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“Here is a great Cash Game Strategy Article From Poker News Daily”

Crucial Concepts in NLHE six-max cash games

By Carl Sampson for Poker News Daily

Going through the mistakes that poker players make, it becomes pretty evident that most players seem to be locked in a downward spiral committing the same mistakes over and over again. In this article I will be taking a look at a few of those mistakes that hopefully can then be corrected in a very short space of time.

#1     Defending your blinds

It is never going to be profitable sitting in the blind seats and you are going to have to come to terms with this fact pretty quickly. A combination of having to place money into the pot without getting to see your cards first and having bad position throughout the hand is a terrible handicap to have to endure.

You need to be folding a very high percentage of your hands and this includes the big blind as well. The rest of the time you should strive to balance your play between folding and calling depending on the level of action before it gets to you and who has raised, as well as the content of your hand and the history of the game.

#2     Not paying attention to flop textures

If you raise from the button with a hand like 8c-7c and both blinds call you then you are going to have to proceed with far more care than against only one opponent. If the flop comes Qc-Jh-6h then your chances of taking this pot with a continuation bet have been greatly reduced.

We have two cards in the playing zone and both of your opponents appear to have liked their hand. Likewise if you raise with that exact same hand and both blinds call you again only this time the flop comes something like 4h-4c-2d then you may have a hard time convincing both opponents that you have an overpair and one of them will probably call you and the better players may be looking to check-raise.

In this example, you have to remember that raising with a suited connector is injecting a decent level of deception into the hand and your raise is sending out the message of “high cards” to your opponents. Once the flop appears then your two opponents are not going to be taking you for having connected with that flop unless you have something like a pocket pair.

An even worse scenario may arise if you open raise from the button with hand like 6d-5d and both blinds call you. The flop comes 4h-3d-3c, both opponents check to you and you make a two-thirds of the pot continuation bet with your straight draw. The small blind folds but the big blind who is relatively short stacked overbets the pot and moves all in.

You have no implied odds on your call and you are now making a purely pot odds decision. If you are not getting the proper odds for your call then you must fold, but in this instance then not only have you lost your bet on the flop but you have also lost out on the chance to take your opponents stack as a deuce or a seven coming on the turn will still look like it missed you to your opponent.

Also if a high card flops like an Ace or a King then you are better placed to represent that hand as a pre-flop raiser. But the texture of the flop is a critical feature of No Limit Hold’em play, and ignoring this area of the game will seriously impede any player’s chances of success.

#3     Calling raises with weak hands

There seems to be a very serious sub-culture in Hold’em in which players call raises with speculative hands looking to either hit a big flop or to outplay someone post flop. This type of play has been strongly re-enforced by televised tournament poker. But as we all know, televised tournament poker is a long way removed from cash games.

There are no escalating blinds in cash games so there is no need to accumulate chips by taking risks like there is in tournament poker. Plus the final stages of poker tournaments tend to get even more hectic where the blind to stack ratio is very small. But continuing this theme in cash games is not profitable on the whole.

One of the objectives for calling a raise with a speculative hand is not going to happen frequently enough, and that is to make a big hand. When you miss the flop (which you will do a large percentage of the time) then you are left with only two alternatives. These are either to fold and take the loss, or to try and outplay your opponent by either raising them on the flop or looking to float them on the flop and then trying to take the pot away from them on the turn.

These are highly risky plays and very expensive when they go wrong. But you will not be able to outplay your opponents often enough to compensate for your losses. Now when you go heads up with a raiser then what you are doing is a combination of one of two things, or in many cases both combined: you are either going up against a strong hand (because they raised) or you are going up against a player who is showing a strong intention that they want to play their hand (whether it is strong or not). This second reason is one that many players fail to take on board but this can leave you outplayed or outmuscled purely because your opponent had the nerve to push you even harder than you are prepared to push them.

Do not blindly think that you are making a clever play by calling a raiser even when you have position with a mediocre hand. A combination of going up against a strong hand or a strong intention or both will often mean that it is you who will be the loser and not your opponent.

Also the size of the stacks tends not to be as large in online games as they are in live cash games, and many players short stack online, which essentially means that your implied odds will be nowhere near what they should be in certain situations. Remember these three types of error and remember them well, and you should be well armed to navigate six-max NLHE cash games in the future if you do not repeat them.

Gus Hansen, some people like to refer to him as the High Stakes Fish; however I believe he is one the best players out there, but just likes to gamble too much and cannot resist the action. I think its in his blood to gamble and chase action, this is why he regularly gets involved in some of the biggest pots played on Full Tilt Poker.

So when you adopt a style like Gus’s, there is no doubt you are going to have large swings, well things are beginning to swing in his favor after  coming off a rough week and now he is absolutely killing it.

Hansen is rumored to be up around 1.5 Million over the past few days and he has collected most of the cash from Di “Urindanger” Dang, Hac “trex313″ Dang and, as of today, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond.

2009 has already been a great year for Hansen as he’s rumored to be up approximately $2.5 million for the year.

The game of choice is usually Pot limit Omaha for the Great Dane and here are some of the biggest pots he won yesterday:

Gus Hansen has a nice draw on the flop against trex313 two pairs, $247k pot
This time it´s Gus Hansen who has two pair against trex313 NFD, $205k pot

Phil Ivey who is arguably the best cash game player in the world is back to his best in online poker.

After a sluggish start to the year, in which he dropped over $2MiL I just the opening weeks of January causing him to flush 33% of his winnings from 2008, Ivey has made a solid comeback.

Since then though, Mr Ivey has gone on an rampage, in which he has collected a staggering $4 million in profit, in just a few months. Since February 15th, Ivey has won $3.764 million dollars over just 9,724 hands, which is one of the best single month performances of all time on Full Tilt Poker.

Currently for the month of March, Ivey is up over 1.8 million and it is an astounding figure, considering the next closest competitor, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, is up $402k in March. Ivey isn’t just doing well on Full Tilt Poker so far this month – he is absolutely killing it.

After his remarkable comeback in February and thanks to his flying start in March Ivey is now up over $1.3 million dollars for the year, and is once again in the list of the top 10 most profitable players on the site.

If he keeps playing like this, there is no stopping him, and he will once again be the most profitable payer of the Year on Full Tilt, although there is still a long way to go!

You are not going to believe the action that has been going down on Full Tilt Poker in the past couple of days. Tom dawn and Phil Ivey have been battling it out over the past few days and basically these guys are just playing all out crazy poker. They played two hands, both $400K plus size pots, in which both players simply went all-in pre-flop. Alright if you’re playing a $1-2 cash game with a $100 stack, you lose the plot occasionally and just go all-in, but I don’t know what possessed these guys to put $200K plus in the middle on a simple coin flip.

Anyhow Ivey ended up demolishing the youngster and won both coin-flips, in which he collected over $400K in pure profit. All up Durrr was down around $1 Million for the weekend but ended up making most of it back by playing some rock solid poker through the remainder of the week.

Despite his heroics, Dwan is still rumored to be down around $2.5 million in 2009 .

Here are the two coin flips that were played out against Phil Ivey and Tom Durrr Dwan

Coin Flip 1

Coin Flip 2

Head over To Full Tilt Poker To Monitor some over the craziest High Stakes Action and watch the Pros Do Battle!

Tom Dwan commonly known by his alias “Durrrr” won his largest online pot of all time a few days ago. The action went down on the GusHeaven table over at Full Tilt and the game was extra juicy due the presence of High Stakes online poker fish elmariachimacho.

Phil Galfond ended up collecting over $2 Million in profits from the table, however even with Galfond controlling most the action the biggest pot was a clash between durrr and Urindanger. It was an interesting hand and for Urindanger to call durrr’s all-in on the river I believe he at least had to have top two pair and took a pretty sick beat. The Pot was worth $657K and won by durrrr with a set of Fours. Check Out how the Hand was Played Out.

Poker After Dark will heading into its fifth season in 2009 and from the looks of things it is set to the most exciting season the show has seen to date. According to a preliminary release of details, the show is going to be increasing the amount of cash games; in fact to be exact there will be seven weeks of cash games in total. This is probably the best move they could’ve made as it obviously clear that the format is much more popular amongst poker fans. Ratings were increased significantly during the cash game episodes last season. This season they have some exciting Cash Game Matches Set Up which you shouldn’t miss, here is a preview of what you can expect:
All cash games will be $200/$400 blinds with a $100,000 min./$250,000 max. buy-in. Stakes can be raised if all players agree; straddles props and flips are allowed.

•    Nets vs. Vets: In this episode three online stars will face off against three live poker veterans, looks very exciting. From the net you have  Taylor “Green Plastic” Caby, Cole “CTS” South and David “Raptor” Benefield. The other three sits will be filled by Doyle Brunson, Gabe Kaplan and Eli Elezra

•    The Hellmuth Bash: Two full weeks will be devoted to Phil Hellmuth on the table with Tom “durrrr” Dwan,Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Laak, Kenny “Sick Call” Tran and high-stakes recreational player Bob Safai.

•    Railbird Heaven: Named after the high-stakes Full Tilt table “RailHeaven,” for two weeks this installment will feature high-stakes players: Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Gus Hansen, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth and David “Viffer” Peat, who will share time with Hansen. With these kinds of players at the table who love the action, expect to see some heavy chips flying in all directions.

The Bigger They Bet, The Harder They Fall

By Dan Katz for Poker News Daily | Posted on November 12, 2008

I’ll admit it.  I have a major leak in my sit-and-go game.  I am simply not very good heads-up.  Sure, I can win, but not nearly as often as I’d like when I get into the final two, even if I go in as the chip leader.  I just always seem to do the wrong thing at the wrong time.  There is one kind of player, however, that I do seem to have success against in the heads-up portion of a tournament: the massive overbettor.

This type of player is super-aggressive post-flop with any sort of decent, yet not monster, hand.  If he hits a pair on the flop or even finds himself with a solid draw, he will likely way overbet the pot, even to the point of going all-in, in order to protect his hand.  He will pretty much always raise pre-flop in position (since it’s heads-up, this obviously means on the button), even more than a good player normally would, and will try to beat you into submission with continuation bets after the flop.  Really, unless the board looks ultra-scary, he is not likely to take his foot off the gas once he becomes the aggressor.

Fortunately, the overbettor, or severe LAG (Loose-Aggressive) player, as we could call him, is relatively easy to defeat, provided you have patience and a stack which will allow you to play defense.

While you will, of course, need to open up your game a bit since it’s heads-up, you will want to proceed with caution pre-flop.  As always, raise with powerful hands, but be a little less aggressive than you might normally be with small to medium pairs and marginal hands like connectors (suited or otherwise).  Because your overbetting opponent is apt to raise, raise, raise, you want to keep the pots smaller with drawing hands, and this includes lesser pairs, since you will likely need to hit at least something on the board to win the hand at showdown.  The last thing you want is to get three-bet with connectors and then have to call even bigger bets after the flop if you want to continue chasing a draw.  By keeping the pot small early in the hand, you will be able to play more hands, hoping to hit big, while still being able to get away from them if need be without sustaining too much damage.

In the meantime, let the other player do all the betting for you.  You know he’s going to bet and raise, bet and raise without worrying too much about what you have, so oblige him.  He might get away with sticking his head in the lion’s mouth time and time again, but eventually, he’s going to get complacent and the jaws will snap down on him.  When you do get a hand worthy of making a move, just play it passively.  Check-call the flop if you’re out of position (which is a great spot to be in against this betting fiend when you have a big hand) and let him make his grand, greater-than-pot-size continuation bets.  If the board is still innocent looking enough, check-call the turn.  By the time you become the aggressor on the river, your opponent will likely be pot committed and will have to call you with his inferior hand.

The time to tread more lightly when you have a strong hand after the flop is when you raise your opponent’s overbet, only to have him just call.  As I mentioned earlier, this kind of opponent tends to go nuts with his betting when he has a drawing hand or something good, but not special, like top pair.  If he’s on a pure bluff, he will probably fold to a sizable raise (he’s a crazy overbettor, not a crazy bluffer).  But if he just calls, he may actually have something strong.  This doesn’t mean you should concede the hand.  It just means that you are going to need to make a read and evaluate whether or not your strong hand is likely to beat his possibly strong hand.

If you don’t want to wait until the river to make your move, that’s fine, too.  You will still likely take down a nice pot and your aggression may serve to slow your opponent down, allowing you to take control of the match.  And if he just goes right back to what he was doing, fine.  You’ll nail him soon enough.

Of course, you can’t wait too long and let your stack get whittled away if you enter the heads-up match with too short of a stack.  In that case, make your big moves as you typically would with the short stack, knowing that your opponent very well might get careless and give you a courtesy double-up.

Remember, the key to besting the habitual overbettor is patience.  It is easy to get antsy when you have to constantly fold to an opponent’s unnecessarily large bets.  But if you have a large enough stack to wait him out, you can eventually let him dig his own grave.  Also keep in mind, as I mentioned briefly earlier, that this player is not a maniac bluffer.  If he’s making his overbets, he at least has something, even if it’s just a draw.  So, trying to match his aggression with misplaced bluffs will not usually work, as he will be handcuffed to hands that will likely beat a bluff, even if those hands are weak.  Take advantage of the love he has for his middling hand and crush him when you have a monster.

The high stakes action over at Full Tilt Poker is beginning to heat up again after a fairly quite month in November, all the pros are back and they are doing battle in full effect, its business as usual. There have been a number of huge pots played over the past few days but the one that stands out the most is an Omaha Hand between Phil “OMGClayAiken” and “LarsLuzak”. You probably wouldn’t have seen a hand go down like this since Gus Hansen beat Daniel Negreanu’s Full House with Quad fives on High Stakes Poker (that was in No Limit Hold’em, which makes it a bit worse).

Anyhow the hand was played out like this:

“OMGClayAiken” had $98,500 in front of him, and “LarsLuzak” had $262,300.

“OMGClayAiken” raised to $3,500, “LarsLuzak” called on the button, everyone else folded.

The flop came K-5-5. “OMGClayAiken” bet $4,600, “LarsLuzak” raised to $15,800, “OMGClayAiken” called for time, and then eventually called.

The turn brought the Queen of Diamonds. “OMGClayAiken” checked, “LarsLuzak” bet $28,500, “OMGClayAiken” requested time again, and finally decided on a call.

The river brought an Eight of Clubs. “OMGClayAiken” checked once again, “LarsLuzak” bet $97,100 and “OMGClayAiken” snap-called the bet that put him all-in.

“LarsLuzak” showed 7-J-K-K for a flopped full house.

“OMGClayAiken” showed 4-5-A-5 for flopped Quads and took down the $198k pot.

The pot wasn’t that big, but it sure was an amazing hand, in regards to how it was played and that it was a flopped full house against flopped quads. It is just one of those situations you dread seeing, LarsLuzak could only lose to one hand, and his opponent managed to have it, he would be spewing. It was well played by OMGClayAiken to check it three times, however no matter what either player bet all the money was going to end up in the middle regardless.

Time to post some more Music, today’s tune is from Wu Tang’s Masta Killa. The song is from his solo album No Said Date and it is great song with a nice beat and quality lyrics. Check It Out!

Here is another great article from Pokerlistings.com about Bluffing

The Bad Bluff

By Sean Lind

There is nothing more rewarding for a pro than calling down an amateur making a bad bluff; and there’s nothing more upsetting to an amateur than getting called.

An amateur thinking at a basic level will often make a bad bluff thinking it’s a strong move. But bluffing well is an advanced skill requiring a very deep understanding of the game.

The stronger your opponent, the more advanced your bluff methodology must become.

One Hand, Two Stories

When there’s a car accident at a busy intersection, there is no shortage of witnesses for the police to talk to. Remarkably, even if the accident only happened a short time ago, each eyewitness will have a different take on what happened.

Even though every witness saw the exact same event, they all saw it (or remember it) differently. This is typically referred to as “Eyewitness Recall” in forensic psychology. Our interpretation of the current situation stems from our memory of the proceeding events.

From http://www.campsych.com/eyewitness.htm:

“Memory consists of three stages: (1) storage, (2) retention, and (3) recall. Storage factors can impede memory accuracy when we find ourselves unable to recall information from our memory because it was never stored there. For instance, can you recall which way Lincoln faces on a penny, and where the letter identifying the mint of the penny is located?”

This means that each person witnessing a hand will have their own idea of what has happened in the current hand, and in the hands leading up to it. The players in the hand, each having different information (since they both know only their own hole cards), will each have a different take on the situation.

Bad Bluff Examples

This first example is a standard, common instance of an amateur making a bad bluff.

Table Setup: The amateur is in early position with a slightly less-than-average stack size of $175. The pro is on the button with a slightly larger-than-average stack size of $325. The two players have been at the same table for a couple of hours with no significant history between them.

Pre-Flop: Amateur raises. Pro calls. Heads-up to the flop.

Flop:

Amateur checks. Pro checks.

Turn:

Amateur checks. Pro checks.

River:

Amateur bets the pot. Pro calls.

Amateur shows

Pro shows

The pro wins the pot with two pair, sixes and jacks.

In this scenario the amateur usually sits in shock, wondering how the pro could have called with nothing but bottom pair. The amateur sees the action as herself having raised pre-flop, thus giving the impression that she has a big hand.

The pro never bet any of the streets; clearly he does not have a big pocket pair. Because only the amateur has shown she has a big hand, she feels that there is no way the pro can call when the top card pairs the board.

The pro beats nothing but a bluff, and with the amateur showing strength pre-flop and playing with a tight table image, she feels that the chances she’s bluffing should seem slim to none to the pro.

The pro sees the hand very differently. Due to her tight image, the pro immediately puts the amateur on a big hand when she raises, making for an easy loose call with the suited connector. The flop gives the pro a small pair with no real strong draws.

When the amateur checks the flop, the pro now knows the amateur has one of two hands: the amateur flopped a set of jacks and is looking to check-raise, or more likely the amateur has A-K or A-Q and chose not to c-bet.

If the amateur has AA, KK, QQ or A-J, she is almost certain to make a bet with the flush draw on the flop.

The pro is now either way behind, or ahead of a player with six outs. The pro is also able to bluff having a flush if another club hits the board. If the amateur is scared of the draw, she is most likely sitting on only four outs to win now.

The turn makes no real change to the situation – when the amateur checks, the pro is now 90% sure that the amateur is on A-K or AQ. He’s willing to check behind with the lead, taking his equity rather than risking getting check-raised.

Checking behind here also sets up the amateur to make a donk bluff on the river thinking the pro will fold after showing no strength.

The river is an absolute blank as far as the pro is concerned. If he was sure the amateur didn’t have a jack on the flop, he’s even more convinced she doesn’t have one now. The amateur makes the donk bluff the pro thought she might, and snap-calls for the win.

In the eyes of the amateur, this was a strong bluff, as she believed no player without a jack could make the call. The amateur had a strong read on the pro’s hand, but didn’t stop to consider the information the pro had on her.

Amateurs are always shocked that the pro could call here with nothing more than top pair, whereas looking at it from the pro’s point of view, there was never a reason to fold.

This second example, taking place an hour after the last hand, is the reverse of the first example. Here the amateur makes what she thinks is a hero call on a pro:

Table Setup: The pro is in early position now with a large stack size of $770. The amateur is on the button with a slightly larger-than-average stack size of $325.

Pre-Flop: Pro limps. Amateur raises. Pro calls. Heads-up to the flop.

Flop:

Pro checks. Amateur bets. Pro calls.

Turn:

Pro checks. Amateur bets. Pro calls.

River:

Pro bets half the pot. Amateur calls.

Amateur shows

Pro shows

The pro wins the pot with a pair of aces.

In this example the amateur has the correct read on the pro; she knows that the pro is on the flush draw in the hand and keeps correctly betting his top pair.

When the flush misses on the river she believes the pro is making a weak bluff with a missed draw, and calls with her pair of queens.

The amateur forgot to take her thought processes one step further. Knowing the pro is on a flush draw, it’s most commonly going to be the nut flush draw he’s holding. When the ace comes on the river, the pro did miss his flush draw, but now has the best pair.

The only hand the pro is worried about losing to here is A-Q for top two. It’s a thin value bet that works out nicely.

Before you start making bluffs at your opponents, you’re going to want to take all of the possible factors into consideration. Successfully bluffing typically requires the player to set up the bluff on an earlier street. If your opponent can’t realistically put you on a hand that beats them, your bluff is going to fail.

If you play the first four streets like you’re holding something weak, only to show sudden unwarranted strength on the river, chances are you’re going to get called down. Most often these dark tunnel bluffs work when the player is actually value betting the best hand, only thinking they’re bluffing.

Before you make a move at a pot, take into consideration the picture of yourself you’ve painted to the other players, as well as the picture you have of them. Only if both of these align will your bluff have a high chance for success.

The best way to work on any poker skill, such as when to bluff, is to see as many hands as you can. Thanks to online poker rooms, seeing thousands of hands over a weekend is no longer a difficult task.