Advice on playing cash games online

Iceman78

At the moment i am playing .25/.50 cash games with varying degrees of success.

I feel comfortable playing MTT''s and STT's but just cant get the hang of cash games at all.

Any advice or any sites or books where i might get good tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Is there much difference between 0.25/0.5 and 0.5/1.

MrPillowTalk

Iceman78 wrote:

At the moment i am playing .25/.50 cash games with varying degrees of success.

I feel comfortable playing MTT''s and STT's but just cant get the hang of cash games at all.

Any advice or any sites or books where i might get good tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Is there much difference between 0.25/0.5 and 0.5/1.

Its a completeley different animal to tourneys, the all in push is not as effective as in mtts or stts as players can reload particularly at lower stakes.

Sounds boring I know but, tighten up a whole lot for a while untill your confident beating the game, push your big hands hard its amazing how many players will call massive overbets.

Once your beating the game expand your own game to play more hands in position.

As with any jump in stakes the standard is better at .5/1 not massively so and when you can beat the .25/.5 game easily the step up wont bother you, however stay where you are untill you can learn to turn your tourney game on and off as you wish.

Tilt is another issue, if you tilt in a mtt stt worst thing that happens you get knocked out and lose your entry fee, you tilt in a cash game and start reloading and it gets expensive very quickly, ask any player their bigest cash game win, then ask them their biggest cash game loss, for the vast majority of players the latter exceeds the former by a margin, well for me it does anyway.

Lots of other stuff that you probably allready know, but the main thing is to approach the cash game differently to a tourney, mtts and stts are all about looking for the double up but cash is a grind.

hope this is of some help

ocallagh

MrPillowTalk wrote:

Its a completeley different animal to tourneys, the all in push is not as effective as in mtts or stts as players can reload particularly at lower stakes.

Sounds boring I know but, tighten up a whole lot for a while untill your confident beating the game, push your big hands hard its amazing how many players will call massive overbets.

Once your beating the game expand your own game to play more hands in position.

As with any jump in stakes the standard is better at .5/1 not massively so and when you can beat the .25/.5 game easily the step up wont bother you, however stay where you are untill you can learn to turn your tourney game on and off as you wish.

Tilt is another issue, if you tilt in a mtt stt worst thing that happens you get knocked out and lose your entry fee, you tilt in a cash game and start reloading and it gets expensive very quickly, ask any player their bigest cash game win, then ask them their biggest cash game loss, for the vast majority of players the latter exceeds the former by a margin, well for me it does anyway.

Lots of other stuff that you probably allready know, but the main thing is to approach the cash game differently to a tourney, mtts and stts are all about looking for the double up but cash is a grind.

hope this is of some help

i've only been playing cash for 6 weeks (tourny player for 3 years!), but this seems like some good solid advice.

also, the following thread helped me a lot. (thanks again fuzzbox!) http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=50875381&postcount=9

ocallagh

in addition:

Since I started playing cash, I came across something I'm not sure I've seen mentioned before. In tournaments you are constantly waiting for a conclusion. either a bust or an outright win. The nature of an MTT means there is an ever changing environment which you need to adapt to. (eg: blinds, payout, bubble etc etc). The MTT controls your game to a certain degree. Cash games are entirely different. You should be in total control, and if you're not move table or move down in stakes. It is that simple. The only thing you need to adapt to is the style of your opponent. In cash games, I used to play till I bust.... I'd get attached to the table... I'd play it just like an MTT, I was waiting for a conclusion... I found myself getting impatient... If I knew a player was good I'd try and outplay them..... FORGET about that (you can avoid these guys in cash games). If you think a player is better than you in a cash game just get up and move table. I know this sounds so elementary to many cash game players... but it took me a while to get used to.

gl

ianmc38

Well fuzzboxes advice is good for his level.

Lower limits:

1. I wouldnt advise pushing with every strong draw(sometimes this is good)
2. I wouldnt always open raise, but I like to raise with hands such as suited connectors when in position.
3. Build up a large pot when you have big hands.
4. Dont slow play into tight players. Against LAGs its fine, but otherwise its a bad idea unless you flop something like JJ6 while holding J6 or A22 when holding 22.
5. Widen your preflop range when in position. UTG i'll rarely limp with J7s but ill often limp or raise with this from LP
6. Bet small into tight players when you have a big hand on the river. Extract as much as possible. If you have the nut flush for example, bet maybe 15-25% of the pot, so they're getting irresistible odds to call with TP TK, 2 pair etc
7. Dont bluff too often. At lower limits, people dont ever seem to fold A rag when they hit an A. Pushing or similar stack commiting plays dont work too often at this level if someone has flopped top pair
8. Get some tracking software like pokertracker. Analyse your stats, your VPIP, PFR, Aggresison, Won at SD% etc. Massively valuable for ring games

More later when i think of them. trying to type and multi-table is a pain in the bum.

ArmaniJeanss

ocallagh wrote:

in addition:

Since I started playing cash, I came across something I'm not sure I've seen mentioned before. In tournaments you are constantly waiting for a conclusion. either a bust or an outright win. The nature of an MTT means there is an ever changing environment which you need to adapt to. (eg: blinds, payout, bubble etc etc). The MTT controls your game to a certain degree. Cash games are entirely different. You should be in total control, and if you're not move table or move down in stakes. It is that simple. The only thing you need to adapt to is the style of your opponent. In cash games, I used to play till I bust.... I'd get attached to the table... I'd play it just like an MTT, I was waiting for a conclusion... I found myself getting impatient... If I knew a player was good I'd try and outplay them..... FORGET about that (you can avoid these guys in cash games).

gl

The above strikes a chord with me, thanks for putting it into words.

I think some people are fundamentally suited to the tourney structure, STT or MTT (me a prime example). The message at the end 'Congratulations on murdering the opposition, you've finished 1st', or 'Thank you for partaking, you've bubbled yet again' means so much more to me than skulking away from a cash table up or down X Buyins.
I can accept that there is a serious amount of skill involved in cash games. But I think the sheer white-knuckle rollercoaster excitement of tourneys will always be something i'll enjoy and could never see myself playing cash games with the same enthuasism that i play tourneys.
AJ

breadmonkey

But I think the sheer white-knuckle rollercoaster excitement of tourneys will always be something i'll enjoy and could never see myself playing cash games with the same enthuasism that i play tourneys.

I've been thinking about this recently. I used to prefer tourneys but since I started playing cash I've just found it so much more rewarding. Mainly because if I got knocked out of a tourney by some donkey a few times in a row, it really p!ssed me off, but with cash, I can just reload and take it all back. Plus, logging on and finding my favourite maniacs is making me much more $$$:cool:

Iceman78

Thanks for all the advice lads. Most of it makes sense and i will try to use it over the next few weeks and see how i get on.

I think i just need to play cash games a bit more as my first thought when i log on is to play an STT or MTT.