"Cash Game Play" by Jeffrey Nathan

September 6, 2010

I know many talented amateur and professional players who have fallen by the wayside, who certainly have the playing ability to make the game pay but due to bad bankroll management have failed. It really is that important to handle your money correctly and it is an aspect of the game that is so often overlooked. Money management and book keeping are not a golden formula for success but they will help any player to see the games in which they do the best and help them decide which games they will be comfortable playing in financially. I have been a professional for many years and the figures that I am to suggest to you are not set in stone but over my years of experience I have found them to work.

Firstly, let us discuss what size game you should be playing in. I would suggest these kind of figures. If you are playing in a limit game I would suggest a bankroll of around 300 times the big bet, i.e. if you are playing in a $1/$2 game you will be comfortable if you have a $600 bankroll. That is not to say that you sit down with the whole amount of money, you should aim to never lose more that 10% of your bankroll in any one session. Now I know that $600 may seem like a lot of money for a $1/$2 game but this will ensure that you can take all the swings and runs of bad cards that poker can throw at you and not be sent to the infamous poker hospital!!. If you have a few winning sessions then move up in game but similarly if you have a few losing sessions do not feel bad about moving down in size until you can build your money back up.

If, on the other hand you are playing in a pot or no limit game you should aim to be playing in a game where you have a bankroll of around 100 times the minimum sit down. So for example if you are playing a $50 minimum sit down you should have a bankroll of around $5000. I know this even more than the limit games seems a very large amount of money but the swings in pot and no limit games are much greater and therefore your bankroll must be big enough to absorb the shocks, even if you can't!! Again the same rule should apply of trying not to lose more than 10% of this money in any one session. The reason that this 10% rule should be applied is simply because even the best players have bad runs and even if you don't think these bad beats effect you inevitably they do and will effect the way that you play. Often if you are on a bad run (especially in pot and no limit games) you will tend to both underplay and overplay your big hands, trust me, I've seen it happen a thousand times and undoubtedly I will see it a thousand times more.

There are some players who really only play poker very rarely and then they will just sit in a game with a set amount of money that if they lose they stop and there is nothing wrong with this. These figures only really apply to people who see poker as a long-term thing and play regularly. Many "amateur" players are winning players who play regularly and the application of these kinds of figures will really help to ensure that they stay winning players and do not play in games that are too big for them and their bankroll.

So now onto accurate record keeping. This, above all, will tell you what games you should be playing in. When keeping your records write down the amount that you started with (including any pull ups) and the amount that you cashed out, the game that you played in and how long you played for. This may seem tediously boring and sometimes it is, especially when you lose! But it really will help you to see what games you do the best in and therefore which games you should play in most often. It may seem glaringly simple but not as many players as should do this and those that don't are definitely at a disadvantage as they may be unaware of their personal strengths and weaknesses.

So now you know what games to be playing in how much to be playing with, what about how to actually play once you are sat there? Well, the first thing to remember, that many players don't seem to, is that this is not a tournament. The chips in front of you have a real monetary value and because the antes do not continuously rise as they do in a tournament there is no need to panic or start making "moves" to steal the blinds. Pot odds are never so important as they are in a cash game and some hands that you may be re-aising with in a tournament are perfectly passable in a cash game. If, for example you flop a flush draw in a cash game and you are heads up and they bet the pot or more if it is no limit you are not getting true odds for your money. You are only getting evens for your money but your chances of making your flush are greater than evens. In limit these pot odds are vastly different and drawing hands are often much better value than in pot or no limit games because most hands are multi-handed and you do not have to pay as much money to see the next card so pot odds usually allow you to call with drawing hands. So, before you start slinging your money in work out how much it will cost you and how likely the card is to come. A very quick formula for doing this which will give you a rough percentage chance of making your hand is this. The chance of you hitting each individual card that you need after the flop is about 4% per card (obviously this is halved to 2% on the turn) so multiply your number of cards by 4. For example, if you flop a flush draw (4 to a suit) there are 9 remaining cards in the deck for you to hit on the turn and river therefore your percentage chance of hitting them is around 36% so you need to be getting 3/1 or better for your money in order to make the call. This is jus a rough way for you to work out your odds quickly at the time but is a useful little formula that I still use sometimes.

Apart form pot odds and not stealing blinds with "moves" the important aspects of poker do not change that much from tournament to cash play. Position is still as important and playing your opponents as much as much as your own cards still have high priority topics which have been discussed in other articles so I won't rake over old ground! As a general rule where aggression is a key to winning in tournaments high levels of aggression at a cash table can often prove costly. Your opponents cannot be knocked out in the same way as they can in a tournament and this will mean that constant aggression will not get rid of players and in the long run will only cost you money. In general play a tighter game in cash games as the need to gamble to get chips and keep up with the pack is not so prominent so play a slower tighter game and because the chips you have are worth real money do not take big gambles to establish a big chip lead as in the long run you will lose and being chip leader at a cash game does not have the bearing and significance of chip leader in a tournament.

I hope that some of my formulas here will really help you when tackling the poker tables. I have learnt these things over many years of experience and wish only that I had known all this when I first started playing! It really is invaluable information!