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Poker Strategy For Online Cash Games

Online Cash games are very different from poker tournaments and sometimes not as fun, but players who make a living out of online poker use them to milk rookie players and generate their weekly revenue. Patience is crucial, and guidelines can be followed to increase your win rate. The following tips are very general and can easily be applied in the lower denomination cash game tables. 


Check Medium Strength Hands


Cards that are neither too great nor too bad are hard to judge. It’s hard not to play them as they can land you a flush or straight while confusing players with top cards to bet more, but they will lose most of the time spending your pot, significantly if the great card players are raising the pot on each turn. 


The main tip when learning to play poker is to check but not raise. They perform well in small pots as bluff catchers. Some examples of medium strength cards you should check are:


  • J,10 of the same color
  • A,4 of the same color
  • 8,7 of the same color

Small raise if you receive a possible straight or color combination. It is also essential to evaluate your rival. If they are also checking, that player is fishing, and you can take him out with a raise. 


Bet and Raise With Strong Cards


You want players to respect you instead of focusing too much on increasing the pot size. You could bluff not to have a big pair and check, but this is a common action between rookie players. Players that raise create respect from other players who prefer not to play against you, making you win most of the pots. However, calls mean they also have strong hands, and it’s not fishing, which provides a great deal of information, and you will know what to do if the table cards favor or do not favor you.


Strong hands are:


  • A,K
  • K,T
  • Q,Q

Bluff With Hands That Have a Good Fishing Probability


These are also called backdoor hands, which seem weak unless you create a great combination with the cards on the table, which means straights, 3 of a kind, flush, and full house. 


Some examples are:


  • 7,6 of the same color
  • J,8 of the same color
  • Q,6 of the same color

With any of these, you have both the chance of forming a straight or flush. 


When to Re-raise Your Bet


With solid hands like A, A, or A, K, avoid pretending you have nothing; you should build the pot as a dominant player. The goal is a triple bet in the first round. Raise, and if someone raises again, then re-raise harder. 


After one or two of these aggressive plays, you can get away with some bluffing with middle strengthened hands of the same color, like A,2. 


If you have an opponent who tends to call these re-raises, change your strategy to execute them with strong hands. The opponent probably bluffs a lot with medium-strong hands, and you can milk them with very strong hands. 


If the opposite happens, the opponent folds every time you re-rise, then take more risks and bluff more with medium-strength hands. 


When Too Many Players in The Flop, Check


One of the reasons the primary tip in poker is to raise your bet when you play a hand is to reduce the number of players at the flop. This reduces the chance of fishers nailing a combination with medium or weak hands, and you will never see it coming. Still, instead, when you see the flop with just one or two other players, you can assume they have strong or medium-strong hands and can better predict the outcome by comparing your cards with the ones on the table. Do they favor you or maybe someone else? 


  • Check with strong pairs if the pot has four or more players. 
  • Bet or raise small with a two pair or a strong draw. This is not to scare away most players, but you want at least 2 to stay.


There are much more cash game poker playing tips to follow, but these cover the essential suggestions to tip the balance in your favor. Player psychology is another key aspect you should add to these tips, along with correct management of your pot.

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