you'll have good hands to share and advice to give.

Thomasguy3419,

Hey man although those question are very hard to answer without more information on the players, stakes, history with villains etc. there great questions. So first off I don't really play online poker. I strictly play full ring live NLHE Cash Games for a living and don't deviate from that very often. I especially don't know too much about 6 max and zoom games. Although I will give you the best advice I can offer as I do have some friends who play those games regularly and do well in addition to the knowledge I have that can transfer over that will also be relevant in these games.
Now first off your playing Zoom. So when your playing Zoom especially at the low stakes your hand range has to tighten up. So many fish are not getting bored and starting to call raises with mediocre hands just to be able to play.. They can simply just click fold and immediately receive another hand. So when your getting 3 and 4 bet in low stakes zoom games your gonna be shown the goods ALOT of the time. So if I were you id tighten my range and likely be calling three bets with only the top of my raising range and from in position as much as possible. Now another thing I like to incorporate into calling 3 bets is I like to do so with my suited hands. Not only does that help automatically select what hands your calling 3bets with say medium pairs + strong suited broadways+ but it also allows you to continue in the hand when you flop equity say a flush draw or even a back door flush draw + over cards. The problem can be if your calling 3bets with all of your descent-strong raising hands your simply going to be calling too much and that's bad. So by only calling with your suited hands that allows you to cut down a lot on your calling range when being 3 bet (ex. KQ has 4 suited combinations and 12 unsuited combinations) so you'll only be calling three-bets 25% of the time with KQ. Make sense?
Now as for 4bets if your getting 4bet in a low stakes zoom game I just don't think your going to be able to continue profitably very often without say QQ+ AK and even the bottom of that range might be in a tough spot.
As for your 3bets in a low stakes zoom game Id say stick with the strong hands. Yes mix in some 3bet bluffs with hands such as 67ss or 910ss. But I just don't think your going to have to be that balanced with bluffs vs. value hands when it comes to low stakes zoom games where guys are only playing with you for one hand at a time then moving to other tables with different opponents. Stick with your value hands for the most part in 3 betting and especially four-betting. Ill almost always be 3betting JJ+AK AQ in those zoom games if I were to play them maybe even cutting out AQ as simply a call. Although I just don't know enough about those online zoom games to give you too much detail as to what specifics are the most profitable. I hope this helps and I hope it helps you make the best EV+ plays in those tough 3or4 bet spots!

Good Luck At The Table and hopefully next time I can help you out a little more with some more detail if you happen to have any Live NLHE Cash Game Questions

-Durk

Omahahahaha,
Yea this question depends so much on the dynamic of the table. If we are in the CO then we have position on the raiser but we definitely have to look at whose left to act. If the blinds or the button is 3bet squeezing a descent percentage of the time then our range has to be a little tighter for sure. But if the button and blinds behind us seem to be very fit or fold players then we can definitely open our range up a bit. Now as I state on all my replies to online poker questions I am not an online expert. I strictly play live NLHE full ring cash games and do no deviate from that often.
I think one of the biggest factors is whether or not you believe to have a post flop edge over this particular opponent. If the opener is a very good player then that will also tighten up my range. Also if you think the button and/or blinds are going to be calling as well with a fairly high frequency then we can definitely add in some lower suited connectors and even the odd gapped connectors. But mainly I would suggest folding hands such as k10, KJoff,K9,A9,A10off,Q10off as those hands are dominated so often from a TAGS UTG raising range. I like calling here with small and medium pairs, suited connectors and suited broadways. But again this range is going to loosen and tighten with factors such as how good of a player is the pre flop raiser, How deep is the relative stack depth(very important), and what the button and blinds will be doing the majority of the time. A good idea when playing at a table is to always be concentrating on the play even when your not in the hand. Make sure your watching showdowns and whenever there is a showdown go back and play the hand backwards even if you weren't in the hand. What position did the opener open his/her specific hand from? is he/she c-bet bluffing a lot? Does he/she seem to always have big hands? This is a huge tactic in poker that must be done in order to maximise our wins and minimize our losses.

I hope you can take something from this that helps you out next time you find yourself in the CO GL

-Durk

RakeMyLife,

That's a very interesting question. Now as you stated poker is constantly changing and to be the best and to make money playing poker we need to constantly be learning and getting better.
Now I have as well noticed that C-bet sizing and C-betting in general has gotten slightly less compared to say a few years ago. And I think that has to do with so many more players floating flops and/or knowing that players will C-bet so there calling down much lighter(at least on the flop). I have also incorporated this into my game as well. I think when your C-betting the flop it is good to have a small sizing. You want to get a good price on your bluffs and be able to balance that with your value hands (as well as make sure to get called by worse when value betting). So lets say I'm playing a 2/5 game and I raise QJss to 25 and get called by the big blind. Now the pot is 52$ and the flop comes A52 with two clubs well here if I C-bet bluff 40-45$ do you think the Villain will call with an Ace? or a flush draw? yes I think he/she will. So couldn't I accomplish the same thing by betting 30-35$? saving that 5-10$ adds up huge! that is a big part of what separates the money makers from the losers! Its all about what were trying to accomplish. Obviously by C-betting that flop your simply trying to get small pairs, K high and any two random cards that may pick up a pair by the river to fold. Were not trying to get an A to fold and we know our opponent isn't folding a flush draw on the flop. The important thing with this is especially when playing good opponents we need to keep this balanced. We cant bet 30$ into 50$ with our C-bet bluffs and bet 45$ into 50 with our value hands. So making sure that is balanced is also very important.

As for pot control I haven't seen too much of that on the rise. Although I can see that coming from the fact that so many players are becoming much more skilled in this game on average year after year that players are realising on low dynamic boards there over pairs are so much more vulnerable than most amateur players believe them too be. So players are tending to realise that for an example there over pair is simply a one pair hand and everyone in the hand can see from his betting actions that it looks like he has an over pair which can be manipulated so easily. So I've seen some more frequent checking on the flop or turn on dynamic boards when guys have over pairs simply to pot control as well as not play there hand so face up as many amateur players do. That's kind of a basic example of some of which I see at the table. But overall I personally haven't seen pot control become a more frequently used concept by many players in the games I'm in regularly.

Thanks for the questions, I hope that answers them for you. Feel free to let me know what you think. GL at the table!
PS I will also be sure to check out the hand analysis sub-thread you mentioned. Ill take a look for it and look to get get involved in some discussion there as well.

-Durk

Thanks for the advice, this helps a lot. I just have a few more questions that I'm still unsure about. I just started playing poker and I'm fairly new to the game.

When facing a 3-bet in position while holding QQ/JJ/AK/AQ should I just call or should I make a 4-bet?

When an opponent makes a 4-bet does this mean KK+ and should I fold QQ/AK to a 4-bet?

What do you mean by strong suited broadways? AJs, A10s, KQs, KJs, K10s, QJs, Q10s and J10s? Are medium pocket pairs 77-1010 and should I only be set mining with these? Should I set mine with small pocket pairs when facing a 3-bet?

What position did the opener open his specific hand from?

Thomasguy3419,
First off yes you got it those are the suited broadways I mentioned although I am folding the worst of those combinations to a 3-bet because they are so commonly dominated by a 3-betters range. I'm usually folding hands like KT,QJ,QT because there is Reverse Implied Odds with those hands. Which means you can loose a lot of money post flop even when you hit your hand with those hands because when you hit your pair so many times the villain 3-better will hit the same pair as you and have a bigger kicker with hands such as AK or AQ which is obviously a big money leak.

As for medium pocket pairs I roughly mean 66-TT now I'm calling with these hands simply because I may not need a set to have the best hand by the river and the smaller pocket pairs can just be so hard to play post flop without hitting a set. If you are set mining please read the post I made called playing small pocket pairs. That is a very important concept I shared that you should read because that tells you exactly how to make money set mining long term and it will answer that question as well.

Now as for facing a 4bet. In low stakes 6max zoom poker as I said when facing a 4bet I feel like the 4betters range is going to be very strong. Now depending on stack depth I may just flat call with QQ or AK I likely wouldn't get the money in unless I'm short stacked. You have to as well look at what position the guy opened then 4 bet from or what position he 3bet from. If the villain is 3betting you from the button then villain should generally be a little weaker than a 3bet from say next to act when you raise from UTG. As well as when you make a 3bet against an UTG raiser and you get 4 bet by him/her well that's a lot stronger than 3betting a CO opener from the blinds and getting 4 bet. Make sense? I'm really not the best person to ask about those specifics because like I said I do not play zoom poker nor do I play online or 6 max poker, but I would definitely be worried about a 4bet in a low stakes zoom game and only continue with the absolute top of my range QQ+AK. Now I wouldn't necessarily be folding QQ or AK like you asked but a flat call rather than a 5bet is generally best. Now if your deep stacked and your opponent is deep then that can open up your range as well. If your relative stack depth is say 300-400 BB then you can be calling 3 bets and even calling 4bets with many more hands such as small pocket pairs and even suited connectors simply because your implied odds are so high especially if your opponent has a strong holding. But deep stack poker isn't so common online.. But without the experience in these games its hard for me to give you the best advice. So the advice I recommend to you is pay attention to showdowns. I'm pretty sure there's something you can do to watch hands go down after you've moved to the next table. When you see a 3bet or 4bet watch the showdown. See what guys are 3betting and 4betting with at those stakes. Get hands in. Experience is huge and its hard to get the full benefit of experience without seeing showdowns. So look into how you may be able to watch previous hands as I'm pretty sure there is a way to do so in Zoom Poker without costing you too much calling off with weaker holdings and possibly finding out the hard way.

Good Luck In The Online Zoom Grind! Hope this helps you even though it is far from my expertise.

-Durk

I play 3/6 live and have dabbled in 1/3 and 1/2 nl my main game is 3/6 limit even though it's harder. This community is good it seem though most players play some zoom 50 cent online poker format not really relates to live much here.

Thanks for the welcome Mikeisanace777
Yea I agree the zoom online games are so different than live cash games. Very different strategy. It's simply a different game.

I live in the USA, so I am not allowed to play poker. It's illegal.

Okay, okay. So it's legal here and there.

I live in the illegal part.

An hour away from a poker room.

A poker room this is usually pretty limited to weekends and holidays for good
action. They only play NLHE. I guess they try for Omaha some days. Apparently they never heard of any other poker games.

I've tried home games; but after suffering through....well... everything(drunks, girlfriends, cheaters) I gave up on that.

Still like to play when I can though.

My cash game strategy is win

you feel lucky punk,

Hey man if you are interested in improving your game like by the sound of it you are then I'm happy to offer advice. Now its hard for me to write massive posts regarding many of the concepts, math, and strategy in regards to improving your game but I do put up posts with content intended for players to improve there live NLHE cash game play. I recommend you check out some upcoming posts I have planned. I'm relatively new to the community so I only really have one post so far regarding strategy which was about small pocket pairs. But like I said there's more to come. For now I recommend you start reading. Read every poker book you can get your hands on. I especially recommend Phil Gordons ''little Green Book''. Its a lot of work to become a good poker player. There is mass amounts of information you need to absorb and understand as well as then incorporating a lot of it into your play, not to mention the first hand experience part of the learning process. It takes time but that's my advice for now and if you have any specific questions feel free to pm me or reply on any of my posts and I will get back to you.
GL

-Durk

Aces2w1n

haha I like it! That's the best strategy to have

I like the quote too by the way.

-Durk