In the 3rd part of our series (read Part 1 here, read Part 2 here), we will focus on a very obvious weakness of tournament players in cash games:

Overplaying hands on the Turn and River

It’s not your fault. You rarely, if ever, have to make any real decision like bet-folding the river or calling a turn check-raise just to fold (or call) a river bet.

Because of the shallow stacks in tournaments, you are rarely getting into these situations and, as such, you don’t have the practice, experience, and perhaps know-how of what the right play should be.

There are two main reasons:

1. It is mathematically correct to stack off lighter when on a shorter stack

The reason many tournament players overplay hands on the turn is because in tournaments (with shallow stacks) it is actually correct to stack off lighter (for 30 to 70bb) than you should in a cash game for, let’s say, 100bb. Often, stacking off with a certain hand strength becomes automatic, even in a different format where it is wrong.

2. Tournaments attract a lot more recreational players than cash games

The number of bad/crazy plays you will see is on a completely different level than what you might encounter in cash games. Sure, we have bad and crazy plays everywhere, but the average tournament is crazier for sure.

How to fix it? Let me give you some very general rules:

1. Turn raises are super strong. Folding all one-pair hands that have no flush draw or any other decent draw is the correct play. You can even very comfortably bet-fold two pairs such as 76 on a 76JT board. In a tournament, you’d rarely fold this because it typically is an all-in hand and him having only one hand like AJ that you beat is enough to call. In cash games, you’re pretty much always toast.

2. River raises are almost always the nuts – even stronger than turn raises. Below NL200, people rarely, if ever, bluff raise the river. Even if their line makes very little sense, you will always end up looking at some slow-played hand. My team of players is very professional about these situations since they are professionals. River raises are a bluff less than 10% of the time. So, unless you beat a value hand or have a super strong read, folding to a raise is a very good, standard play.

3. Because of 1) and 2), you should not go into check-calling too much either. The fact that you should fold to river raises very frequently does not mean you should start checking more. This is a logical fallacy. Actually, you can very comfortably bet because if you only get raised by better hands, you’re not losing value.

That’s it. Now it’s time to go out and practice. Play some cash games at a limit you’re comfortable with and see if you agree with what you have learned in this article.

Gordon BPC is the founder and head coach of bestpokercoaching.com. BPC became famous through its coaching for profits program, which has transformed mediocre and losing players to making $100,000 in profits in only nine months. What makes BPC different? They publicly document the progress of their students and prove that what they teach brings real provable results. To learn more about BPC and their mission, visit them at bestpokercoaching.com.