Frederick Jace
Cash games are poker in its oldest and finest form, just a bunch of pals playing a game of skill to win it all and having a good time! All the funky variations of poker you see today. Whether it be a OFC knockout tournament or a PLO5 heads up championship (oh dear lord…) can trace their origins to the old cash games with stacks of money on the tables, now replaced with the much more professional and convenient, chips!. With time cash games evolved and people got better at poker, making the basic hit good cards and get paid strategy less reliable, in the online poker cash games of 2021 that is truer than ever. Today, we will help you beat your local cash games both in online poker and live poker with some helpful and easily implementable tips that you can add to your poker cash game strategy arsenal
1) With great power, comes great responsibility- With great power, comes great responsibility-Indian poker cash games in India are generally deep stacked and that gives you more room to play “poker”. There is more maneuverability, more opportunities to make plays, to run sick bluffs. But remember It is also where we make the biggest mistakes, a lot of room to maneuver, a lot of room to make plays, make sick bluffs will always also unequivocally mean a lot more room to fuck up, a lot more room for your small mistakes to turn into wildfires, a lot more poker room for you to make the most embarrassing plays of your life but that’s just poker. You live, you learn and you hope there’s enough for a packet of Maggi in your wallet.
2) You want to 3bet, Jam your bigger Pocket Pairs (77-AA) against early position/middle position opens as these hands benefit from playing big pots with a low SPR (stack to pot ratio) and getting in the money as these hands often benefit from being aggressive. Its okay to trap with them once in a while, but avoid the pitfalls of fancy plays as they will make you lose money with hands nobody should be losing money with… Aggressive fast play is preferred, don’t play stupid games. Don’t win stupid prizes!
3) When facing a three-bet in early/mid position you want to-
4bet all your small suited aces (advanced concept) hands like A2, A3, A4 fit nicely in this category.
4bet Ace king off suit, suited whatever. Get it in with Ace King, if they 5bet you keep raising until your stacks go in, never fold Ace king against one opponent, ever. I forbid you.
4bet Pocket Tens to Pocket KK with zero concerns, pretty self-explanatory
Call all your suited broadways-They play well at a low SPR and benefit from seeing cards. Hands like Jack ten suited, Ace Jack suited, King Queen suited are to be played this way.
Call your premium off suit aces and small pocket pairs. They are hit or miss kind of hands even at this stack depth, you don’t want to play multiple streets with them but you also don’t want to fold them as they have significant equity and you don’t’ want to get them in for stacks, which makes this option preferable.
CALL ACES-just call and make free money, The SPR is going to 3 or 2, you have ACES, CHILL, make some money your spewer.
4) You want to call more when you are in position, and 3bet fold more out of position. Positional advantage allows you to realize more equity, you get to see what others do and act last! You want to call your high equity holdings and navigate them post-flop with your post-flop advantage while forcing your opponent to make decisions with off suit premiums with good blockers that when called/raised you will get to play at a low SPR (Like those hands want to. Moreover you also get to maintain the initiative while avoiding unnecessary difficult spots. Calling more in position helps you easily play your hit or miss holding while 3bet or folding your premium holding and bluffs with blocker properties ensures that you are getting paid with your nutted hands while having a chance to win with your bluff and fold it out safely if your opponent puts you to the test.
5) How not to be bad with “the goods” (ha-ha)
5a) You want to cold call/fold suited premiums(except the strongest ones) against early opens because they have good equity and can easily play multiple streets and draw to strong hands that you can comfortably value bet or fold in big pots.Q10s is a great hand to call and see a flop with, but not a hand that wants to 3bet and face the possibility of a 4bet, Ace Nine suited is happy to call and see a flop as it either makes very strong hands that you can go to the streets with or it can check call 3 streets with top pairs, two pairs. So is King Jack suited as it realizes a lot of equity from seeing cards?
5b) you want to 3bet/fold your offsuit premiums against early/middle opens the converse of the pointer above. You want to play big pots or fold with your off-suit premium hands as they will realize their equity less from seeing cards, you would rather play a big pot with it or get it in Preflop conserving the raw equity your hand has.
For someone who plays online tournaments mostly, cash games are always a surreal experience. A little slow for my liking but always fun with the added element of lively chat…or trash talk, I enjoy both! I hope you go on to crush a few sessions today. If you have some helpful tips or would like more tips, let us know in the comments!
