Poker Strategy: Cash Games
When the value of your chips actually means something.
Tournaments may get all the TV time, but experienced poker pros know that cash games are where the steady money flows. Especially when deep stacked, cash game poker features subtle intricacies that just don’t come into play when you have only 20 big blinds or fewer. Whether you like six-max or nine-handed tables, you’ll find articles below to help you with your strategy. Learn all about putting your opponent on a range, bet sizing, bluffing, value betting, and the other considerations that today’s top players are familiar with. Our focus is on No Limit Texas Hold’em poker because it’s the most popular format, but we have articles on other poker variants too. Every improvement you make in your cash game strategy will reap rewards today and for the rest of your playing career, so don’t hesitate to improve your knowledge with the assistance of FTR.
Featured Cash Games Articles
Developing a Feel for Equities in No-Limit Hold’em Part 1: Draws in Your Range
In order to become a top No Limit Hold’em player, you need to learn to consider how different flops affect the equity of your range and your opponent’s range. It turns out that adding draws to a range on the flop doesn’t drastically lower that ranges equity.
Online Poker Tells – Online Timing Tells
By carefully observing the speed with which your opponents act at the poker tables, you can often glean valuable information about the strength of their hands. Perhaps more importantly, you should always attempt to prevent your opponents from gaining any such information about your hands.
ISF’s Heads Up Cash Game Strategies
When playing heads-up No Limit Hold’em poker, you need to modify the strategies that you would use at larger tables. Remember to focus on every hand and adjust to the specific player you’re up against, because every hand you play will be against him or her.
Continuation Betting in NL Hold’em
An easily digestible explanation of continuation betting in No Limit Texam Hold’em. This article demonstrates which hands are ideal for c-bets, which aren’t and how, when and against whom a c-bet should be used to maximize winnings. It also explains how much you should bet in certain situations.
Blind Stealing 101
A few people have been posting stats threads lately and I've seen a trend that really needs to be addressed. Most of the people I've seen stats on are not stealing blinds nearly enough, and aren't defending their blinds nearly enough. I've decided to type up something...
Most Recent Cash Games Articles
How to Make Actual Adjustments While Playing
Talking about making adjustments to your play is easier than actually making them at the table. Read through this example of how to make an adjustment to learn how to pull them off when you’re playing. Studying examples of successful adjustments will help you learn to execute them under pressure.
Leading the Flop and the Relationships to Continuation Betting
Leading the flop when you were not the pre-flop aggressor is very similar to continuation betting. You have a range, your opponent has a range, and you have now made a bet that your opponent will have to react to. However, there is another relationship that leading on...
Optimizing Your Sessions With Simple Routines
Establishing a set of routines to perform before you begin playing poker will produce long-term, positive results. By properly training your body, you’ll be able to condition your involuntary responses to make you calm, focused and ready to play whenever you want to.
Adjusting to PokerStars Buy-in Levels
Recently the world's largest poker site, PokerStars, announced the way they were handling the minimum/maximum buy-in amounts at their cash game tables. This mainly affects NL/PL Hold'em as well as Pot-Limit Omaha games as shallow/deep stacks in limit games means next...
The Basic Concepts that Drive Continuation Betting
When it comes to continuation betting, your table position and the strength of your hole cards are even more important than the flop itself. By carefully considering these two factors in the context of how your opponent plays, you’ll be able to determine when you should make a continuation bet.
The Delicate Nature of Pot Odds and Implied Odds
We have the three major weaknesses that players have when dealing with pot odds and implied odds, but we’ll also show you how to correct them.
Bluffing on the flop in low-stakes limit
One of the hallmarks of a good solid reg is the ability to be precise with bluffing at all stages of the hand. In heads up and three way situations precise bluffing can significantly add to a player’s bottom line. You need to be on the lookout for opportunities...
The General Theory Behind Inducing Bluffs in Poker
Most people don’t understand the relationship between inducing bluffs and value betting in the game of poker.
Poker Hands Order | Poker Hands for Omaha Hi/Lo
Limit Omaha Hi/Lo has become popular due to its prevalence not only at dedicated Omaha Hi/Lo tables, but also in mixed games like HORSE. Half the pot is awarded at showdown to the high hand, and half is awarded to the best qualifying low hand.
Microstakes Grinding
Most players who are new to online poker will start at the lowest stakes possible, commonly known as “Microstakes”. In general, microstakes are considered to be any poker stakes up to $0.10/$0.25 blinds in NL and $0.50/$1.00 in Limit games. The concept of...
Developing a Feel for Equities in No-Limit Hold’em Part 4: The Basics of the Turn
This is the fourth part in a series dealing with the key ideas that can be used to accelerate the process of gaining a feel for equities in different spots. In this week's edition, we're going to discuss some major cases for when the turn comes and how you can use...
Exploiting Your Image
Whether you are playing live poker or online poker it really makes no difference, your opponents will still be watching how you play. If you think that low-stakes online players be it at limit, no-limit or whatever do not fit into this category then think again. They...
6 Max Starting Hands
Group 1: any two cards Group 2: any two cards you found in your wallet (Blockbuster, Visa, library card) Har har! Not really. But yes, the starting requirements are a lot looser and a lot more vague than in a full ring game. I don't consult a chart - a lot of it is...
Going After Multi Tablers
I wrote an article on FlopTurnRiver a couple of weeks ago about the merits of multi-tabling. I feel that there are deeper strategic consequences behind what was in that article. With poker there is an almost pendulum like motion with regards to what tactics and...
Theory Read – River Check/Raise
Below you will see an interesting discussion on river check/raises which took place in the High Stakes forum. It started with ISF showing hands and posters such as Sauce123, Massimo, Toadstool, and gabe adding their replies. View the check raise theory...
