Carl “The Dean” Sampson.

 

 

Over the next few months I will be taking a look at some of the dynamics of cash game poker in a no limit setting. I will be looking at full ring and six handed games as well. I would like to reveal a few of the things that I look for and consider when making a decision in a cash game. I will be looking at PokerTracker data and HUD readouts at a later date but in each article I will be taking a look at a particular hand and breaking it down.

 

Here the hand is taken from an online NLHE 6-max cash game and the stakes are $2-$4. The stack sizes which as always are highly relevant to the equation are as follows.

 

BIG BLIND:                  $197

SMALL BLIND:           $312

BUTTON:                      $294

CUT-OFF:                     $563

HIJACK:     (ME)         $409

UTG:                              $388

 

Here I see the 10c-9c in the hijack and the UTG folds so the action is on me. In general this is not a hand that I will usually fold in the hijack seat in a six max game if the UTG has already folded their hand. But yet a lot depends on what the players are like who have position over me.

 

If there are loose aggressive players to my left on the button and in the cut-off who will have a wide three betting range here then I will fold this hand without much thought. But I will potentially fold, limp or raise depending on what I think is the best play to extract money from my opponents.

 

Limping is usually not correct in a NL400 game as the average calibre of player would punish such a move and getting your limp raised was not really on the agenda. But yet against really loose and passive players who also have the potential to lose many bets post flop then I may speculate with a hand like this. But against strong players then it just isn’t profitable to open limp with many hands at all. In fact if you never open limped at all in a 6-max NL400 game then you certainly would not be making a mistake. 

 

So my usual choice then is between raising and folding depending on who has position over me. What I like to see other players doing is calling raises. If I am watching a game and I see players calling raises then I know that I am going to be in a profitable game. I see many players attempt to get tricky in situations like these by calling a raise with the sole intention of making some move post flop.

 

I think that many of these players see certain things on television and then try to emulate them in a cash game setting without considering the consequences. Under severe blind pressure then it can be correct to sometimes throw the rule book out of the window in tournament poker but cash games are different.

 

In this example then I am raising with my hand for several reasons.

 

 

1.      It is deceptive

2.      I can represent many hands post flop

3.      I don’t think that I will get three bet

4.      Players have been calling raises allowing me to increase my profit potential

5.      The hand can make a very strong holding.

 

 

Many players do not see a raise from the hijack seat as a steal and this factor also adds to the deception of the hand. But if I raise and get called then I immediately look at the stack size of the person who has called me. Why have I done this? Well an opponent’s stack size will help you to ascertain what they may be tying to do post flop.

 

As I have said, if you are against a player who likes to call raises with position and who likes to float and make moves post flop then players like this tend not to have short to medium stacks. They want plenty of chips to play like this and this means buying in or having as much as possible on the table.

 

Also players who have fairly wide three betting ranges tend to have larger stacks as well so when I open raise with the 10c-9c and get three bet then any further involvement by me in this hand is going to be straying away from conventional play. This means that I really need strong data on my opponent to continue here and if you have that data then four betting is now a highly attractive line of play.

 

But short stacked three bets need to be respected far more as these are the players who are usually raising and re-raising for value and I would fold my hand in an instant if say I was three bet by the big blind who was sitting on $197. This certainly doesn’t imply that I would necessarily get involved against big stacks with a suited connector.

 

All I am saying here is that you need to take your opponents stack sizes into consideration when trying to ascertain the correct line of play and what you opponents method of operation and mindset might be.

 

 

 

Carl “The Dean” Sampson is sponsored by Cake Poker and can be seen at cakepoker/thedean