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I started playing poker a year ago with a weekly poker tourney every Saturday. It was fairly easy and I cashed (top three) freqauently. However after a while my friends got tired of Tourney play and switched to a $1-$10 Cash Game with 25 cent and 50 cent chips and a 25/50 cent blind. Since then my profits have been going down to the point where I have not left a Cash game up in months. At this point I have no idea what to do, I have gone into the last games with a gameplan on how I was gunna play (either aggressive with pre-flop raises or slow and tight) all of which have failed. Finally I decided to post my dilema on this forum since the numerous chats I have had with my friend discussing strategy has yielded me nothing. I think my strategy this Saturday is going to have to be agresive again, always entering the pot with a raise (when the cards are good enough to play), hopefully causing some players to fold (hopefully is the key word since many of these players have continually stated they will play "any hand since any 2 cards have the potential to win") The one girl who says that the most caught her winning hand on the river 15 times during a 6 1/2 hr span and rarely folds before the Show Down whether it is a $2-5 bet to an all in.Any advice?

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pretty much how to play against calling stations. They all play pretty much any hand, some of them fold with a big bet or raise but theres this one girl in particular who plays ANY 2 cards, and will call down to the river 99% of the time. Whether its a big pre-flop bet, big bet turn or river or even a re-raise or all in push she will call in hopes of catching her straight or flush (usually) on the river. what do you do? (sorry it was too vague)

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Cash games and tourneys are completely different. Every player has their strengths. If yours are tournaments that I would advise you to stop giving your money away in cash games and focus on tournaments. While working on your cash game lack of skills. Go buy a poker book on cash games or join PokerVT or Cardrunners. All of these are good tools to develop both styles.

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pretty much how to play against calling stations. They all play pretty much any hand, some of them fold with a big bet or raise but theres this one girl in particular who plays ANY 2 cards, and will call down to the river 99% of the time. Whether its a big pre-flop bet, big bet turn or river or even a re-raise or all in push she will call in hopes of catching her straight or flush (usually) on the river. what do you do? (sorry it was too vague)
Play this girl forever.Stop bluffing and start betting for value.
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I dont bluff her, usually I raise preflop with a good hand, (get called by her) flop either:Nothing (at which I check, she bets I fold bc Im not gunna be strung along)or I flop something, bet every street with her calling and usually at the end she ends up winning. When I have a hand that has a chance at getting better on the turn/river do I call her min bets looking to improve or is folding and waiting to flop something the better move?Or when I flop a hand to I kill it and go all in hoping to end the hand there and take what I can get before she outdraws me?Or when I flop a hand do I NOT bet every street and let her do the betting to get an idea of what she has?I tried the second choice a few times last week, won a few (minor) hands since there was little money in the pot but it didnt last.Doing the third choice seems like I would lose LESS money if she does out draw me since I didnt bet every street and still got beat.

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bet near the pot for value every street where you're good. Keep it small when obv. scare cards hit. Profit.At this point I'm losing a little interest in this and thinking your just complaining. Yes people hit draws, yes you should bet when you're a favorite in a hand, bad beats happen, but over the long haul you'll come out okay.If you'r still lost post a specific decision you HONESTLY don't know the answer to and let's go from there. (not a look I bet and she called and caught a flush, but think of something you're actually confused about and put it up.)

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bet near the pot for value every street where you're good. Keep it small when obv. scare cards hit. Profit.At this point I'm losing a little interest in this and thinking your just complaining. Yes people hit draws, yes you should bet when you're a favorite in a hand, bad beats happen, but over the long haul you'll come out okay.If you'r still lost post a specific decision you HONESTLY don't know the answer to and let's go from there. (not a look I bet and she called and caught a flush, but think of something you're actually confused about and put it up.)
well thanks for the help chief.
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I started playing poker a year ago with a weekly poker tourney every Saturday. It was fairly easy and I cashed (top three) freqauently. However after a while my friends got tired of Tourney play and switched to a $1-$10 Cash Game with 25 cent and 50 cent chips and a 25/50 cent blind. Since then my profits have been going down to the point where I have not left a Cash game up in months. At this point I have no idea what to do, I have gone into the last games with a gameplan on how I was gunna play (either aggressive with pre-flop raises or slow and tight) all of which have failed. Finally I decided to post my dilema on this forum since the numerous chats I have had with my friend discussing strategy has yielded me nothing. I think my strategy this Saturday is going to have to be agresive again, always entering the pot with a raise (when the cards are good enough to play), hopefully causing some players to fold (hopefully is the key word since many of these players have continually stated they will play "any hand since any 2 cards have the potential to win") The one girl who says that the most caught her winning hand on the river 15 times during a 6 1/2 hr span and rarely folds before the Show Down whether it is a $2-5 bet to an all in.Any advice?
There's one of your problems, how can you possibly decide how you'll play before you even get there!!?? You have to make about a billion adjustments during a game based on about a billion external conditons. Also, $10NL with 25/50 blinds is kinda rediculous. Try to get them to lower the blinds or raise the max buy-in. If they won't do it, all you can do is value shove your strong hands and punish the loose showdown monkeys. Sounds like a dream table to make a little extra cash at. If the stakes were a bit higher I'd beg you to get me involved, I love $$$$$$$$!! :D Or, limp alot this Saturday and raise a lot the following Saturday then go back to limping for the next two Saturdays. :ts:club:
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*lol* I have tried to get them to lower blinds but they wont do it (because there is "less money involved per pot")... its just crazy... they always show the remaining cards, always ask (and sometimes reveal) your mucked hand and constantly talk and give obvious tells (sigh or groan when the flop comes 6-6-10 making it obvious they folded a 6). *lol* where do you live? ill let you know if I can get the stakes raised...

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pretty much how to play against calling stations.
ABC Poker, baby. Punish them for playing junk by raising preflop with good hands. Fold your junk. Fold marginal hands like A6o. Fold when you don't hit a a flop. Sure, they will steal some from you, but if you try to outbluff a calling station you will just get frustrated. If you hit a solid hand against an opponent who likes to continuation bluff, re-raise him. If you have a solid hand (like top pair good kicker vs. 1 or 2 opponents), bet consistently (i.e. near the size of the pot). Only slowplay hands when you flop a monster that won't be outdrawn (i.e. you flop a full house, or a three of a kind with no draws present). If a scary flush or straight card comes, slow down by betting half the pot. If your opponent is extremely aggressive and will bet with anything, let him do the betting for you.Playing ABC poker, position doesn't matter as much, but it should affect your starting hand choice.One "fancy" play that does seem to work in idiot-infested games is re-raising on the flop with a flush or straight draw. If they don't have anything, they will be scared and check the turn, and if they do, they will check on the turn, assuming that you will raise again. In both cases, check behind them, and you get to see the river for free. Checking on the turn also makes you look weak, so you might get paid off big if you hit your draw on the river.This mostly applies to 3 person or less pots. If a ton of people saw the flop, your top pair is likely to be beat.Pay attention to who is winning. If someone has a big chip stack in front of them, you should watch their play, both to learn from them and to try to pick up reads on them. You won't be able to read the people who will play any hand and call everything, but the winners probably won't be doing that.This is what I did in Vegas and I made some money (although the best part was simply being there and having fun -- the money was simply a bonus). The ideal way to beat idiots is to win huge pots against them every once in a while and folding the rest.EDIT: Ignore alot of the above. Didn't realize how silly-small the buy-in was.
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With these blinds, you should pretty much always be all-in by the flop or turn. Seriously. With a premium hand in this game and a ton of limpers, your preflop raises should be to 2.50 or 3 (I usually do 4x BB + 1 BB per limper in live games), and one big flop bet will get you guys all in (usually with great equity for you with a premium hand). At the very least, if you only raised to 2 and somehow it only ended up heads up (which doesn't sound like it in this game), you'd still get a 3 to 4 dollar bet in on the flop and the rest on the turn. How is this difficult? Play entirely for value and your better hands will prevail in the long run.Post specific hands with specific questions if you actually want help. Otherwise, your responses will be as vague as your questions.

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With these blinds, you should pretty much always be all-in by the flop or turn. Seriously. With a premium hand in this game and a ton of limpers, your preflop raises should be to 2.50 or 3 (I usually do 4x BB + 1 BB per limper in live games), and one big flop bet will get you guys all in (usually with great equity for you with a premium hand). At the very least, if you only raised to 2 and somehow it only ended up heads up (which doesn't sound like it in this game), you'd still get a 3 to 4 dollar bet in on the flop and the rest on the turn. How is this difficult? Play entirely for value and your better hands will prevail in the long run.Post specific hands with specific questions if you actually want help. Otherwise, your responses will be as vague as your questions.
Agreed. If you can only buy in 20 bbs deep, it shouldn't be hard to get it in on the flop with your premium hands as a solid favorite. Especially against calling stations who won't lay down a weak flush draw on the flop or second pair.
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Back to the tourneys are different than cash games. It seems like your applying tourney strategy to cash games. Like stated before I would just continue playing tourneys if thats where your having sucess and buy a cash game book and brush up on your cash game play. It takes some time to be really good at both cash games and tourneys. I'm strictly a cash game player but i suck at tourneys, something ive been working on but anyway yeah just focus on tourneys for now

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pot controlKeep the pots small weak made hands, make the the pot big with sets, straights and flushes. You should still occasionally bluff...but dont be afraid to show it. Fold when they bet unless you have a strong hand.A game like that is so easy to control. There is no excuse for not making money.Edit: I just saw how stupid the blinds are.

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If the *MAXIMUM* buy-in is 20 BBs, then playing this like the late stage of a tournament would be best. A full buyin at this game has an M of just over 13. You should always be topped off as a full stack and should be resteal-shoving a lot of opened pots preflop, especially when OOP from the initial raiser (something like 55+, AT+, A8(s)+, KQ, KJ(s) would be about right, although this may vary a bit based on the general aggression at the table and the fold equity that you feel you have, based on stack sizes and table dynamics).When you're in position against the raiser, you can mix in some calls and take some flops, but keep in mind that with an average stack of 20 BBS, you are too shallow to play speculative hands. You are not deep enough to set-mine or look for "stacking opportunities" with suited connectors. Since all the money should be going in either preflop or on the flop, the best hands are good pairs, big aces, and the larger suited broadway cards (like KJ) as well as KQ offsuit. I would be trying to call in position with my big hands versus the LAGTARDS at the table (because they will probably fold to a PF 3-bet, but will likely fire another bullet on any flop, so I can trap more money in the pot as a favourite versus his range). Conversely, if the Preflop raiser is passive, then I will be calling with the intent of taking the pot from him or her by either floating or simply leading at the pot when he/she checks the flop OOP. If you don't feel that you have a post-flop edge, or have trouble with reading your opponents at all, there is nothing wrong with *NEVER* calling a preflop raise in this sort of game (either fold, or 3-bet allin). In fact, the more I think about how shallow these stacks are, the more I lean towards completely removing the "call" button from your preflop arsenal.The bottom line is that you just are not deep enough to play *any* speculative hands, so just limit your starting hands to ones that have good showdown value and try to push this edge by betting/raising to get it all in either preflop or by the flop. Keep in mind that since a lot of hands will end up with at least one or two players all in, this will be a high variance game. Any one player could go on a heater/cooler which lasts several sessions. Just keep trying to pour on the aggression when you feel you have an edge against your opponent's range.Cheers and good luck!Merby

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To add to what Dreamcrusher28 said you don't won't to go into a game like this with a set gameplan to either play loose and fast or tight and slow. As previously stated in responses you will want to mix up your play within one session and sometimes within one hand! Calling stations are great, usually just bet your strong hands and if you get sucked out on THATS POKER, but the majority of the time you will prevail. If you want to get them off the hand and not let them draw to you then it is easy to get all-in on these flops from the blind structure and buy-ins you all have in place. Just remember with the all-in move you will mostly win small pots if table folds to you, but its better to win a small pot than lose a monster pot(especially on the river!!) Good Luck and HAVE FUN!

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