For many, poker cash games are the heart of the game. Although learning how to play poker cash games is quick and easy, consistently winning requires more than just knowing the basic rules of poker.
To get ahead, you need a good poker cash game strategy, discipline, the right mindset and preparation, adaptability and various other talents and skills.
Whether you have already tried your hand at a tournament, or you’re just learning how to play poker, this guide on how to play poker cash games will help you navigate the basics and beyond.
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What Are Poker Cash Games?
Cash games are one of two ways to play poker, the other one being poker tournaments. Here are some of the main differences between poker tournaments and cash games:
How to Buy Into a Game
In real cash poker games chip denominations represent real money, that is, the exact amount paid for them. When you bet $25 chips, this is worth exactly that amount in real money. When a player takes $100 worth of chips from someone in a hand, that is worth $100 of real money. This means that in a real cash poker game, every hand has the exact same importance and brings a new opportunity to win money.
There is a minimum, and, usually, a maximum buy-in for a cash poker game, but each player decides exactly how many chips they want to put on the table. At the same table one player may buy in for $50 and another for $532, for example.
Tournaments, on the other hand, are all about outlasting and eliminating opponents, and winning any given hand doesn’t win you any money.
To enter a tournament, you must pay the tournament entry fee. In exchange for that fee, you will get tournament chips called the starting stack. The starting stack is the same for all players and is arbitrarily determined by the tournament organizers – the chips do not reflect the money paid or how much a player can win in a hand or the tournament.
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The Blinds and How They Affect the Game
Tournaments are played in time installments called tournament levels. The blinds, antes and other forced bets, which generate action in poker, rise every level. This promotes all-ins and eliminations in order to get to a winner. In a cash poker game, the blinds (antes, bring-ins and other forced bets – depending on the game) are the same for every hand.
How Much Time do You Have to Play?
A tournament is about elimination of players until only one remains. This means that once a player enters a tournament, they have to make a time commitment to play until the end (if you want to win and make money).
In cash games, you can start and leave the game at any time. You can play just one hand, or ten, or several hundred. Whenever you’re are done playing, simply cash-out the chips in your stack at that moment.
These different dynamics make poker cash game strategy different from that in tournament poker. Players who value flexibility and comfort and want the option to play for real stakes from the very first hand prefer cash games. In every hand, the focus in cash games is on maximizing the value of your cards and skills without necessarily worrying about how many chips you’ll have left or getting eliminated from the game.
Types of Poker Cash Games
There are many different poker variants that can be played as cash games. New variants of poker are constantly emerging, or gaining and losing popularity. However, over the last 20 years, No-Limit Texas Hold’em has been the undisputed king of both tournament and cash game poker.
Let’s look at the most common types of poker cash games played in online and live casinos around the world.
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How to Join a Real Cash Poker Game
The quickest way to play a real cash poker game is at an online US poker site, where you can find a game any time of the day. Check first which sites accept players from your country. Then, there are just three simple steps: registering an account, depositing some money and joining a table with an open seat.
To play live, you need to find a poker room or casino nearby. It makes sense to inquire when games will be running (some casinos have update information online). Playing live is slightly more uncertain because games usually don’t run all the time. However, if there is a game running, joining is very straightforward – just buy some chips at the cashier and sit down at a table.
What is Rake in Cash Games?
Rake is the percentage of the money that the casino or card room takes after each hand as a sort of fee for running the game. It can range from 2.5% to 10% of the pot and is usually limited with a maximum, called the cap, which will be around 0.5 – 2 big blinds in online Texas Hold’em games.
In live games and in Pot Limit Omaha, the cap will sometimes be higher, especially in lower stake-games. If the rake is uncapped, you should think twice before playing that game, as it will be nearly impossible to beat the rake in the long-term unless you absolutely crush.
It is typical for both online and live cash games that lower stakes tend to have less favorable rake relatively speaking (in terms of big blinds), which sometimes makes lower stakes games harder to beat.
An alternative to the regular rake is the time rake. Instead of taking a percentage of the pot, some casinos collect a fee every hour (or half an hour) from all the players at the table.
Rake is very important, because it affects your ability to win at poker cash games. A realistic win rate for most winning players is only a few big blinds per 100 hands, which is why one big blind in rake can make a big difference over many hands. Some casinos may charge a high rake that players can’t beat. This is why it is important to get informed about the rake in any game you play.
One great option for online poker cash game players are rakeback deals. Rakeback is cashback that the poker room or site gives us for playing poker and paying rake and fees. Most sites give out extra bonuses for new players, so make sure you find a generous rakeback deal and don’t miss out on any benefits!
Poker Cash Game Strategy
There is a lot that goes into poker cash game strategy, more than just decisions on how to play specific hands. Here are some key poker cash game tips that cover most of what a player needs to think about to have a chance to win at poker.
Game Selection
Poker cash game strategy starts with game selection, which includes choosing casinos, stakes, games and tables to play. You should always see what is available and try to optimize for the game that will give you the biggest edge over your opponents and therefore the biggest profits.
Stop Win and Stop Loss
It is important to decide in advance how long you want to play, both in terms of hours and win or loss. Having a stop loss especially is essential for every poker player, because after losing a few buy-ins, a vast majority of players start playing worse.
The Mental Game and Physical Preparation
Another important, interesting and sometimes underestimated aspect of poker is mental preparation and adjustments – from understanding tolerance for risk to optimizing for focus and regulating emotions.
You need to be rested when you play, take care of food and rest and make sure nothing is affecting your ability to make decisions in a negative way. When something upsets you at the table, it pays to have a strategy for that moment.
Bankroll Management
A sufficient bankroll is needed to deal with the variance in poker due to the unavoidable element of luck in the game. A player needs to have enough money set aside just for poker so that a short or even a longer streak of bad luck doesn’t take you out of the game.
Optimal bankroll management depends on many things (win rate, play style, the play of your opponents), but if we simplify, a good rule of thumb for a No Limit Hold’em cash game is to have between 3,000 and 6,000 big blinds, or 30-to-60 buy-ins. Some players, especially professionals, opt to have even more, because they cannot afford to lose everything, so they need stricter bankroll management.
For Pot Limit Omaha, which has higher variance, bankroll should be a minimum 50 buy-ins and above.
For a game like Limit Hold’em or Seven-Card Stud, the bankroll most players agree it should be at least 300 big blinds, and at least 500 big blinds is probably more advisable for a beginner.
Know that losing a few buy-ins in a poker session is nothing unusual and there you will have streaks of losing sessions, so making sure you are comfortable withstanding those swings when they occur is vital.
Adapting Your Playing Style
Poker is a game of adjustments. A winning poker cash game strategy will always prepare for different scenarios that consider your opponents and table dynamics.
For example, if you play in a game where players are very loose, raise a lot, and several of them go to the flop, then you may not need to generate a lot of action yourself, especially with marginal hands. You can afford to play tighter and exploit your opponent’s loose plays.
A possible adjustment here is to not bluff players who simply do not fold, and do it more if you feel that your opponents are more likely to fold reasonably. Understanding the players and table dynamic is key to winning at poker.
The most dramatic adjustment most players will experience will be going from playing online to a live game, which usually plays much more loose and passive (see more about this below).
Keep Track of Position
Position is key in every form of poker. Your poker positions are determined by the blinds in Hold’em and Omaha. A good position is a late position, which allows players to see what other players have done before having to act. In No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha the best position is the dealer button, which acts last on the flop, turn and river.
In stud poker, position is unpredictable and depends on the cards that are dealt (it even changes on every street), but it is also crucial.
Any strategy you learn is going to be different for different positions. In early positions, you should play fewer hands than in the later positions. This is true in Hold’em, but is even more important in Pot Limit Omaha.
Sometimes you’ll hear the expression “to have position” on a specific player. This means you’re seated to their left, and will usually act behind them, as play in all forms of poker runs clockwise. Money in poker runs to the left (because of the importance of position), which is why it is so advantageous to have position on poor or more active players.
Don’t Be Afraid to Switch Tables
Table selection is another key concept in winning poker cash games. If you have access to multiple tables, go for the option where you have the biggest edge against your opponents.
In online card rooms, you can often see some statistics about how often players play hands on specific tables. This is often shown as a percentage called the VPIP (voluntarily put in pot). Choose the tables and games with the highest average VPIP, and also try to find a good seat – to the left of the most active players.
In live poker rooms that have multiple tables, there is usually an option to register for a seat transfer. Don’t be afraid to put yourself on the transfer list as soon as you get to the game. This allows you to observe other tables and have the option to change if you aren’t happy with your table. If you do end up preferring your original table, you can decline the transfer.
Online vs Live Poker Cash Games
There are quite a few differences between online and live cash-game play, with each with its own advantages and disadvantages.
Pros & Cons of Online Cash Games
Online poker is easier to access and much more convenient. While not all online poker sites are available to players in all countries, there is usually plenty of choice. You can join a poker cash game from the comfort of your home, no need to travel anywhere or even put on pants.
You can also choose from a wide selection of stakes online – real money poker cash games are available for as little as $1, or find a high stakes poker game.
The broader selection of games also means it’s easy to switch between games, tables and stakes. You can (and many players do) play multiple tables at once, which means more play, more fun and, if you’re winning, more profit. You can even browse between multiple sites to try to find the best games.
One downside of online poker cash games is that playing can be quite isolating – you’re engaging with the computer screen and there is usually no social aspect that live poker has.
Most players also believe that online games are tougher to beat – meaning opponents are stronger and a truly great game sometimes isn’t available despite a reasonable amount of traffic.
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Pros & Cons of Live Cash Games
Live poker cash games require more effort and, to many players who do not live near a poker room, may even be out of reach. Playing live requires travel to the poker room and back and games don’t usually run at any hour or even every day. When you do find a game, there may only be one table or game available, which may be to your liking or not.
Live poker is also much, much slower. Not only are you limited to playing at one table, the deal, showdowns, rake collection – everything takes longer. You will probably only see around 20-30 hands per hour, at a slow game even fewer.
What makes up for the shortcomings is the experience of playing with real people, which can be more fun and also enables us to use an additional set of poker skills, which has to do with reading people.
In live poker, it’s sometimes possible to act based only on something an opponent said or where their glance went after a card was dealt. This can’t really happen online. In that sense, many consider live poker to be the purer form of poker, and there is more information that a skilled player can use to his or her advantage.
Another advantage is the play style of players – because the game is slow and only so many hands are dealt, most live players play a bigger percentage of hands – which means that they make more mistakes. The win rates in live poker can therefore be significantly higher.
Conclusion
Poker is a complex and fascinating game that is easy to learn and enjoy, but takes a lifetime to truly master. We hope that the poker cash game tips and advice in this guide gave you a solid overview and help you on your journey of playing and winning at cash poker games.