Help me to help you and others (Cash Games)

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RegiTime

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Hi all,

I am a £50nl player, grinderschool instructor and frequent youtube video creator.

Basically, I'm pretty much addicted to poker and love helping people figure the basics out and get their game in order to a point where they're able to make money at microstakes and ready to move into small stakes.

I want to be the best I can be at all of the above and a way for me to do that is to try and have a comprehensive understanding of all of the common problems that new and losing players come up against.

Everybody is different and with every new player I work with, I gain more experience which I can use to make me even more useful to the next player I work with and so on.

To accelerate this process, I am looking to host a poker clinic on as many sites as will allow me to help both myself become a better instructor/coach and also to help players on a very tight budget get answers to specific problems, rather than go searching for solutions and maybe end up getting lost down the rabbit hole that is online poker strategy.

Hopefully the moderators and admin will let this post stay and I hope that it will be a thread that runs and runs. So, if you have any questions about basic poker concepts, theories etc. please fire away with them.

I would rather that this thread (if allowed to stay) remains focused on common problems that beginners face. We don't want, or need to be discussing more complex problems in here because the main goal is to provide answers to the 'silly' questions that tonnes of people have in their head but are too scared to ask for fear of being trolled or belittled as can happen all too often.

Looking forward to getting stuck into it and if this thread is allowed to stay, I will try my very best to check it numerous times daily and respond to all genuine questions within 24h of them being posted.

Thanks for getting this far in the post (if you did)

RegiTime
 
toots babos

toots babos

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Hi

Looking forward to seeing how this thread progresses.

Are you just a cash game player or would you also have experience in sng/mtts?
 
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RegiTime

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I play cash games almost exclusively.

I occasionally play MTT's on the side but rarely SNG's.

I wouldn't feel at all qualified to answer questions on push/fold spots or anything ICM related but for early spots in MTT's or SNG's where we're still playing relatively deep stacked, I think I could provide some useful advice.
 
toots babos

toots babos

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ok cool, it seems our areas of poker are completely opposite to each other.

i have always wanted to take cash games more seriously but it just bores the hell out of me grinding out 1000's of hands for a meager profit so my first silly questions would be:

how do you hold on to your motivation whilst playing cash?

at the NL2 and NL5 level what sort of strategy do you feel fits best?

what % of hands would you be playing?

what % of hands do you 3 bet for value?

what % of hands do you 3 bet squeeze/steal with?

what sort of hands + board textures are you willing to bloat pots with?

i'm sure i have loads more to ask but i'll start here for now and try and take in your answers before delving a little further
 
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RegiTime

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ok cool, it seems our areas of poker are completely opposite to each other.

i have always wanted to take cash games more seriously but it just bores the hell out of me grinding out 1000's of hands for a meager profit so my first silly questions would be:

how do you hold on to your motivation whilst playing cash?

I play for part of my income, so needing to eat and stay warm is motivation enough for me. You also have to be capable of taking a very long view and just see it as grinding out an hourly so when you have th dry spells, it helps keep you focused and motivated.

at the NL2 and NL5 level what sort of strategy do you feel fits best?

I don't like to give 'standards' I think having those limits our potential and I prefer to take each hand and each decision point as they come but as an overall rule, I would discourage players from frequently running multi street bluffs and encourage players to go for thin value more often than most nanostakes players do.

what % of hands would you be playing?

That is totally dependent on the table I'm at. If I have a very bad loose player to my direct right, I'm very likely to play a very wide range, to put a number on it, maybe up to 40% of all hands.

If the weakest player(s) at the table are seated on my left, then I'm more likely to play a much tighter range as even with my skill advantage, overcoming my positional disadvantage is going to be difficult.

In a typical microstakes fast fold game, I would probably end up something like 20/16 over a reasonable sample.


what % of hands do you 3 bet for value?

As above, totally dependent on the table dynamics. That is not a cop out but it's a very difficult question to answer and not something I would ever want to standardise

what % of hands do you 3 bet squeeze/steal with?

Not really sure if this question is too different from the one above for the 3bet/squeeze part but my BTN steal % is usually around 50% and SB steal is a low 35% or so. Both of those are a lot tighter than many regs but I'm totally fine with that.

what sort of hands + board textures are you willing to bloat pots with?

Obviously hands I'm getting fat value with but also with my high equity bluffs, ie: combo draws, overs + flush or straight draws etc. Very rarely would I bloat a pot with air unless I had a read or stat that indicated that my opponent was very loose on the flop/turn but overfolds rivers but such players are so rare it's rarely something I come across.
 
toots babos

toots babos

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thanks for your answers, i know alot of them could well have been answered as "it depends" but even a small answer like you did helps a small bit.

im quite comfortable multi tabling mtt's and sng's ranging from 6-20 games at any one time depending on mood + games available to play so if i were to jump into cash games and take them more seriously would you advise at starting multi tabling or starting a 1 table and working your way up to however many tables you want to play?

also im playing on PS at the minute and they have zoom tables, im sure you know what they are but in case you don't it's a table where if you fold you go into a new hand immediately. would you advise for or against these tables? do you think if you are starting out with cash games you should start off with normal tables so that you can take your time with your decisions and learn your strategies for the table dynamics before moving on to zoom tables?

another thing that was most definitely a leak from the recreational cash playing was calling 3-bets so i wonder what your opinion on this matter would be IP and OOP, i think the most i lost calling 3 bets is usually betting 3BB's with a pair say 22-99, someone makes it 10BB to go, you peel to see a flop and then fold to a C-bet even though most of the time you are most likely ahead but the pressure put on you just tells you to let it go and wait for better spots.

what sort of hands are you willing to call 3 bets with or do you plan on folding to nearly all 3 bets and then 4 betting when you have a stronger hand?

there's so much i need to learn fundamentally wise about cash games as you can see :)
 
PokerGrinder

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What do you think the correct way to play a MTT 50 man tourney with 12 minute blinds and no antes? I'm usually used to playing a tight game.
 
J

johnstack

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I am making videos too if you want some help or assistant tell me i am glad to cooperate!
 
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RegiTime

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im quite comfortable multi tabling mtt's and sng's ranging from 6-20 games at any one time depending on mood + games available to play so if i were to jump into cash games and take them more seriously would you advise at starting multi tabling or starting a 1 table and working your way up to however many tables you want to play?

Without knowing how good/bad you are it's hard to answer. If you're likely to be a losing player, then limiting the number of tables you play initially would make a lot of sense.

also im playing on PS at the minute and they have zoom tables, im sure you know what they are but in case you don't it's a table where if you fold you go into a new hand immediately. would you advise for or against these tables? do you think if you are starting out with cash games you should start off with normal tables so that you can take your time with your decisions and learn your strategies for the table dynamics before moving on to zoom tables?

I have gone on record many times saying how awful I think Zoom games are. If you're a losing/break even player, playing on a much softer site like 888/Unibet/Sky Poker will be a much better place for you to start.

another thing that was most definitely a leak from the recreational cash playing was calling 3-bets so i wonder what your opinion on this matter would be IP and OOP, i think the most i lost calling 3 bets is usually betting 3BB's with a pair say 22-99, someone makes it 10BB to go, you peel to see a flop and then fold to a C-bet even though most of the time you are most likely ahead but the pressure put on you just tells you to let it go and wait for better spots.

If I'm facing a 3bet of 9bb or bigger (assuming 100bb stacks) the only times I call oop are if I'm slowplaying a premium hand or if I think my opponent is terrible. I defend pretty wide to smaller 3bets IP when it's a steal/resteal spot but again, everything is very villain dependent.


there's so much i need to learn fundamentally wise about cash games as you can see :)

Getting an affordable microstakes coach will definitely help you prioritise your learning needs.
 
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RegiTime

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What do you think the correct way to play a MTT 50 man tourney with 12 minute blinds and no antes? I'm usually used to playing a tight game.

I'm really not the best man to ask but if I was playing under those circumstances I would usually play VERY tight. The lack of ante's is really going to slow the game down and reward patience.
 
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RegiTime

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I am making videos too if you want some help or assistant tell me i am glad to cooperate!

I think I'm fine with them right now but if you see any of my videos and have any suggestions on how to improve them, I'd absolutely be glad to hear them.
 
XXPXXP

XXPXXP

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hello
ask a question.

what is your table section standard? thanks
and what is your reload/sitting out strategy at poker tables?
 
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RegiTime

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When table selecting, I first hide all full tables and almost never join waiting lists.

This is because I like to be able to choose my seat and often, a game you join a list for (unless you're first on the list) is very different to the one you observed because usually, good regs don't leave good tables, so seats only become open when they weakest players have busted.

So, after hiding all full tables, I will then look at the tables with 2-4 players on them and try to find some good seats to the left of weaker players, or tables with known VERY weak players.

If I haven't got enough tables for my grind after going through that process, I will then open an empty table and take a seat and let the weaker players come to me. I'm happy to start tables with regs at peak times as tables will fill quickly but at off peak times, I'll rarely battle other regs HU because I doubt there will be much value in it.

My reload strategy is quite simple, I use auto-reload at any site that has the feature and on sites that don't, I manually top my stack up as often as is practicable.

I sit out of tables when games go bad, ie the weaker or weakest players have left, when I'm tired, or when I need to wee :)
 
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This is probably something i could use some help on. I am currently not playing as much poker as I once was, I generally don't have many gaps in my game, especially when it comes to tournament poker. I place nearly 1/3 of real money tournaments I play and genearlly even higher if its live and the fields are big enough that ring play will get you to the money. Although i am great at navagating my stack in general ring game poker, picking my spots, and finding tells (my greatest strength), I am struggling at my end game in large MTTs. whether it be live or it be online. I am almost always getting to be a massive chip leader so i can coast into the money and usually the final table, but then i see the money and tighten up a lot to make sure i make as much as possible because bascially i am poor right now lol. So i am trying to think of ways to better my end game at tournament poker. Should i be playing a little bit looser when i am chip leader? should i be stealing more blinds? should i Not be calling when someone else is all in even if i am a 4-1 favorite? These are the things that have been going through my head when i am on the final tables. Not too long ago i was massive chip leader had about 1/4 chips in play from 20 people til about 6 people left and then called someones all in, which was about 1/5 of my stack and i was a clear 4-1 favorite but ended up losing. this made me tighten my play even more. Later in the same tournament still w 6 players left i called another all in w live cards for about 1/5 my stack again. i was behind but only 40-60 pretty much and ended up losing again. The blinds continued to climb and chips were passed around still at 6 people and i ended up going down to 3rd in chip stack w still 6 people left while some poeple at the table were starting to take control of the table. We eventually ended up chopping 6 ways for 1200$ each in a 200$ buy in tourney where i felt like i had a clear chance to at least take 3rd if i had played my cards differently towards the end. This has happened to me lately when i get down to short handed final tables. I am not the person taking control and im having a tough time trying to figure out what im doing wrong. Should i just be playing against people who have bigger stacks? and try to take some chips from them? or should i keep calling small stacks at low risk to my total stack to stay in the tournament? I genearlly will get my cards in good about 90% of the time so i generally know where i stand as far as the cards go, but as far as final table strategy in big MTTs i am lacking and it is hurting my big profit opportunities. Please help me with this dilema.
 
ScottieDuncan

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Sounds interesting. Hope to keep up with the post.
 
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RegiTime

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Really sorry Subdy but MTT end game strategy really isn't my strong suit at all.

If I do manage to get to an final table, I tend to look at the payout structure, if the pay jumps are not significant, I will try to play more for the win. If the pay jumps are quite steep, I'll be more inclined to try and ladder up but really, that advice should be taken with a large pinch of salt because I play so infrequently it's not something I've ever given much consideration to.
 
XXPXXP

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When table selecting, I first hide all full tables and almost never join waiting lists.

This is because I like to be able to choose my seat and often, a game you join a list for (unless you're first on the list) is very different to the one you observed because usually, good regs don't leave good tables, so seats only become open when they weakest players have busted.

So, after hiding all full tables, I will then look at the tables with 2-4 players on them and try to find some good seats to the left of weaker players, or tables with known VERY weak players.

If I haven't got enough tables for my grind after going through that process, I will then open an empty table and take a seat and let the weaker players come to me. I'm happy to start tables with regs at peak times as tables will fill quickly but at off peak times, I'll rarely battle other regs HU because I doubt there will be much value in it.

My reload strategy is quite simple, I use auto-reload at any site that has the feature and on sites that don't, I manually top my stack up as often as is practicable.

I sit out of tables when games go bad, ie the weaker or weakest players have left, when I'm tired, or when I need to wee :)

thanks for reply

I was asking ...

what is your strategy when double your stack on cash tables.
leave reload when double up or go on play?

I think the equity is the same
but the problem is based on variance...
:D
 
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RegiTime

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I stay at the table until it becomes a bad game.

If we practice solid BRM and are a profitable player, there is no reason to leave a table until the dynamic changes (ie the weak spot(s) leave or become so short they're not enough value.
 
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RegiTime

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Just bumping this thread.

I intend to become more active on forums and feel this thread could still have some legs to get me started again.
 
PLAYINBIG

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I admit that I play horrible in cash games,but have had success in MTT.I do not know if it is where I lose patients or interest where the game is at a much slower pace or what.When I get a good chip stack going I will turn right around and lose it before leaving the table.I have not had many hours honestly at a cash table & MTT feeds my need seems like.I would like to improve my cash game though.
 
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Cash game regulars will typically be better players than MTT regulars, particularly at microstakes, so if you're a new and/or losing player you're going to experience more variance and losing sessions in games where your edge, or profitability is lower.

Becoming proficient at cash games (or ring games as they're known as) will improve your overall poker skills more evenly than learning MTT's or SNG's, where you don't get to play deep stacked for very long and practice honing your skills on turns/rivers when stacks are still relatively deep and skill advantage is much more pronounced than it is in tournaments on those streets.
 
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