When it comes to cash game poker, there’s a massive, and I mean massive difference between playing online and playing live. Live cash game poker can be incredibly fun, and there’s some serious money to be made, but you have to be able to be incredibly patient and pick your spots. It’s a major difference from the idea of online poker, where you can multi-table and focus in on only playing the big time hands that you’ll pick up. Today, we are going to take a look at the basics of live cash game poker, and give some tips and strategy that can help you make some serious money. You can never be too prepared when it comes to hitting the live cash game poker tables, so let’s get to it.
Playing at the Correct Limits
This is really big, because when playing things like No Limit Hold’em, hands can get crazy pretty quickly, and you could end up risking some serious money, which often times is good and other times it may result in a tough down swing. What this means is that you need to be aware of the limits that you’re playing at and the risk that’s involved. So basically, you should base the limits that you’re playing at on what the minimum and maximum buy-in is. You really need to make sure that you’re playing smart, and giving yourself enough big blinds to be able to play plenty of hands, take shots at bluffing and three-betting when the time calls for it.
One of the worst decisions that you can make is deciding to buy-in at the table minimum when you’re an aggressive player who likes to see a good number of flops. Just because it seems like you could end up making more money at the higher limits it’s important to remember that you can only win as much money as you have in your hand (unless a triple up or something happens, obviously). This means that you can get much more in terms of big blinds while playing at the lower limits that fit into your budget better. Buying in at a mid-level range at the lower limits instead of buying in at the minimum on a higher limit is definitely recommended.
Reading Opponents
One perk of playing live cash game poker over online cash game poker is that you can actually see your opponents. There’s a pretty good chance that you’ll be able to tell which players are crazy and play a wide range of hands pretty quickly. These players are almost always active, they could talk a lot and usually have no problem showing bluffs. Obviously this doesn’t always happen, but you can also watch the very quiet players who fold almost everything, and feel pretty confident that these players only play strong hands. If a player doesn’t play many hands, then you should be aware of that and know that when they do play a hand, that you usually aren’t going to want to throw out some bluffs or try to steal pots from them.
Knowing When to Play Position
Playing position is big, mainly because in cash game poker, players will usually try to see flops for cheap. This means that if a player or two in late position just call, you could make a good sized pre-flop raise in order to push them out of the hand and not only steal their bet, but also steal the blinds as well. In that similar spot, if the action folds to you and you are on the button or playing from late position, raising to try to steal the blinds is a pretty good move. You should stay aggressive in these spots though, and not show weakness. If you show weakness, there’s a good chance that the other players who are playing around you could try to take advantage of this by three-betting your original raise, and could leave you in a very tough spot.
It’s just really important to realize that playing live poker is so different from playing online poker. You need to play smart and pick your spots, but that doesn’t mean that you need to sit back and wait for pocket Aces. Playing suited connectors and playing your position are usually pretty smart plays, but you should be aware of the players who you’re up against, and know how they play their game.