Texas Holdem Cash Game Tips
When you’re playing Texas Holdem on a cash table you need to play very carefully because one mistake could cost you your entire stack. If you want to avoid losing your stack due to making a mistake then you should read through the tips that I’m about to share with you. When you’re playing online poker it’s quite a bit different then playing live poker so you’re going to need to make adjustments as needed.
* When you first sit down at an everest poker table to begin a session the first thing you want to do is watch the first round around the table. You want to watch every opponent and find out which opponents are tight and which opponents are lose. By determining what players are loose and tight you will be able to find out how to play against them during the rest of the session. You can bully the tight players out of hands and you can trap the loose players when you have a hand.
* Although a lot of players do bluff when they play online poker you can’t assume that every single player is bluffing all the time. If you’re sitting in the hand with top pair and you have a player in front of you go all-in or make a big bet compared to the size of the pot then you’re most likely beat. If you have a read on your opponent and you think they’re bluffing then you can go for it, but generally you want to have close to the nuts if you’re calling an all-in.
* You want to make sure you bluff when you’re playing cash games when the opportunity arises. As long as you don’t bet or bluff too often then you’ll be able to get away with a couple nice bluffs. Don’t try and bluff at a huge PokerStars pot where there are numerous players betting at the pot. Wait for a hand where there is 10x or so the big blind and try taking it down by betting a pot sized bet. If you get caught then you can just fold and it won’t be the end of the world.
* Chasing draws in a cash game can become very expensive very quickly and a lot of new players are unsure as to whether or not they should chase draws. Ideally when you have an open ended straight draw or a four card flush draw then you should chase it down to the river as long as the betting isn’t crazy. If the betting becomes too large and you’re no longer getting pot odds then you need to fold. If you don’t know what pot odds are then make sure you read our strategy article on how to figure them out.
* Play your PokerStars.net position very carefully in a cash game. You don’t want to raise preflop in early position unless you have a monster hand that you’ll call an all-in with due to the fact someone else could re-raise you. When you’re in late position you have a better a chance of bluffing the pot because you get to see how other players act. If you can limp into pots from late position preflop with a marginal hand then go for it. You could end up stealing the hand down the road or you could hit a monster on the flop.