*I have no idea where to post this question*

So, I have noticed that I do terrible in cash games and I seem to do very well in tournaments.

My total cash game amount over 21 days and 17 hours is -$632.

My total tournament amount over 6 days and 22 hours is $2069.

I am unsure why I do so bad in cash games. All I play is 1/2. Bunch of old geezers and people who call half their stack with JTs and nonsense like that.

I think it is because I do not understand how to play with deeper stacks. I can never put people on ranges and I always get stacked when they have random garbage hands that make two pair.

I dunno.

try not to get all in with one pair with a deep stack and you will find you do better.

cash the blinds dont go up so you rarely are forced to race.

plus your sample size is so small you cant rely on any conclusions.

But are you actually getting it in good most of the time and they outdraw you, or are you overplaying a single pair when they've already got there?

It can be a task to 'master' both sides of the felt. Typically 'good' tournament players are easier marks in a cash game since the 'value' of the chips never changes as they would in a tournament. Cash players can always add on and thus by nature are more speculative. As indicated above this can actually be a good thing or a bad thing depending on when and how you are putting your chips into the pot.

Look at your play, not your results. Also, I have classes of cash players ... First they are either a 'card', 'poker' or 'gambling' player. Then they are either tight/passive or loose/aggressive. One could certainly argue that tight doesn't automatically mean passive and so on but the point is you need to label the players, especially at 1/2, in order to adjust how to apply your chips.

These 'old geezers' know more than they let on ... but I'm also assuming you have a much smaller range of holdings and are too cautious with your bets or betting patterns early in hands, which allows the 1/2 snipers to effectively (not necessarily wisely) speculate. GL

[SPOIL] [SPOIL]

You must play tournaments micro and low, and cash 1/2 already have many dinosaurs.

And too of course in tournaments players are much weaker.

good hands

I just play bad. I mean, occasionally I get it in good and they get their draw.

Example would be me with AA and making it 50 preflop and getting one of the limpers to call and the flop coming out as 55J with two suits. They check, I bet 60, they jam it in (200 effective starting stacks), I call, and they have 57s.

This feels like this happens a lot. This situation honestly feels hopeless. Not sure what I'm supposed to do here. What usually happens is I'll grind out $100 or so and then get stacked to something like this.

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Ok ... Why are we making it 50 into 'limpers'? I assume you are just advertising such a small range of hands here. How do you 'open' with 99? How do you open AK?

THIS IS GREAT ... You actually got a guy (gambler) to flat 25% of his stack in an 80-20 spot. Don't ever stop doing this if it happens 'all the time'!! This should be a long term profitable spot for you. You can see where this 'probably' would never happen in a tournament, even A5 is not in his flatting range at this effective stack size so all you need to worry about is JJ and flush draws (with overs to the board).

You are being targeted, but as I stated earlier you are probably making it easy for them to play against you as well. Do you bet this Flop with 99 or AK? If not, then it's easy pick-ins' for the cash player willing to gamble off his chips. GL

Are these live games or online? I ask because of the specificity of days AND hours of play.

If live, what time of day are you generally playing? Yes, it can make a difference. Same with how many options there are in the surrounding area. You show an Oklahoma location, but my guess is the play in the Tulsa area would be different than Winstar or Durant (by example).

Without having specifics on table image and the manner in which YOU are viewed, the hands described are something that are easily called by people at low stakes. This becomes even more true if your own play allows them to polarize your range.

Yeah, I would cbet this flop with pretty much any of hands I would do this with. With is TT+ and AK.

And, yeah, I know this polarizes my range and makes it obvious what I have. But, they call me anyway and stack me with random trash.

It seems like if I Cbet this flop and I get any resistance then I should always fold.

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I'm confused as to how these are hands that are easily called. It should be hands for them that are easy to fold. That's why I make it these ridiculous raises preflop because I know that they will call with junk. They fold the flop and I make $50. Or they call the flop and I lose $200. Which makes me inclined to never call a jam on a flop (or even cbet) because they somehow keep hitting completely improbably hands against my big pairs when they call gigantic preflop amounts. But, then they can play perfectly against me by always jamming. But, I suspect that after playing all this time with these folks that nobody does this at these stakes. They have "something" when they jam so I should just give it up. The stats don't lie. I am not making good decisions in cash games.

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Yes, I play small stakes tournaments. I ran my roll up to about 4 grand just play small stakes tournaments and 1/2 so I traveled out of town and played in some WPT and WSOP tournaments.

Those obviously didn't go well.

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You are overthinking the thought processes that occur at live low stakes. Some people LOVE small one-gappers, especially when suited. Fifty bucks really isn't that much to some people, especially in a place like Mobilhoma or even Louisiana and Mississippi, especially if there are no bigger games running. There is plenty of oil money that loves to gamble it up because, quite honestly, it beats getting hooked on meth.

And, since it sounds like these are people you play with on a regular basis, they obviously recognize YOUR patterns, which makes it that much easier for them to see a flop even if you think it is for a lot of money. I am guessing this is NOT something you are seeing on trips to Vegas with anywhere near the frequency...although if you are viewed as a walking ATM, you will get picked apart there as well.

You need to understand that, in many games I have seen in those three States, it is not at all uncommon for a PF bet of $20-30 to be called in multiple places with what you would consider trash holdings. Other times, you may find that a raise in EP to as little as $5-6 is folded around. Learn your game, learn your opponent...

OP if you really did open a pot for 50 in 1/2 with AA then congrats on getting a caller. We're basically happy stacking off on 99% of flops in this scenario . To understand why that is read up on "Stack to Pot Ratio". You're basically making a mistake if you're not willing to stack off with an overpair with an SPR of less than 3.

Very small sample size quoted in the OP. Several nevers and always in the OP. That usually means overstatement of what has actually happened. Not sure if the OP is just unlucky or is playing badly over a short period of time at the table. Easy answer is stay with tournaments and avoid cash game for a while.

You have defined an exploitable strategy. Mind you - the guy calling half his stack isn't thinking about it that way, but you should be.

Say you and I are both deep stacked. If you make stupid big raises only with big pairs, then if I have a hand that's good for cracking big pairs, and I know you're gonna stack off with your big pair, I stand to win a lot more than I stand to lose in the long run.

IF you have, for instance, AA and I have 109, I'm a 22% favorite to win. If you make it $50 and we both have $300 behind, then when I call $50 I need to be reasonably assured that if I can crack your aces, I can win $227. $50 of yours is already in the pot, so if I do pick up a real hand on the flop, I need you to put in $177 more. You're gonna bet big on the flop anyway and find it hard to fold if I raise but I may just be able to walk you down the road to stackville anyway. I take your whole $300, making 73 more than i needed to make the pf call profitable.

Meanwhile when I lose, I only lose $50.

Out of 5 hands in the above situation, I lose $200 (4x50), and I win $300 (1x300), for a net profit of $100. Yay me, bad you.

You need to balance your raises for several reasons:
1) don't give away your hand - some raise big with weak pairs, some raise big with big pairs, all are exploitable once you know their pattern
2) don't commit yourself to suicide when your big pair that's a pre-flop monster shrivels up a pathetic ONE PAIR on the river
3) have a bluffing range that can win pots along side your big hands

And as previously stated, your sample so far is tiny. Suggest you play smaller stakes for a while as you learn.

you are not taking into the times you cant call the flop and would have beaten the aces.

sample size but play what you enjoy

I agree. The next step is to stop getting stacked. AA is a hand that wins small pots and loses big ones. Anytime you're calling your stack in with AA on the flop or later, you're generally beat in cash. It should be rare and with a great read on the villain for you to call an all in with AA on the flop or later.

There's clearly a lot you don't understand about the cash game. My suggestion is to get one book (the biggest error I made was reading too many books) and study it. Study doesn't mean read it once at a sitting and get rid of it. Study means taking one concept at a time and incorporating it into your game for a couple of weeks before moving to the next one.

If you truly believe this math is valid you're going to lose a lot of money in these spots.

It's bad to call off a 7th of your stack with SCs vs. big pockets. I'd want more like 30:1.

(and the other two quotes)

Yes, that's true, I kept the example over simplified for this purpose.

It's also quite difficult to estimate how often that will occur out of the times where we would have hit our 20% had we stuck around.

However the point still stands that the strategy IS exploitable, and the example, even though incomplete, gives a very simple introduction to implied odds, which was the point.

But the guys are right - if I know you're only making those huge bets with KK/AA, I'm never paying you. However, there are those that will play just to hope to crack, no matter how bad the math, and while they will lose in the log term, they'll kick your balls in the short term when they crack those aces.

is getting started in holdem by ed miller a good book?