This Easy Cash Game Strategy Skyrocketed My Winnings

This article was written by blackrain79.com contributor Fran Ferlan.

If you are playing poker cash games, chances are you’re going to start to encounter familiar faces after a while.

While most of your poker winnings will come from recreational players, sometimes there simply won’t be any of them around.

In order to be a profitable long term winner, you need to know how to make money from regular players as well.

This will be harder than taking it from the recreational players, but it still can be done if you follow the right strategy.

This article will show you an easy cash game strategy to make money from both recreational and regular poker players alike.

Fair warning: the tactics employed here may sound machiavellian, but they are completely within the rules of the game and fair play.

We do not condone any kind of angle shooting, rude table talk, or other unsportsman-like behaviour to get an edge.

1. Intentionally Tilt Other Regular Players

If you’ve played poker for some time, you already know that the vast majority of the money you earn will come from inexperienced, recreational players, aka the fish. 

The problem is, as you start to move up the stakes, there will be less and less recreational players around, which obviously means less profits for you. 

What’s worse, other players at the table will also be acutely aware of the presence of recreational players, and they will try to take their money before everyone else.

This means that as you start climbing up the stakes, you will naturally have a slightly worse winrate due to having:

a) less recreational players around and 

b) tougher, more skilled regular players.

So you can’t rely on clueless fish alone to pad your winrate anymore. 

This means you’re going to have to find a way to beat the other regs as well.



But not just any reg would do. You can’t expect to win a lot of money against a player who makes very few fundamental technical mistakes. 

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Skill Advantage is Everything in Poker

You can only win over the long run against the players you have some sort of a skill edge over.

This means you have to identify and target weak regs.

A weak regular is a player who has a basic understanding of a winning poker strategy and doesn’t make huge, glaring mistakes like a recreational player, but still has leaks in their game that you can exploit.

Fish are fish at any limit, and a certain recreational player is for all intents and purposes indistinguishable from another in the sense that they all make the same, predictable mistakes.

Common recreational player mistakes include:

• Playing too many hands
• Calling too much and not folding enough
• Chasing all kinds of draws
• Losing patience quickly and getting tilted easily

And so on. 

Of course, there are some differences between different kinds of recreational players, namely based on their aggression level, but that’s a different story.

The point is you can quickly spot them and exploit weaknesses in their game.

Check out Nathan’s recent video on how to quickly spot a recreational player at your table.

Regulars are a different story. The leaks in their game won’t be as glaringly obvious as with their fishy counterparts, but you can still find them if you know what to look for.

If you play poker online, you can use a hand tracking software like PokerTracker 4 to keep track of your opponent’s stats.

PokerTracker 4 has a built-in heads up display (HUD for short) that shows up next to the player’s username and shows you their stats in real time.

The HUD is fully customizable, so it can show basically any stat imaginable. This means you can quickly identify the player type, as well as potential leaks in their game with as much as a glance.

Check out this article on the most useful HUD stats you should use.

Also, check out this article on the poker software the pros use to get an edge.

Back to the topic.

When looking for weak regulars to target, your best bet is to look for weak and passive regs that won’t fight back too much. 

This type of player is still fairly common to find. 

You won’t make as much money from them as you would from recreational players, but you can still beat them fairly easily if you apply the right amount of pressure.

To understand how to beat this player type, first you need to understand how they operate. 

Weak regs aren’t necessarily bad players, but they aren’t world class experts, either. 

They have probably studied the game a bit, and some of them are at least familiar with the advanced poker strategy, but they still have some leaks in their game. 

Some of them may even be strategically proficient, but have other issues beyond the technical game, like poor bankroll management, poor tilt control and so on.

The way to beat this type of players is to identify the biggest weakness in their game, and then strategically attack that particular weakness.

Pro tip: in poker, as in life in general, people crack at the point of their biggest weakness when put under enough pressure.

For example, if someone usually calls too much, they’re going to call down even more when they’re tilting.

If someone’s playing a bit too aggressively, they will become even more aggressive when they’re tilting.

Now, this may seem cruel, as this whole strategy rests upon intentionally going out of your way to ruin someone’s day. 

Fair enough, but as the great Doyle Brunson once said: 

"Poker is war, people pretend it is a game."

In other competitive sports, the teams strategize on how to take advantage of the weaknesses in the other team, while trying to eliminate, or at least reduce weaknesses in their own team. 

In a basketball game, for example, teams will design plays where they can attack the weakest defender by creating a mismatch.

Poker is no different in that regard. 

You attack them where they are the weakest, and avoid them where they are the strongest.

So how does this translate into beating the weak regs? It’s simple. 

You attack their biggest weakness, which is usually folding too much and not fighting back often enough.

If they have a different leak, for example calling down too much, you just value bet them more heavily instead of bluffing.

But when talking about weak regs, their biggest weakness will usually giving up too easily when they don’t connect with the board and when they don’t have a strong hand (which is most of the time).

So the way to beat weak regs is simple: bluff them more often.

In the rest of the article, we’ll take a closer look at some strategies you can employ to win more than your fair share against weak regs.

Also, you can check out my other article on how to play a loose and aggressive (LAG) poker style.

2. 3-bet Their Iso-Raises

Recreational players are notorious for making large, fundamental mistakes that cost them a fortune over the long run. One of these mistakes is open-limping.

Open-limping means being the first to enter the pot with just paying the big blind instead of open-raising.

I won’t talk about why open-limping is such an egregious play, as I’ve already covered it in my article on beginner poker mistakes you should avoid, so you can check it out for more info.

As mentioned, other regulars will be acutely aware of the presence of fish in their midst, and they’ll try to get involved in pots against them as often as possible to take advantage of their mistakes.

One of the best ways to take advantage of the recreational player's mistakes is by using an isolation-raise.

Isolation raise (iso-raise for short) means open raising after another player (or players) have limped into the pot.

The objective of the iso-raise is to play a heads-up pot with the recreational player to be able to take advantage of their mistakes post flop.

Iso-raise is particularly effective when you can play the pot in position post flop.

The size of your iso-raise can vary, but the standard is usually 4 times the big blind. 

You can bump it up an additional big blind per limper.

So: 5x if there have been two limpers, 6x for 3 limpers and so on.

Of course, if the recreational player is fairly inelastic (meaning they tend to overcall regardless of the price) and you have a strong value hand, you can use the 5x or 6x iso-raise for just that one particular open-limper.

Check out my ultimate preflop bet sizing cheat sheet for a deeper dive on this topic.

Anyway, you often won’t have the opportunity to make an iso-raise, because another player will simply beat you to it.

That’s why it’s great to have a direct position on the recreational player, so you can always iso-raise them before anyone else.

If you do not have the direct position on the recreational player and another reg iso-raises them instead, you can try to take down the pot immediately with a light 3-bet.



A light 3-bet preflop is a re-raise against another player’s open raise made with the intention of getting the open-raiser to fold.

This is the opposite of a value 3-bet, where you want your opponents to call with a weaker hand than yours.

3-betting the iso-attempts is great because you can often win the pot outright preflop.

Alternatively, you can get the iso-raiser to fold and the fish to call, so you get to play a bigger heads-up pot against the fish.

Again, it’s better to 3-bet the iso-attempts in position, so you have the positional advantage post flop in case your 3-bet gets called.

A word of caution: sometimes you will get both the iso-raiser and the fish to call, meaning you’ll play a bloated pot and you’ll often play out of position. 

This is not a great spot, so you should only do this with hands that have some sort of playability postflop.

For more info on light 3-betting and other advanced poker strategies, check out Modern Small Stakes.

Easy Cash Game Strategy Example Hand #1

You are dealt A♥3♥ on the BU (button). 

A recreational player open-limps UTG (under the gun). 

A tight and aggressive (TAG) regular iso-raises to 4x in the CO (cutoff).

You: ???

You should 3-bet to 12x

The fish open-limps from the first position at the table, which is a telltale sign of a recreational player. A regular tries to isolate the fish. This is a great spot to try and take down the pot immediately.

You are playing in position, and you can exert a lot of pressure on both players. Even if one of them, or both of them call your 3-bet, you still have a decent hand with a lot of playability post flop.

If you only get called by the recreational player, you’ll be able to take advantage of any potential mistake they can make post flop. 

If you only get called by a regular, you’ll have the initiative and the range advantage, meaning you’ll often be able to take down the pot with a simple flop c-bet, even if you miss the flop.

A player with the range advantage is the one that theoretically has more strong hands in their range than their opponent, due to being the preflop aggressor. Being the preflop aggressor also gives you the initiative, i.e. the option to make a c-bet on the flop.

If you get called by both players, not all is lost, as your hand has great nuts potential, meaning you can potentially take down a huge pot if you hit a strong combination like a straight or a flush.

If you want to know EXACTLY which hands to play preflop and how to play them, check out Crushing the Microstakes.

Learn the Advanced Cash Game Strategies I Use as a Professional Poker Player

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3. Steal Their Blinds Relentlessly

This is just about the easiest strategy you can implement that can improve your winrate instantly, especially against weak regulars.

Most players shy away from playing out of position, which means they don’t defend their blinds nearly as often as would be considered “optimal.” 

This is particularly true at the lower stakes, where you can often find players that regularly fold their blinds without too much of a fight.

To take advantage of that, you should get into the habit of looking for spots for blind stealing.



Blind stealing means open-raising from the late positions (the cutoff and the button) and from the small blind with the intention of getting your opponents to fold, i.e. taking down the pot preflop.

Some players may not see the point of stealing the blinds, since you’re incurring the risk only to win 1.5 big blinds (or 1 big blind if you’re stealing from the small blind).

But it’s not about the size of the reward, but the sheer frequency you can do it with that makes it worthwhile. 

If you’re playing a 6-max cash game online, for example, you can potentially steal the blinds 3 times per orbit. 

If you manage to steal the blinds only once per two orbits, that’s still 12 big blinds worth of profit per 100 hands.

Here’s the math in more detail:

100 hands means 16 full orbits.

If you steal 1.5 BB every two orbits, that’s 8 x 1.5 BB = 12 BB 

Granted, this is a hypothetical scenario. In reality, you won’t always have the opportunity to steal the blinds, as another player will open-raise before you.

Also, sometimes players will defend their blinds, 3-bet your stealing attempts and so on.

But even if you get called, you’ll still play the hand in position, meaning you’ll often be able to take down the pot post flop.

The only exception to playing in position is obviously when you open-raise from the small blind and get called by the big blind.

Also, you obviously don’t want to steal the blinds with just about any random hand that’s dealt to you. 

You should only choose hands that have some sort of playability post flop in case you get called.

Still, when you’re playing in position, particularly on the button, you can often get away with open-raising an insanely wide range.

If your hand has any sort of playability post flop, chances are you can open-raise it profitably from the button.

In fact, the best way to view it is that you should all but abuse the button. 

The button will be your most profitable table position by far. 

That’s because you will always have the positional advantage post flop when playing on the button.

If you have a hand tracking software like PokerTracker 4, you can check this for yourself. You may be surprised how much more money you win from the button as opposed to other positions.

Playing a very wide range on the button becomes even more profitable if the players on your left aren’t likely to put up too much of a fight.

For example, if someone folds to steal attempts 8 out of 10 times, you can try to steal their blinds with just about any random two cards.

One caveat: you don’t want to go overboard in exploiting a leak in your opponent’s game, because they might figure out what you’re doing and adjust accordingly.

The point is exploiting it just often enough to make it profitable, but not so often to become too obvious.

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4. Float in Position

Another great strategy for “reg tilting” is to use their aggression against them. 

Most players who aren’t complete maniacs will only go so far with their aggression and bluffing attempts before they back down and forfeit the pot.

Weak regulars usually don’t bluff often enough, or even at all. They tend to play pretty straightforwardly post flop, i.e. playing aggressively means they are strong, and playing passively means they are weak.

In order to take advantage of that, you should play aggressively against them every time they show weakness.

One of the best ways to do that is to float them in position.



To float means to call a bet with the intention of taking down the pot with a bluff on later streets.

This may seem counterintuitive at first. Why would I call a bet if betting means strength, and not weakness?

The answer: betting doesn’t necessarily mean strength, especially in certain spots.

Weak or strong, all the regular players already know they should usually fire a continuation bet (or a c-bet for short) on the flop, since c-bets are usually profitable.

A c-bet is a bet made by the previous street’s aggressor. 

If you open-raise preflop and you get called, you have the opportunity to make a c-bet on the flop. If you c-bet the flop and get called, you can make a c-bet on the turn and so on.

This means that a lot of players will just fire a c-bet on the flop as a default, whether they have a strong hand or not. 

If questioned why they made a c-bet in a certain spot, they may just answer: because it’s standard.

As a consequence, if their c-bet gets called, they often won’t continue the aggression on the turn unless they have a strong hand. 

This is called being “turn honest”, and it’s quite a common leak among many players.

If you’re using PokerTracker 4, you can spot this by viewing the discrepancy between a player’s flop c-betting and turn c-betting percentage.

Anything above 20% difference may indicate that a player is turn honest.

For example, if a player has a flop c-bet (CBF) percentage of 60, and a turn c-bet (CBT) percentage of 38, that player is more than likely playing very straightforwardly on the turn.

Important note: in order for these stats to be reliable, you need a significant sample size. In order for both CBF and CBT stats to be reliable, you need a sample size of 1000 hands at the very least.

Also important: the more often a player c-bets the flop, the more often they’ll have the opportunity to c-bet the turn and vice versa. 

If a player very rarely c-bets the flop to begin with, they’ll have way less opportunities to c-bet the turn, so you’d need an even bigger sample size to draw any conclusions about their turn honesty.

Anyway, back to the topic of floating.

A lot of players will fire a standard c-bet on the flop, but will often give up on the turn if they don’t have a strong hand (which is most of the time, since most hands miss most flops).

In order to take advantage of that, you simply call them when you’re playing in position with a wide range, then fire a bet on the turn when they check to you.

If a player checks on the turn when they have the opportunity to make a c-bet, they more than likely don’t have a strong hand.

Of course, some players may get tricky and trap you by checking the turn to conceal their hand strength, but in this context, we’re talking about players who tend to play very straightforwardly, and very rarely go for deceptive lines like these.

Easy Cash Game Strategy Example Hand #2 

You are dealt 7♦6♦ in the CO (cutoff). A tight and aggressive regular open-raises to 3x from MP (middle position). You call.

Pot: 7.5 BB 

Flop: K♦5♠2♥

Villain bets 3.5 BB 

You: ???

You should call.

Preflop you have a pretty standard call with a suited connector. Not much to be said here.

You don’t get the best flop in the world, but that’s no reason to give up the hand altogether right away.

The board is bone dry, meaning the villain could have missed it easily, and is just firing a standard c-bet. 

If you call and they check on the turn, you can take down the pot with a simple half-pot bet.

Your hand strength (or lack thereof) basically doesn’t matter in that particular spot. If the villain fires a second shell and you don’t pick up any equity on the turn, you can just fold.

But often enough, villain will basically be forfeiting the hand by checking to you.

Also, you have at least some sort of hand equity to fall back on, which makes your call more +EV. You have a backdoor flush and straight draw, meaning a lot of turn cards can improve your hand equity.

A backdoor draw means you need both a turn and a river card to complete your draw.

Any 8 or a 4 will give you a straight draw, and any diamond will give you a flush draw.

For more info on floating and other advanced poker strategies, check out the Microstakes Playbook.

This Easy Cash Game Strategy Boosted My Winnings - Summary

As you start climbing up the stakes, it’s important to learn how to beat regular players as well as the recreational players. 

This also means studying advanced poker strategy in order to stay competitive at the higher limits. 

Going toe-to-toe with skilled, observant players is a losing battle, because they simply won’t make too many (or any) mistakes you can take advantage of.

Instead, you should identify and target other players that have noticeable leaks in their game, i.e. the weak regulars.

These players will usually play fairly straightforwardly, as well as passively, meaning you can often push them out of the pot with a well-timed aggression.

If you apply just the right amount of pressure, you can even tilt them and totally throw them off their game, so they’ll be more likely to make mistakes when playing against you.

For example, calling you down too widely, bluffing you at the wrong time, or even avoiding getting involved in the pot with you in the first place.

Here are some of the tactics you can employ to target weak regulars:

1. Steal their blinds relentlessly.

2. 3-bet their isolation attempts

3. Float them in position with a wide range.

By using these tactics, you’ll see a dramatic increase in your winrate in no time. 

The best part is, you won’t need to rely on recreational players alone to win anymore, so you’ll become a formidable opponent on every table you choose to play.

Lastly, if you want to know the complete strategy I use to make $1000+ per month in small/mid stakes games, get a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.

5 Simple Cash Game Tips Most Amateurs Don't Know About

This article was written by blackrain79.com contributor Fran Ferlan.

Poker is a game that takes a minute to learn, but a lifetime to master. Fortunately, the learning curve is not really steep, and it doesn’t take long to master the fundamental winning strategy. 

By following these five simple tips, you’ll be well under way to crush your buddies next poker night and start making money in no time. 

These tips cover the essence of the tried and true winning poker strategy for beginners, also known as the tight and aggressive (TAG) style. 

Let’s get right into it.

1. Play Less Hands

One of the most common mistakes beginner players make is playing too many hands. The key to winning poker is actually playing less hands, not more. 

This may seem totally counterintuitive to a lot of people. How can you win if you don’t play? Should I really fold 80% of the time? Isn’t folding weak? And where’s the fun in that anyway?

I’ll start by actually ceding the last point. It’s not fun. Playing poker is exciting. Winning poker is boring. 

And here’s the thing. I prefer making money than having fun. Actually, making money is what’s fun to me. I look for the excitement elsewhere. 

When you boil it down, poker actually comes down to basic math. And math isn’t thrilling to most people. 

It’s all about managing risk and reward, calculating odds and probabilities, and making educated guesses based on limited information. 

That’s the gist of it. 

By the way, if you just want to learn my simple no BS system for exactly what hands to play, when to bet, raise and bluff, I cover this in extensive detail in my brand new training program, Play Fearless Poker.

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A lot of people overestimate and romanticize poker with a dramatic flair, daring bluffs, soul reads and what have you. 

While certainly appealing, it’s kind of like watching a highlight reel instead of the whole game. The mundane aspect of the game is overlooked, and it consists mostly of folding. And lots of it.

Why? 

Because of the aforementioned math. Statistically speaking, most hands miss most flops. And the more hands you play, more often you miss and consequently, more money you lose. 

It’s actually quite rare to make a really strong hand in no-limit hold’em, so you should only play hands that have a decent chance of actually flopping something good. 

This includes broadway hands, suited Aces, suited connectors and pocket pairs. The rest is trash, and should be thrown away.

In fact, if you want to start winning at poker immediately, only play these hands.  

2. Play in Position

Playing in position means acting last in every betting round, and is the cornerstone of the winning poker strategy for a number of reasons.

First of all, if you are the last to act, you have an informational advantage over your opponents. You get to see what they’ll do, and they have no idea what you will do. 

Poker is a game of incomplete information, so every additional piece of it helps big time.

Secondly, you can dictate the price of the pot. If your opponent checks to you, you can either check back to control the pot size and get a free card, or bet either to inflate the pot size or get your opponent to fold. 

If the opponent bets, you can fold, call or come over with a raise of your own. Playing in position therefore gives you more options than playing out of position.

This is something that I discuss in much more detail in my video training series.

Learn to Make $1000 Per Month in Small Stakes Games With My Free Poker Cheat Sheet

Are you struggling to create consistent profits in small stakes poker games? Would you like to make a nice part time income of at least $1000 per month in these games?

If so, then I wrote this free poker cheat sheet for you. This is the best completely free poker strategy guide available online today. 

It shows you how to crush the small stakes games step by step. Learn exactly what hands to play and when to bet, raise and bluff all in! 

These are the proven strategies that I have used as a 10+ year poker pro to create some of the highest winnings of all time in these games. 

Enter your details below and I will send my free poker "cheat sheet" to your inbox right now.

 

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3. Play Aggressively

Winning poker is aggressive poker. Playing a select number of hands in position, and playing them aggressively (i.e. betting and raising big and often) is the cornerstone of the tried and true TAG strategy. 

The reason you should play aggressively is that you’re simply giving yourself more ways to win the pot.

You can either win by having the best hand at showdown (in that case you will want to take down as much money as possible), or without showdown by making your opponents fold. 

And since you only get really strong hands rarely, it’s not enough to rely on your hand strength alone to be a profitable long term winner.

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You also make yourself much more difficult to play against. Your opponents will have to think twice before getting involved with you and won’t be inclined to push you around.

You can also use this simple poker trick that Nathan discussed in a recent video, to win even more.

4. Don’t Bluff Too Much

When first starting out with playing poker, bluffing may seem like the most exciting aspect of the game. And it’s understandable. 

There’s nothing quite like the rush of pushing your opponent out of the pot holding absolute air. And if you want to get really good at poker fast, you need to learn how to bluff properly.

You’ve seen the pros do it, and you want to replicate it. However, bluffing too much when you’re first starting out is about one of the worst things you can do for your results.

To pull off a successful bluff, it’s not enough to have the nerves of steel. You have to take a ton of info into consideration, the previous action, your opponent’s tendencies, the board runout, just to name a few. 

And you have to make sure your bluff tells a believable story.

Bluffing involves high risk and high reward, but it’s only profitable if you are able to make informed decisions, instead of just bluffing out of the blue in the middle of the hand. 

Another reason you might refrain from bluffing too much is because if you are a beginning poker player, you are ideally going to play against opponents who are beginners themselves. 

A bluff is profitable only if your opponent is able to fold, and beginners don’t fold nearly as often they should. That’s what makes them beginners in the first place. 

So no matter how well-thought-out your bluff is, chances are it’s going to go right over their head anyway. 

What’s more, a lot of beginners can be very distrustful of their opponents, and think everybody is trying to bluff them all the time, so they call them down all the time. 

Don’t prove them right. Save your bluffs for opponents who actually know what they’re doing and are capable of folding. 

Also, keep expanding your knowledge and understanding of the game in order to recognize actual potentially profitable bluffing opportunities.

Any good proven winning poker strategy will also help you bluff better.

5. Play Within Your Bankroll

The best poker strategy in the world and playing your absolute best all the time isn’t going to count for much if you end up broke. 

Poker is a skill game, and the most skilled players end up on the top over the long run.

There is, however, a short-term luck element involved. This is why poker is so popular, even among players who don’t really know what they’re doing. 

Everyone can win sometimes. The flip side is that everyone can also lose, and they do. 

There’s simply no way around it. Sometimes you will do everything right, but the poker gods won’t be on your side, and you will lose money. 

This is very hard for some people to come to terms with, and it’s no wonder. Nobody likes losing money. Especially if they didn’t really do anything wrong. 

But that’s just the reality of poker. Not everybody can make $100,000 a year from poker.

And in order to not be negatively affected by it no more than necessary, you should only play with money you’re comfortable with losing. 

You also need to have a certain amount of money dedicated to poker only. 

This money is your bankroll. By having a sufficient amount of buyins in your bankroll, you’ll be able to ride out the short-term fluctuations in your results.

This fluctuation between the amount of money you’re expected to win and the amount you actually win or lose is called variance. 

If you bet on a coinflip ten times, you are expected to win five times on average. If you won six times, you experienced positive variance. If you win only four times, that would be negative variance. 

Day to day and month to month your results will be all over the place due to variance, no matter how well you’re playing. 

That’s why it’s recommended to have a bankroll of 30 buyins for the stakes you’re playing at the bare minimum. More is always better, of course. 

If you’re playing NL2 online, for example (and this is where you should start as a beginner, anyway) you should have no less than 60 dollars in your bankroll.

You might say, well, what’s the difference, I can always reload. That’s true, but the point is trying to become a winning poker player. Winners take the money out of the site, not the other way around. 

Besides, the adverse psychological effect of constantly losing and depositing money isn’t going to help your game any. So it’s better to get it right the first time.

5 Simple Cash Game Tips for Beginners (Summary)

By following these tips, you’ll transition from a beginner to a solid winner in no time.

You can go ahead and study more advanced poker strategy to improve your cash game skills, but this isn't totally necessary for beginners. 

All you have to do is follow the simple TAG strategy, which means being very selective with your hand selection preflop, playing most of the hands in position, and playing them aggressively postflop. 

You shouldn’t really bluff too often, however enticing it might seem. Finally, practice proper bankroll management to avoid going broke. 

Lastly, if you want to know the complete strategy I use to make $1000+ per month in small stakes games, get a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.

5 Advanced Cash Game Strategies That Nobody Talks About

This article was written by blackrain79.com contributor Fran Ferlan.

Poker is an incredibly competitive game, and it seems to get progressively more so every passing year. What used to be a tried and true winning strategy in the past can only bring you mediocre results today.

After all, if everyone is doing the same thing, everyone will have the same results by default. With technical game knowledge being so widespread today, even the recreational players know they should “just play tight”.

The games are nowhere near as much of a joke they used to be back in the good old days, and just sitting down at the random table waiting for the nuts all day simply doesn’t work anymore. 

However, not everything is all doom and gloom as some forum threads would have you believe. 

Poker is indeed still beatable these days, but it will take some effort on your part. Then again, so will anything else in life, so why should poker be any different?

One great thing about poker is that for every strategy, there’s a counter strategy, and the game will keep evolving. 

Those that learn and keep evolving with it will be the ones to ultimately reach the top. Those that stagnate will be left behind. 

So just by reading strategy articles such as this one and keeping up with the latest trends, you’re well ahead of the majority of the player pool that still just plays for fun, and don’t even try to improve and take their game to the next level.

In this article, you will find cash games strategies that aren’t quite common knowledge yet, and by employing them successfully you’ll stay a couple of steps ahead of the competition. 

Without further ado, let’s get right into it.

1. 3-bet Bluff the Isolation Raises

Any remotely decent player knows by now that the most money in poker comes not from their superior skills, but from the inadequacies of their opponents, aka the fish. 

They also know that the best way to take the fish’s money is by playing a heads-up pot against them in position as a preflop aggressor. 

And when you know that, and you know the exact location of said fish and the decent players, you can recognize when they try to isolate the fish by raising after they limped in the pot (which is a telltale sign of a recreational player 99% of the time).

When you see such a situation, consider 3-bet bluffing and try to take down the pot preflop.



The reason this play works so well is because you are attacking extremely wide and weak ranges of both the fish and the raiser.

The recreational player’s limping range is usually as high as their overall VPIP (Voluntarily Put Money in Pot), and there’s no telling what kind of garbage hands they’ll opt to play.

The isolation raiser’s range will consist of playable cards at least, but most of them won’t stand the pressure of a 3-bet.

You should target isolation raises from late positions, as they tend to be the widest.

Decent regs will target limpers more widely when they can play in position postflop, so they will play the most hands in the cutoff and on the button.

As for what hands you should 3-bet them with, you shouldn’t just do it with any two hands any chance you get, even though you have a significant amount of fold equity. You should choose the hands that have at least some sort of playability postflop. 

Needless to say, you should 3-bet your strong value hands in any case. Some good candidates for 3-bet bluffing can be suited Aces or Kings, for example. 

Not only do they block your opponents strong value hands (pocket Aces and pocket Kings), they can also make monster flushes, which will come in handy if your 3-bet bluff gets called. And it will happen sometimes. 

But even if it does, you’ll still be in a good spot. You will either play heads-up with a fish or against a reg with a range advantage, so you can take down the pot with a simple flop c-bet.

If you get called by both or more players, however, you’ll more than likely play in a multiway bloated flop, which isn’t ideal. In that case, you should just give up if you don’t hit the flop in any way, which would be most times.

Remember, the goal is to get folds preflop, so if the villains aren’t likely to fold, you should only 3-bet them for value.

By the way, for more "tricky" strategies just like this, Nathan just released his top 12 advanced online poker tips video.

Advanced Cash Game Strategy Example Hand 

Effective stack sizes: 100 BB.

You are dealt K♣9♣ on the BU.

A loose passive fish limps in UTG.

A tight and aggressive reg raises to 4x.

You: ???

You should 3-bet to 12x.

There are multiple reasons a 3-bet would be a preferable option to flat calling here. 

First of all, you can easily get folds preflop, as you’re attacking pretty wide ranges from both the fish and the regular, and we can’t win the pot outright with calling. 

If you just call, you’re more than likely  to play in a multiway pot, without the range advantage and with a dominated hand. 

What’s more, the players in the blinds can squeeze you out with a 3-bet of their own. 

Your hand is an ideal candidate for a light 3-bet here, as it has a blocker and decent playability postflop (i.e. it can make strong straights and flushes), but it could also spell trouble for you in a multiway pot, where you often won’t be sure where you stand in the hand. 

If your 3-bet gets called by both the fish and the reg, the best approach would be to play the rest of the hand “honestly”. 

If you hit the flop or get a drawing hand, continue betting for value or as a semi-bluff if they check to you, and just give up if you miss completely. 

Remember, the goal was to get folds preflop, and if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t really make sense to keep trying to buy out the pot at this point.

This hand is an example of a proactive approach you should take with every hand you play. Your decision making process should consider as many variables as possible. 

It can’t just be thinking this way: I like my hand somewhat, I call, or I like my hand a lot, I raise.

By the way, if you just want to learn my simple no BS system for exactly what hands to play, when to bet, raise and bluff, I cover this in extensive detail in my brand new training program, Play Fearless Poker.

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2. Shove the Flop With Ace-high Against Fish

If you’re playing cash games, the goal is to locate the fish as quickly as possible and take their money before the next guy. 

This is especially the case if you are looking to make poker your side hustle ($200 to $1000 per month) as BlackRain79 discusses in his latest video:

The tried and true method of waiting for a strong hand and value bet the hell out of it against them is usually the way to go, but the problem is strong hands just don’t come around as often. 

So you should be willing to expand your value betting range depending on how big the fish is. If someone is playing 80% of their hands, for example, you shouldn’t just wait for Aces to take all their money.

If you hold anything remotely playable, you should try to get involved with them as often as possible. That’s because your skill edge postflop against these players is huge, and you’re potentially missing out a ton of value if you don’t get involved. 

If you iso-raise these players, you will often play shallow SPR (stack to pot ratio) pots, because fish tend to play with less than 100 big blinds stacks in cash games. 

They’ll often buy-in for a minimum amount, and if they buy-in for a 100 big blinds, they’ll spew their chips quickly without reloading. 

So if you hit the flop with a top-pair hand or better against them with SPR of 3 or less, you will be automatically committed to the pot, meaning you should be willing to play for the rest of their stack.

If you need a reminder on SPR and how it affects your preflop strategy and starting hand selection, Blackrain79 has you covered.

What about when you miss the flop, though? Should you just give up? 

Not necessarily. 

You will miss the flop 2 out of 3 times, but so will your opponent. And if you’re up against a recreational player who plays an insane amount of hands, they’re going to miss even more frequently. 

That’s because they’ll have a bunch of unsuited and unconnected cards in their range, so they’ll rarely connect with the flop in some significant way. 

Some fish will be of the fit-or-fold variety, meaning they like to see a bunch of flops, but will give up on the flop when they don’t hit (which will be most of the time). 

So if you have an Ace-high hand against them in a shallow SPR pot, you might want to consider just shoving the rest of the stack in for maximum fold equity. 

This way you’re applying maximum pressure and force them to  relinquish their equity. 

And even if they call you, they’ll often call with all sorts of ludicrous draws, and your Ace-high hand will actually be a favourite to win against them.

Example Hand

6-max game. Effective stack size: 40 BB.

You are dealt A♦J♠ in the CO.

A loose and passive fish limps in the MP.

You raise to 5x. BB folds, fish calls.

Pot: 11 BB

Flop: T♥6♦3♣

Fish checks.

You: ???

You should shove all-in.

This one might be a head scratcher at first, but bear with me. 

While a standard play here would certainly be a smaller c-bet, let’s consider what you accomplish with a shove.

First of all, the board is quite dry, so it’s unlikely the villain hit it in any significant way. By shoving all-in, you get the maximum fold equity, and there’s not much left behind in the villain's stack anyway. 

On the other hand, if the villain has some sort of weird gutshot draw or a backdoor flush draw, your Ace-high is actually a favourite to win, so you’re betting more for value than as a bluff. 

What’s more, implied odds are bigger on earlier streets than they are on later streets, and considering the villain is a fish who loves chasing draws, why not get all the money in ASAP? 

And even if he calls you with some sort of Tx hand or a middle pair, not all is lost, as you still have two overcards to improve with on later streets. You might be surprised with what kinds of crazy nonsense they’re going to call you down with. 

In the worst case scenario, if you lose the pot, you lost to a fish, so you can always try to get your money back from them. 

Also, this kind of unconventional play from time to time can do wonders for your table image.

Just a disclaimer, though. Shoving all-in on the flop with an Ace-high hand isn’t something you should ever do as a default. 

This is just a specific example against a particular opponent with a shallow stack left behind, and while it might look crazy at a first glance, it has some rationale behind it. 

The point is to appear wild and erratic, while actually pondering deeply and acting deliberately in every single spot.

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3. 4-bet Light Against Aggressive Regs

In the good old days, a 4-bet meant Aces and Aces only. As the games got progressively more competitive and players realized the utility of 3-bet bluffing, a counter strategy slowly began to emerge in the form of 4-bet bluffing. 

That’s the beauty of poker. There is a way to successfully adapt to every strategy, so there’s no standing still. You have to continually improve and adapt to stay ahead of the competition. 

This is where 4-bet bluffing can work wonders, as most players still 4-bet exclusively with pocket Aces or Kings, and maybe pocket Queens, so they (correctly) assume everyone else does the same. 

And this is where your opportunity lies if you’re able to execute this bluff effectively. This is discussed in much more detail in BlackRain79 Elite Poker University.

Bear in mind that this isn’t something you should do often, but if you’re able to pull it off once per session, for example, it can do wonders to your bottom line. 

You just have to find the right spot to do it, and come to terms that it’s a high variance play. It is best employed against aggressive regulars who 3-bet light a lot themselves.

The reason you should employ this tactic is when you play against decent thinking opponents day in and day out, there really isn’t any significant skill edge between you. 

Nobody will make too many mistakes postflop, and you’ll basically trade money back and forth. So it pays to keep looking for edges in every situation, and 4-bet bluffing might just be one of them.

Example Hand:

Effective stack size: 100 BB.

You are dealt A♠4♠ in the CO.

You open raise to 3x.

A loose and aggressive reg 3-bets to 9x.

You: ???

You should 4-bet to 20x.

Calling a 3-bet out of position with a dominated hand isn’t a great look, so you should either fold or 4-bet. 

Considering the type of villain you are up against and his position, you can assume he won’t 3-bet purely for value, so it’s a great spot to 4-bet light. 

You block a lot of villain’s value range with your hand, and even if you get called, your hand is playable postflop, as it can make a straight as well as a nut flush, so you have a ton of equity to fall back on. 

If you get called, you will be automatically committed with a top pair and/or flush draws, and you can take down the pot with a simple c-bet on a lot of board textures, except on super coordinated boards that favour villain’s calling range.

4. Check-Raise the Turn When You Pick Up Some Equity

It’s hard to play profitably out of position due to the informational disadvantage and the inability to control the size of the pot.



However, it’s impossible to just play 100% of hands in position. 

You can certainly try to do so by only playing on the button, but it’s hardly an optimal long term strategy. 

You have to know how to play out of position as well, and in order not to get run over by other overly aggressive regulars who abuse the positional play themselves, it pays to implement a check-raise in your arsenal. 

This is some that BlackRain79 talks about in The Micro Stakes Playbook.

One “advantage” of playing out of position is you can go for a check-raise line, which is perceived to be a really strong play. 

So if you learn to check-raise bluff effectively, you’ll make yourself much harder to play against, and other players will have to think twice before barrelling into you with impunity.

The best opponents to check-raise the turn against would be regs who are: 

a) positionally aware 

and 

b) on the more aggressive side of the spectrum, as they will have more significant percentage of bluffs in their range and will be more likely to double barrel when you check to them twice. 

If you check-raise the turn, it will show incredible strength, and they will have to have a really strong hand to continue. 

It’s important to mention that it’s better to try to employ this play with some sort of equity, as you will get called, or even reraised from time to time, so this play works great as a semibluff.

This something that Phil Ivey discusses more in his advanced poker training program.  

And he's made over $50,000,000 playing poker. Enough said!

The reason you might want to go for a check-raise rather than a check-call with a drawing hand is because your opponent might not be too inclined to fire off another shell on the river if he sees some sort of draw completing, like a third spade on the river, for example.

If you go for a check-call on the turn, one of these situations will happen: 

1. You will either miss your draw and have to fold to a triple barrel

2. Or you will complete your draw, in which case you can either donk bet and hope for a call, or check again and hope against odds that villain will fire off on a scary board runout, which he won’t be particularly inclined to do if he sees a completed draw of some sort.

5. Intentionally Tilt the Regs

Shoutout to Blackrain79 for sharing this absolute gem. Here's his complete guide to intentionally tilting the regs.

This one is going to take a lot of nerve and is not for the fainthearted, but if you manage to pull it off successfully, it can be insanely lucrative not just during that one session, but for many sessions in the future. 

Now, I’m not going to debate whether or not it’s justifiable to absolutely go out of your way to ruin someone’s day, and just to be completely clear, I am in no way condoning any form of angle shooting or inflammatory table talk in order to get under someone’s skin.

This tactic is about using incessant aggression against a particular opponent in order to get them to make mistakes when playing against you, which is totally within the bounds of game rules, as well as fair play.

And yes, that means running some big bluffs as BlackRain79 discusses in this video:

Winning poker is all about finding edges against your opponents, and this is no different. It might feel uncomfortable at first, as you are intentionally creating conflict, but there’s conflict in every hand you play. 

This is all about upping the ante, so to speak. So how do you best go about ruining someone’s session? 

First you need to identify your target. 

The recreational players are the obvious choice, of course, but when it comes to them, you really don’t need to do anything special or go out your way to get them to spew off their chips to you. 

They are notoriously impatient as it is, so it’s mostly a matter of time before they start steaming and making all kinds of crazy mistakes. 

So the optimal target here would actually be weak and tight regs, the ones that play a reasonable number of hands preflop, but are generally weak postflop and don’t fight back if they don’t have a strong hand. 

This is the type of player that will usually play quite a straightforward ABC style, and won’t get out of line too much, or even at all. 

They will usually fold to 3-bets too often (80% or more), fold to steal attempts in the blinds, c-bet the flop purely for value (about 50% or less), and basically give up at the slightest sight of trouble. 

If you are seated on their direct left on multiple tables, and your session is going a bit slow, try this: 3-bet them preflop and barrel them postflop every chance you get. 

Don’t wait around for good hands, just go absolutely berserk. 

They usually won’t figure out what’s going on right away, they’ll just let you have it for a while. But they’ll figure out something’s up after a few orbits. 

You will know the tactic is working when they start calling you down with marginal hands. 

If you’re really committed to the act, you might get lucky and absolutely smash the board with your garbage hands, and they will call you down with their top pair, weak kicker, second pair and the like, and you take down the pot with your J4 offsuit. 

They’ll absolutely lose their marbles, and this is when the fun begins.

From this point on, they’ll assume you’re full of it 100% of the time, so it’s time to shift gears.

You will tighten up significantly, and bet and raise for value, and value only. They will never give you any credit, so when you finally wake up with Aces, value bet them relentlessly and watch them donate their stack to you. 

The beauty of this tactic is that people won’t soon forget this. If you’re playing cash games, you’re bound to play with the same people over and over again, and if you get out of line in one session only, they’ll peg you for a maniac for the rest of eternity. 

From then on, they can become your personal ATM machine. 

You won’t need to 3-bet them with 83s next session. You can just keep playing your normal game and watch them call you down trying to catch your bluffs and get even with you.

Summary

These 5 tactics are meant to make you a more difficult adversary, and go slightly beyond the “just play tight” adage. In fact, they are all foundational components to an advanced poker strategy.

First of all, identify and differentiate between the regulars and the recreational players as soon as possible. 

When you see a regular trying to isolate the fish, attack them with a 3-bet bluff. Don’t just do it just because, though. Try to do it with hands that have some sort of playability post-flop if your 3-bet gets called.

Next, when you are the one to isolate the fish preflop, consider shoving the flop when they check to you for maximum fold equity. 

Again, don’t do it just because, but make sure you at least have some sort of equity to fall back on if you get called (like with overcards or some sort of draw, at least).

When you’re up against loose and aggressive regulars who 3-bet a lot, consider attacking back with a light 4-bet, especially when you are out of position. 

The best hands to do it with are small suited Aces (A2s through A5s) because of their nut flush and straight potential, as well as their blocker power. 

If you play out of position against aggressive regulars who abuse their positional advantage, throw out an occasional check raise against their flop or turn c-bets, as they will have a significant amount of bluffs in their range. 

The best spot to do so would be the one where you have picked up some sort of equity with straight or flush draws, for example. Doing so from time to time will make them think twice about barreling into you with impunity.

And finally, if your session is going a bit slow, see if you can create a bit of drama by going out of your way to absolutely ruin someone’s day. 

Try to find a weak and timid regular on your direct right (preferably on multiple tables) and 3-bet him every chance you get. 

After he starts calling you down wide, tighten up significantly and trap him when you eventually wake up with a monster hand.

One thing all these tactics have in common is aggression. 

Winning poker is aggressive poker, and the biggest winners are those that know how and when to apply maximum pressure on their opponents, so they don’t need to rely on their hand strength alone.

After all, in a large enough sample size, everyone will get their share of good cards and bad cards, respectively. So it’s not just about the cards, otherwise everyone would have more or less the same results over the long run. 

One common bias of most poker players is they think they are playing aggressively, when that’s hardly the case in reality. 

It’s kind of like how everyone thinks their driving skills are above average, and that’s statistically impossible. It makes you wonder where all the bad drivers are, then.

The aim of this article was to hopefully illuminate certain spots where you might want to reconsider just going for the “standard play” every time.

You will often come to the conclusion that standard play was right all along, but just asking yourself what would happen if I just shove here instead, you might realize how many +EV spots you can find.

Even if it doesn’t work out every time, don’t beat yourself too much about it, and don’t worry about appearing foolish if your stone-cold bluff gets called.

Everyone else is so wrapped up in their own game, and most of them won’t even notice.

And even if they do, appearing wild and erratic is not a bad thing. What happens in one hand is totally meaningless. Poker is a long game, and it’s all one big session. You just have to keep moving forward.

And the only way to do that is to get out of line from time to time. So go out there and have fun with it. It’s about the journey, not the destination.

Lastly, if you want to know the complete strategy for crushing small stakes games, make sure you grab a copy of the free BlackRain79 poker cheat sheet.