Starting with Opening Hands. The hands that you choose to go into battle with in Texas Hold’em are. Don’t Call All the Time. Most new players struggle with calling too much when they are just getting. Limit Texas Holdem Cash Game Strategy To be a winning long term limit Texas holdem cash game player you have to approach the game as a grinder. You constantly have to be aware of situations where you can play with positive expectation. My book, The Course: Serious Hold ‘Em Strategy For Smart Players, is a practical guide to winning in live no-limit cash games. It starts with what you need to stop losing at $1-$2, and it adds on skills until you get to what you need to beat $5-$10. I’m devoting a few articles to give you a taste for my recipe to conquer everyday cash games. Rules of the Game Before the Moneymaker poker boom in 2003, Limit Hold’em (LHE) was the king of the cash game world. Unquestionably No Limit Hold’em (NLHE) has taken over; however limit is still going strong on the East Coast, California, and a few Midwest locations. It is a fun quick game.

Many people struggle to break through in a big way in small stakes cash games. Perhaps they squeak by with break-even results or they even become minor winners. But most people want to win big. Indeed, for many that is the primary reason for playing the game.

The key to accomplishing that goal is to learn how to exploit the small edges most other people do not know about or do not apply often enough. In this article I am going to discuss five simple strategy tips that will help increase your profit margins in low stakes cash games.

1. Steal the Blinds

Most people think they do a good job of stealing the blinds, but many still pass up a lot of golden opportunities to do so. It is simply a fact that the button and the cutoff will be by far the most profitable seats for you at the poker table. Why on earth, then, would you not exploit the heck out of this when it is folded to you in these positions?

In my opinion, you can easily get away with stealing the blinds with 30% or even 40% of your hands in your typically passive low stakes cash games, live or online. Most opponents will simply let you take it down, only three-betting you if they happen to have a strong hand. Or even better, they will flat your steal attempt from out of position and then you can take down an even bigger pot with a simple continuation bet on the flop and/or turn.

The bottom line is that stealing the blinds is a highly effective way to increase your profit in small stakes cash games. Make sure that you are raising with anything that is even remotely playable.

2. Double-Barrel

Another effective strategy in passive low stakes cash games is to continuation bet the flop and then follow it up again on the turn. This is also referred to as a “double-barrel.”

The reason why this strategy is so effective is because many people at these stakes play no-limit cash games as if they were fixed-limit games. That is, they will call you on the flop but if you can follow it up on the turn with another bet, then they will assume that you are serious and let you have the pot.

This is a very effective strategy to use in particular against weak-tight opponents who won’t call you down with weak pairs or draws. Some players will even fold a small overpair if you continue to apply the pressure like this! Target these players more often by making another continuation bet on the turn.

3. Three-Bet Light

One of my favorite strategies against these same weak-tight opponents is to three-bet them light before the flop. By three-bet light I mean rereaise their open raise with a bunch of hands that aren’t quite premium — e.g., suited connectors, suited aces, and small pairs. I never do it with total junk. I always want to have some equity.

I will also do it more often when I am in position. This allows me to control the pace of the hand should they decide to call. This also allows me to get more value bets in if I manage to hit the board or to bluff if I feel like they aren’t confident about their hand.

4. Bluff the River

Once again the target here are the weak-tight opponents you see everywhere these days in small stakes cash games, especially online. Many of the players in this category do not like to go to showdown without a strong hand.

If you’re online and using a HUD, the WTSD% or “Went to Showdown” stat is crucial here. If an opponent is in the low 20s or less, then that is exactly the kind of player I want to be bluffing against more on the river.

It is important not to do it every time, though, and it is also important to make sure that your line makes some sense before firing that river bluff. By this I mean that given your previous actions in the hand, you want to find spots in which you could easily show up with several good made hands as well.

The river is often a spot where there is some big value to be made. Don’t just give up on the pot if you are against one of these nitty types who you think might fold. If you know that you cannot win at showdown, then sometimes you have very little to lose and everything to gain by making a bet.

5. Raise With Your Draws

One final way to open up your game and exploit the tendencies of weak opponents in particular is to play your draws fast. I mean significant draws such open-ended straight draws (8 outs), flush draws (9 outs), and everything better.

You already have plenty of equity with these hands, so it is a great strategy to play them like they are the nuts a little more often. One of my favorite ways to do this is simply to raise the flop and then bet any turn. This line puts a tremendous amount of pressure on opponents and really forces them to have a real hand in order to continue.

Once again, I will be targeting the weak-tight players with this play, a consideration that goes for pretty much every other strategy discussed in this article as well. There are still plenty of calling stations at the lower stakes and it is not a good idea to start bluffing up a storm against them.

Final Thoughts

The difference between the biggest winners and everybody else at any limit often boils down to how effectively the winning players exploit the smaller edges. And really what this means is taking down the smaller pots over which nobody else truly wants to fight.

Most players know how to play pocket aces before the flop or how to proceed after flopping a set. And everybody gets dealt these big hands in equal frequencies in the long run.

What the biggest winners do better than everybody else is win more than their fair share of the pots with their mediocre or even total junk hands. They do this by applying pressure in some of the key spots listed in this article.

Nathan “BlackRain79” Williams is the author of the popular micro stakes strategy books, Crushing the Microstakes and Modern Small Stakes. He also blogs regularly about all things related to the micros over at www.blackrain79.com.

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This is about a near game theory optimal (GTO) strategy for short stack no limit holdem.

If you play in the $1/$2 no limit holdem game at the California Commerce Casino, the buyin is $40 or 20 big blinds (20BB). If you play online for real money at Blck Chip Poker, Americas Cardroom, or Bovada, the minimum buyins range between 20-40 big blinds. These may be considered to be short stacked games. The fast foldem holdem games at Bovada seem to be 50BB for a buyin.

Except for the first few rounds, most people in a tournament are short stacked most of the time.

There are some misconceptions about big stacks. Big stacks hold no intrinsic advantage over small stacks in cash no limit hold 'em games - see Ed Miller's Getting Started in Hold 'em.

There may be psychological aspects to having a particlular stack size.

This is just a continuum really. The smaller the stack, the fewer hands we can play. The deeper the stack, the more hands we can play in general. In particlular, in when we have a short stack, we do not play any come hands like 76 suited. All of our hands will have value (i.e. pair value or high card value).

We consider a short stack to be 25 big blinds (25BB) or less.

Online No Limit Hold Em

We will use Ed Miller's Short Stack Opening Strategy from our textbook.

Opening

When no one has entered the pot except the blinds

• Early position: TT+, AK
• Middle position: 99+, AQ+
• Late position: 77+, AT+, KQ

Entering the pot when someone has raised

If there is one raise in front of you, regardless of position, play only TT+ and AK. If there is more than one raise in front of you, play only KK+ (i.e. 3-bet or 4-bet with KK+).

Sizing your first raise

Usually we want to bring it in for 3-5BB. If there are only limpers in front of you, raise to 3-5BB plus 1BB per limper (if you have a hand that you would normally open with in that position). In general, we like to raise more in early positions and less from later postions (if this confuses you, simply always raise to 4BB+1BB/limper).

If someone has raised in front of you and you have a playable hand (TT+, AK), usually go all in. If your stack is larger than 30BB-35BB (i.e. becoming a medium stack) or when there is only one raiser and the raise was the minimum, make the largest raise you think your opponent will call.

When you get reraised by someone behind you, usually you should go all in or fold. If you have QQ+ or AK, go all in. Go all in with any hand if your (or your opponent's) remaining stack is less than twice the size of your original bet.

A few more hands we can sometimes play

There are a few more hands we can play when there are just limpers. If you are on the button or cutoff, after only limpers, call with 22-66, A2-A9 and any two suted cards that are both ten or higher ( i.e. KJs, KTs, QJs, QTs, JTs). If you have a stronger hand, be sure to raise as described above.

No Limit Hold Em Game

More on Ed Miller's SSS

Crushing Short Stacks - The Playbook - this is what a deep stacker needs to do when playing against us. This is how we should play when playing against short stackers.

Seems like there is some controversy about this strategy. I suspect that this is a case of sour grapes from the deep stackers. They need to adjust their play when they are in the pot with us and they seem resistant to doing so.

This thread (from 2007!) is about how to adjust to playing with a deep stack against a small stack. This is a very informative article, please read this. TLDR: Crushing Short Stacks - The Playbook - this is what a deep stacker needs to do when playing against us. This is how we should play when playing against short stackers.

My take on this is that sss is the correct way to play at this stack size (provided that these sss's are near to gto).

Another interesting thing I found online about sss's was: '... the truth is that you should play as high VPIP as you can until you start losing. 15% is the baseline for any 9player game with the same rake. Back in the day you could win with 12/10 because players were so bad. As the skill level increased overall in the game, you had to bring your VPIP up to 15% or better, (unless you were an FPP whoring multitabler who could play at 14%) '. This makes some sense: play as loose as possible, but tighter than most of your opponents.

No Limit Hold'em Cash Game Strategy

interesting: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/15/poker-theory/short-stack-strategy-holes-ed-miller-562943/ - http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showpost.php?p=24079874&postcount=26 http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showpost.php?p=10855133&postcount=49

Very goog read: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/32/beginners-questions/i-grew-up-learning-30-bis-where-enough-1426985/ add http://archives1.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=3029808&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1 and other links like this https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topicsearchin/rec.gambling.poker/%22short$20stack$20strategy%22/rec.gambling.poker/mdo7ddmdKcU

more stuff The 3 Factors That Should Determine Your Cash Game Buy-In http://www.pokernews.com/strategy/3-factors-that-should-determine-your-cash-game-buy-in-19629.htm Positives to Playing a Short Stack in Tournaments http://www.pokernews.com/strategy/positives-to-playing-a-short-stack-in-tournaments-20569.htm WSOP 2014: Short Stack Strategies with Bart Hanson http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/2014-wsop/event-54/post.232972.htm http://www.pokertube.com/videos/pca-2015-jonathan-duhamel-on-short-stack-bubble-strategy http://www.tournamentpokeredge.com/innovative-short-stack-strategy/ Learning Poker By Short Stacking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5WCWJin8FU http://my.888poker.com/go/thread/view/111146/30044265/maths-in-poker-and-game-theory?pg=1

http://www.cardschat.com/f11/short-stacking-sucks-240807/ A Day In The Life Of A Short Stacker: Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ7wBBIzdD8