An oldy

********Warning information ahead will improve your cash game....if you are a fish/donkey/whale/pathetic poker player please refrain from reading ahead because this information will help you so go back to playing every hand chasing every flush draw because online sites are rigged and you will win all the time.


Now remember play poker online and poker tournaments to boost your online practice.

When you sit down at the table there are two things I look for right away. Most of you guys play full table games so you will have to adapt the strategy here at your own discretion but my advice comes from max 6 tables.

First off I guarantee if you play max 6 for a week straight you will learn more about poker then you ever will playing full tables. You are just forced to making constant decision in short periods of time which will improve your game immensely. Not to mention the profitability at short handed tables are much greater then full tables because inexperienced players tend to make an inordinate amount of mistakes leading to a much more profitable situation in the long run.

#1st thing you do upon sitting down:

Back to the nature at hand the first thing I look for is how tight or lose the blinds are. That is one of the first notes I make online into there "online notes section". Why? Because when I'm in LP and most people have folded I want to know if these guys will defend with any two cards, fold consistently, or only call when they have a hand or just check and fold when they miss. This is invaluable information which really helps when you go card dead. People often talk about how hard its make money when you don’t catch card. You know what I say to that BULLSHIT!!!. During a course of session there are plenty of situations where you can make money without ever having to show your cards you just need to learn to recognize them. This is one of those situations. The goal in cash game is try to stay even keel until you get a monster hand. By stealing blinds and pots with continuation bets in situations where the blinds are weak players you can stay profitable with little risk to your stack. Remember you are trying to stay even keel until that 2-1 or 4-1 favorite opportunity for you arrives to double through.


#2nd THING I do upon sitting down at the table and some could argue that this is more important that the first one.

We've all heard about the saying from rounders, " when a fish acts strong he's bluffing, when a fish acts weak he's strong". Well that was probably the best god dam information that entire move had to offer.

Upon sitting you'll notice ( especially at shorthanded tables) that certain people like bet the minimum in position or say bet 10 into a 50 pot or 4 into a 12 dollar pot etc etc. My point is they bet weak into a pot and your not sure what that means. So when I sit down what do I do? I answer that question by raising them. I would say about 70% they fold and I write into my notes online "weak means weak". Meaning every time they bet weak I know there weak and I can raise them with a decent raise. ( I even go even more into detail documenting what there bets on each street mean example: turn weak mean weak, river strong means strong....etc etc) EASY MONEY EARNED right then and there.

The second situation arises when you have the other types of people who bet pot (FUCK YOU FULLTILT for adding the pot bet button because every idiot and there mother can just click a button and bet strong which kills this strategy) or around pot. Once again I raise them a feeler amount in the beginning. For example let’s say someone bets out 20 into a 20 dollar pot I will raise about 45 to 55. That is perfect amount to figure out whether they have something or not. Most of the time u'll get an instant fold while other times they will hesitant call and you know there on a draw and play the rest of the hand accordingly. But the end result is now you have diagnosed the two types of basic players that play poker.

Think this sounds too simple to be true. Well I'm telling you its so freaking simple that people are dumb enough not to realize they do it all the time. People are creatures of habit and poker is about picking up on these habits. I cant tell you how many time u'll play against the min bet people where u raise them and they fold and u'll collect a decent pot with nothing. Or other times where u have a monster hand and someone min bets into you and your notes say "weak when strong" saving you a boat load of money. Think this stuff doesn’t work well here is a great example for you:

6 handed NL 2/4 game ( sorry CD doesn’t allow me to store hand histories so this is from memory)


Seat 1: Donkey 1 (400$) SB
Seat 2:Decent Player (500$) BB (Online notes say cold calls a strong hand, slow plays till river)
Seat 3: Donkey 2 ( 925$) UNG ( Online notes says weak when strong)
Seat 4: Donkey 3 (294$)
Seat 5: Me (825$)
Seat 6: Donkey (65$)



Donkey 2 UNG limps for 4$
Donkey 3 folds
I raise to 20$ with (Ad Kh)
Donkey fold
Donkey 1 folds
Decent player calls raise to 20$
UNG limp calls raise to 20

3 way action to the flop with a pot of 66$

Flop of Ah Kd 2c

Now this is a dream flop for me especially considering I'm in position. There is really nothing there I should be scared of so I decided to check the flop after both players checked to me to allow them to catch up

Turn is a 3s

The Decent player checks, the Donkey bets the minimum 4 $ and I think for a second. Since his notes say weak when strong I have to figure out if he's flopped two pair or a set. This is one of the toughest decisions in poker I feel. Because laying down two pair here is a huge mistake if the player has flopped another two pair. And alot of pro's say you should go broke with top two pair. Honestly I hate that line that you should go broke. I think it’s a load of crap. There is no reason you should go broke.....if you feel Ur beat you should lay down. The only reason you won’t be able to lay down is because of your ego or lack of discipline that’s it. There is never a reason you should go broke just like there is never a reason that you should win just because you’re good. You have to earn your money it’s never handed to you in poker ( though sometimes it is)

So I decide to raise to 24$ and see what the donkey does and play the hand from there. All of sudden decent player cold calls my raise.

Whenever a player cold calls a raise it’s scary. Why? Because there is usually two and only two possible outcomes (1) they are on a draw or (2) they have a monster. In this case there was no draw out there unless he called a raise with 45 and turned the straight. But considering he was a decent player calling out the BB I put him on a strong hand.

The Donkey who had min raised now immediately reraises the pot to 85. Now I realize that one of these two guys has a set guaranteed. Buts it’s tough to convince yourself of that so I pretend im the Donkey and think about the situation. If I had a raise and cold call in front of me what would I do? If I was short stacked I would push, but if I had a decent amount of chips which was the case I would reraises an amount which would likely get a call from both players. I stepped outside of myself and looked at the situation as if I wasn’t in the hand. I realized that the only way to make a play like that would be that he had to have a set. So I did something I normally don’t do. I FOLDED TOP TWO PAIR.

The decent player then RR all in and the donkey calls. The river is a blank and the decent player shows AK while the donkey had 33 for set. That really pissed me off cause had I bet the flop there is now way he would have seen that turn and I split the pot instead of losing 50 or so in it. But I made the correct lay down thanks to my notes. If I had never written weak when strong there is now way I would have been able to figure out the situation and diagnosis it properly.


So as you can this strategy does work and I use it all the time. Yes as you move up in level this is more and more difficult because people bet weak in order to get a raise etc etc but this strategy is a gold mine at most levels. This works best against amateurs.

Hope you guys learned a bit and it improved your game a little. Next week I will write about raising for information.


GL at the tables.......