Hi there i am new good to be here. I started playing about 10 years ago but almost all MTT's , I ve had a little success but now i want to get serious about cash games. I ve been mostly playing for fun and havnt to took to studying about poker to much but after a disaster try at 10NL i realize i need to really press in and try to learn more than just the basics. When ever i did try to learn more in the past i was discouraged about the learning curve and all the different terminology that i didnt pursue it fully. But now i realize if i want to be successful i am going to have to dig in. This is a bit shameful for me because after about ten years of playing I still dont understand things like pot odds and equity etc. I played mostly for fun and i am surprised i was able to take down a tournament for 3000k once. So there is some skill there. But where to start and not be discouraged. This has probably been asked here a million times but what learning path would you guys send me down basically as kind a of newbie for cash games. I cant afford coaching at this point but maybe for some website subscriptions. thanks

You will need to understand some basic concepts, but a decent starting point for micro stakes would be to start by learning proper preflop play. Get yourself some preflop charts showing which hands you should open in each position (upswingpoker.com has some free ones, but there are other sites). Learn these charts and more importantly the reasoning behind why you open certain hands and not others. Becoming good at preflop play will give you enough of an edge that you can at least tread water at micros while improving your game.

Check out posts in the cash game forum on here, read some of the articles at upswing and other sites and you should start to get a better feel for cash games. In general the main fundamentals difference between cash and tournament play is stack depth and the fact that you cannot bust out in cash games. Having deep stacks means that you will be able to profit from hands that are more speculative (and ones you wouldnÂ’t play in tourneys), such as suited connectors. You will also use a completely different strategy for some hands, notably small and medium pocket pairs. In tourneys you would often open shove or three bet shove such hands. In cash games you open raise or just call against an opponentÂ’s open instead, mostly looking to flop a set and win a big pot, rather than doing a coin flip. You will mostly fold when you do not flop the set.

Just a couple other simple things - the preflop charts you find are based on 100 bb stacks. If a chart is telling you to open 89s, you would not do so if your opponents are all short stacked. Hands like this rely on the ability to win a large pot when you hit a straight or flush to profit. If your opponents are short stacked, you wonÂ’t be able to win a large pot when you hit, so avoid such hands. Related to this, make sure to always top off your own stack- most sites have an auto top off feature that will do so automatically when your stack drops below your initial buy in. Use it and buy in for the max amount (usually 100bb). Finally, avoid limping preflop. Just donÂ’t do it. It can be tempting to try to see a flop cheap with a marginal hand or to try to trap with a premium hand, but long term you will win more by always raising pre when you are going to play a hand.

A learning path I suggest:

• Start with HeadsUp cash games (easiest format to learn and to make a lot of money as you can choose who you play against). 3 and more players on the table gets very dynamic.
  
• Relative Hand Strength. A Top Pair is almost worthless on a turn that has 4 cards of the same color. Get yourself familiar with Relative Hand Strength!
  
• Develop a simple strategy what to do with each hand in HeadsUp. I.e. how do you want to play a Top Pair if you have it on the flop? Bet flop and turn? Just bet flop? Check every flop? If you check flop, how do you play it turn? Make it very simple just to get an idea of your overall strategy and repeat the process.
  
• Play Exploitative (Forget GTO at your stakes, I did not need it up until NL1k). Exploit a bad players bad moves. How can you extract the most money out of his bad plays? I.e. he always goes crazy on the flop with bad hands.
  
• What are the indications of a very bad player? How do you know if you should play him? Make sure you set yourself rules who you want to play against.
  
  If you have questions regarding this let me know.