It always pays to play online poker at Ignition Casino. And, guess what, you don’t have to be the next Doyle Brunson to make a pretty penny when you hit the felt. All you need is a solid basic poker strategy, and the right tables to sit at to get the edge. This is the traditional way to play poker, where the chips represent actual money – tournament chips don’t have dollar signs on the front. We’ll introduce you to the online poker cash games at Ignition, and we’ll even give you five very important poker cash game tips that you can use at the tables. Jul 21, 2014 Many no-limit players like to keep the preflop betting small, see a flop, and go from there. They’ll limp into pots with hands like A-K offsuit, 8-7 suited, 6-6, and so on. I take nearly the. Live cash game poker strategy. Obviously, live games are a bit different, and you need to adjust your strategy to get better results. I already covered many Texas Hold’em tips and how to crush live poker home games in this article, but want to highlight the most important live cash game poker strategy adjustments as well. It is hard to find a lot of good $1/$2 cash game strategy information out there. And this is surprising given the fact that so many people play in these poker games in places like Las Vegas and around the world. So I wanted to write up an article which specifically covers these games once and for all.
Since the World Series of Poker is taking place now, I thought a column about poker tourney strategy was in order. Enjoy!
It seems that everybody plays in no-limit Texas holdem tournaments. Of course the exploding television coverage brings new players into the no limit texas holdem game daily, which leads to better ratings and even more poker tournaments on television. When will it end? Not anytime soon. With all these new players, I am often asked about how to play tournaments correctly.
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Texas Holdem Tournaments
To determine correct Texas holdem tournament strategy you need to start with some self-analysis. You have to ask yourself these questions:
- What is my ultimate goal in the poker tournament?
- Will I be satisfied if I place in the money, make the final table or do I have to win to be happy?
- Am I willing to take the chances of exiting early to put me in a winning position by going all-in?
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If you have just gotten started playing tournaments, you should aim to place in the money. Obviously, all of us always want to win, but a Texas holdem strategy designed to win in any case means you have to take many calculated risks with little or no advantage. You need to gather up a large chip stack in order to place high in a tournament.
If your goal is to place as high as you can, hopefully in the money, then you ought to play extremely tight, especially earlyon in the tourney. Just do not enter any pots if you aren’t certain you have the winning hand. Most tournaments structure the blinds so you can go a long time early without playing a hand until the blinds get too big.
The largest difference between a normal ring game and a poker tournament is that once your chips are gone, you are out of the tourney. In a regular ring game you can buy more chips whenever you like. That is what makes tournament strategy different. Some people simply want to place in the money while others play to win. That begs the question: Why doesn’t everyone play to win? Well, it has to do with the variance associated with two different playing styles.
Often players who are playing to win will get their money in with even the slightest advantage, sometimes even though they have only a 52% or 53% chance to win any given hand. If they are lucky, they can accumulate a big stack of chips, which they need in order to win. If you get all of your money in the pot in such marginal situations you run the great risk of busting out of a tourney early.
If you just want to get into the money you need to play much tighter. You need to try to get better odds before you get your money in the pot, many times as high as 80% or 85%. This approach has the problem that the blinds generally eat a large part of your stack between these opportunities.
Texas Holdem Tournament Strategy
The proper strategy to being a successful tournament player likely lies somewhere in between these two styles. As usual, you should try to bet when you are a favorite to win (have the best poker hand), but in tight situations in a tournament it may be better to hold back unless you are getting short stacked. If your stack gets too short you will have to pick a good starting hand and bet all of your chips and hope that nobody else has a better hand.
Early on, before the blinds get too high, I recommend playing very tightly and only entering the pot with your very best poker hands. Should you have the opportunity to get all of your money in with at least one other person, and you have AA, KK or even QQ, - take it! If you can double-up early on in a poker tournament, that not only gives you extra chips, it also can be a tremendous psychological advantage. If you have a tall stack it works for you on a psychological level! As you continue into the tournament, the bigger your stack, the easier you may be able to force your opponents with fewer chips to fold their hands instead of taking a risk with all their chips.
Usually you find no-limit Hold'em poker tournaments to move along pretty fast. We should discuss a few important points here. If you make just one mistake, it can end your tournament. At any time all of your chips can end up in the pot. Therefore it is important to always play just as well as you can.
You have to learn as much about your opponents play as you possibly can. Take your time if you have to and always pay attention. Do your very best not to lose concentration, even for a second.
Good luck in your Texas Hold'em tournament adventures.
Many no-limit players like to keep the preflop betting small, see a flop, and go from there. They’ll limp into pots with hands like A-K offsuit, 8-7 suited, 6-6, and so on.
I take nearly the opposite strategy, especially in cash games with relatively deep stacks. I raise every single pot I play (except from the blinds), and I reraise preflop frequently both in and out of position. I do this because I believe that there are huge edges to gain every time the preflop pot is big enough to put stacks in play.
Cash Game Poker Tips
In Las Vegas, most rooms allow a $1,000 buy-in to a $2-$5 game and a $3,000 buy-in to a $5-$10 game. Furthermore, many players — not just the professionals — buy in for these amounts.
![Free casino poker games Free casino poker games](/uploads/1/2/5/2/125257844/836836032.png)
On the overwhelming majority of hands, however, the deep part of the stacks never sniffs the pot. For example, five people limp in a $2-$5 game. Someone bets $15 on the flop and $40 on the turn. The last $500-plus in everyone’s stack is simply not in play.
Even in single-raised pots, most of this money never sees action. It’s raised to $20 and called in three places. Someone bets $55 on the flop and $120 on the turn. Even a bet and raise on the river usually won’t get the last few hundred into the pot — and that itself is a very rare occurrence.
As a result, the typical $2-$5 and, to a lesser extent, $5-$10 player is completely unused to navigating pots where these deep stacks are fully in play.
At $2-$5, my experience is that most players simply fold too much in the big pots. From a theoretical perspective, a $400 all-in bet into a roughly $1,200 pot should get called in an average situation roughly 75 percent of the time. Only at this frequency does bluffing with all of your hands become a break-even proposition. If your opponent folds at all more frequently, it is right to shove that $400 with any hand that has no reasonable shot to win a showdown.
In practice, a $400 all-in river shove is called nowhere near 75 percent of the time in these games. In fact, it often feels nearly impossible to get these final bets paid when you actually have the nuts. This makes me extremely inclined to shove the river even when I have a little bit of showdown value. If I can get a fold even half the time, I’d much rather go for it than permit a showdown I might win only 10 or 15 percent of the time.
Because I think the typical player misplays them so badly, I build my strategy early in hands to create these big pot river situations. Preflop, I will reraise light with suited hands like A-4 suited and 8-6 suited, even if I don’t think I have a great chance to pick up the pot immediately. I’m happy to build the pot early to put stacks in play with a hand that will sometimes allow me to bluff the turn with equity.
In general, players at this level will misplay the flop and turn in reraised pots as well. It’s almost like they know they will badly butcher the river, so they play to avoid the big river situation. Here are a few typical deep-stacked hands that exploit my opponents’ tendencies to play it too safe in big pots.
A player opens for $20 with $1,000 stacks from three off the button. The button calls. You reraise to $85 from the big blind (BB) with A 4. The opener calls, and the button folds. There’s $192 in the pot and $915 behind.
The flop comes K 6 5, giving you a backdoor-flush draw, a backdoor straight draw, and an overcard.
You check, and your opponent bets $90. You call. There’s $372 in the pot and $825 behind.
The turn is the J. You check, and your opponent checks.
The turn is the J. You check, and your opponent checks.
The river is the 5. You bet $280, and despite the fact that you’ve bet a good bit less than the pot, you can expect your opponent to fold well more than half the time.
Often your opponent won’t even take the hand this far. After you check the flop, he’ll check it back and just fold to a turn bet. Or, if he calls the turn bet, he’ll fold when you bet nearly pot on the river.
Here’s another hand type I play commonly. A player opens for $20 from two off the button, and next to act you make it $60 with 6 5. The blinds fold, and the preflop raiser calls. There’s $127 in the pot and $940 behind.
The flop comes A 7 5, giving you bottom pair and backdoor-flush and straight draws. The original player donk bets $75. You raise to $175.
This raise ends the hand very frequently. Sometimes the player has a hand like A-J and will call the flop raise. Without improvement, however, he’s nearly always willing to fold after a turn bet and river shove. Furthermore, your hand has significant equity against a hand as strong as A-K.
If the flop donk bet is even smaller — say $55 — generally the read will be even more solid. I would be positively shocked in a typical Las Vegas $2-$5 game to see a player donk bet less than half-pot into a preflop reraiser and then, without improvement, call down a raise and turn and river barrels.
Live Cash Game Poker Strategy
Final Thoughts
At the $2-$5 and often also at the $5-$10 level, many players who buy in deep tend to get lost in pots that put the stacks in play. Usually these players — if they are willing to stack off — will attempt to force the action at some point by raising or check-raising. If your opponent has dropped off into check/call mode, there’s an excellent chance you’ll eventually get a fold if you keep betting.
This is particularly true if an opponent has tested the waters at some point by betting into you for a relatively small amount. Take the A 7 5 flop from above. When the opponent donk bets $55 into $127 on the flop, he usually is thinking one of two things if you raise — you have him beat, or he’s tricked you into giving him action. If it’s the latter, you’ll typically see either a reraise on the flop or a turn check-raise. It would be uncommon for this player to be satisfied check/calling down.
If it’s the former, he’ll bloat the pot a little and then fold. That’s how it usually goes.
If you want to make the most in deep cash games, look to put stacks in play early in hands by reraising preflop or raising the flop while the outcome is in flux. Then use your opponent’s bet sizings, reactions, and the turn and river cards to decide whether your opponent is likely to play for stacks or not. If not, unleash the bluffs. ♠
Watch Poker Cash Games
Ed’s newest book, Poker’s 1%: The One Big Secret That Keeps Elite Players On Top is available now at his website edmillerpoker.com. You can also find original articles and instructional videos by Ed at the brand new site redchipoker.com.