I have been talking with Adam for a while now, saying I would contribute articles about strategy, gameplay, and my experiences. I finally have some time to write....so here goes.

For a long time I was just a multi-table and single table tournament player, playing some cash games. I was a winning tournament player, but I was losing at cash games, and I sought to find out why. <READMORE> The first thing I figured out was that I was an average limit player at best. I just didn't have the patience to play the game correctly. It's amazing how I can sit with 5 or 6 big blinds in a tournmant and wait patiently for a hand, and yet I can't keep from calling with these crappy suited hands at limit poker....so I eliminated limit poker from my game. After coming to that conclusion, I sought to tighten my NL cash game play. The rest of the article will concentrate on the keys to my improvements.

Playing big pots with crappy cards/mediocre hands:

Green Plastic mentioned a little while ago that at the $5-$10 NL level, you can play very solid, straight up poker and win, and I agree. At this level, too many players consistently make mistakes, and these mistakes are often made on the flop, turn, and river. Everyone knows what to do with aces and kings….its knowing when to push your made hand on the flop and turn which will make someone a more consistent winner.

Before I go any further, I want to talk about what constitutes crappy cards in my eyes. Let me give you 2 examples of hands in the BB.

Let's say your at a 6 handed table, and you have A8 unsuited. UTG raises 3.5x BB to $35 and you have 1 caller in front of you. What should you do? I fold this hand every time, the reason being that A8 will only get me in trouble in the long term. You need to hit an A 8 x flop to be really confident in your hand; do you really want to call an $80 flop bet on a flop of A, Q, 4???

Ok, same situation, but this time you have 6 8 suited. I love playing hands like this, especially against bad players. I will only stay in the hand after the flop if I hit it big, or if I have serious drawing opportunities. For example, on a flop of J 9 6, I will not call a bet on the flop, except maybe a real small bet, and either way I'm wary of the possibility he may have a big hand. An 8 comes on the turn, I can still easily fold to a big raise, putting him on a set or a straight.

In a 6 handed game, I call raises with 6 7, 6 8, and 7 10 suited all the time, the rationale being that if I hit my hand (straights and flushes, not bottom 2 pair), my opponent will not be able to get off his high pocket pair. You have to love it when you flop the nut straight and your opponent is all-in on the flop with a pair of kings, having only a 2% chance of hitting runner runner.

Stop Slowplaying:

I don't slowplay very often, and when I do, I usually have the nuts or 2nd nuts. I used to slowplay sets, but now I almost never do. For me to slowplay, I need top set with no flush or straight draws. Pushing your sets will lesson your bad beats and incresae the size of the pot substantially. If your opponent is drawing, it will cost him a lot more to catch.

Building the pot is huge; you want to get paid off when you hit.

Here is an example of pushing the pot with a made hand:

You have 5c, 6s in the SB and you have 3 limpers in front of you. You call the extra $5 and the BB checks, so 5 people see the flop.

The flop comes 4 7 8 rainbow. I like to lead out around $30 here. I know you're saying, "What????" Like I said above, you want to build the pot. Check raising is too strong, and you must also remember that there are 4 other players out there, and that someone probably hit something. The ideal situation is having someone raise you with a hand like A8, or maybe they limped in early position with 99. If they raise to around $100, many times I will flat call. An Ad comes on the turn (could be great for me, if he has an A). After raising the flop he will bet here 95% of the time, so I check. Let's say he bets $125 into the $250 pot. I raise to $350, so that if he has a set and he's looking to fill up, I make him pay for it.

Paying attention, Knowing your opponents:

Within 20 minutes at a 6 handed table, I already know which players I will fold big hands against and which ones could never get me off my hand. I know this by paying attention to every hand played. If the hand is shown down, I am analyzing the hand history. The difference between making ok money at these tables and making great money is being able to lay down hands. I would say that on average once or twice per session (usually 4-5 hours), playing at 3 tables, I will lay down aces or kings after the flop. It's really hard, but you have to do it to be successful.

Now, I would like to share a hand where I feel I made a great laydown, probably my best laydown.

$5-$10 no limit
6 player table

I limp UTG with 10 7 of diamonds (I have about a $3,900 stack) , 4 players see a flop of Jh 9c 8h.

OK, I'm feeling pretty good, flopped a straight. SB checks, the BB bets $35 into the $40 pot...I'm not messing around, as there are higher straight draws as well the flush draw. As I said, this flop is way too coordinated for me to flat call, so I raise to $90. The player behind me flat calls and the initial raiser folds. Now I'm a bit worried....what could he have to flat call there? He saw a bet and raise, and a flat call?? I immediately put him on hearts or the higher straight with Q 10. The reason for this is that if he had a set or 2 pair, he has to raise there, he has to see where he's at. I had been at the table with this guy for about half an hour, and I had noted he was was a solid player.

Now the turn brings the harmless 2s. I lead out $175 into the $255 pot, and he quickly raises to $500, leaving him about $1,000 left in his stack....UGHHHH, he has Q 10, thats the only
hand I'm thinking about now. I tell him I have 10 7 and I'm 90% sure he has Q 10, and I fold....and he shows Q 10.

5 or 6 months ago, I double him up, losing another $1500 without hesitation, but patience and thinking through the hand helped me quite a bit.

Well that's it from me, I hope I helped your game just a little bit. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to shoot me message.

Good Luck at the tables,
Kevin
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