I love cash games at my league poker games. But wait, there’s the good and the bad. The bad is that if I’m in the loser’s lounge playing cash that means I’ve been knocked out. The good is that I can win more money playing the side games than in tournaments. Of course I could dig myself into a deeper hole by playing cash but it worked out pretty good this day.
We play mostly hold em and Omaha hi and hi/low. I prefer the Omaha games, because that’s where I feel that I have an edge. It’s not that I’m the best player (far from it) out there in Omaha but I think I’m better than most of the players in my poker league. I’ve logged thousands of hands in Omaha online (although they’re only micro stakes), which is probably more than any other player in our poker league. I manage to scoop a few decent pots in Omaha hi/low and that gave me some momentum.
In terms of hold em, it seems that most of the league players are tournament specialists. They play hold em tournaments (SNGs etc.) mostly and have little or no experience playing cash games. The differences in the two games are slight but it does take different skill sets. I take down a $70 pot when I boat up on the river vs. a made flush. I had 77, the villain had AQ diamonds in position. He had only about $30 bucks left and I hit my set on the flop. The problem is that there’s two diamonds out there. I bet about 3/4 of the pot (we play with .25-.50 blinds) on the flop and he shoves. I snap call. He hits his flush and I draw out on the river. Nice, it’s about time I put a beat on a guy who loves to play his draws aggressively.
Soon it’s time to start the second tournament. Sweet I cash out about $70 bucks ahead.
I get knocked out 6th in the second tournament when my AK suited gets cracked by A/10. I’m a little disappointed about this because I had a decent chip stack and I could’ve cruised my way into the money if I played a little conservatively but I play to win and I went down in flames.
Oh well, there’s always the loser’s lounge and the action packed side game.
I buy-in for $50. Pretty standard for a .25/.50 cash game.
I run that up to over $200. I win a key pot with 2 pair vs. top top kicker. When will these guys ever learn? I probably wouldn’t call a PF raise with 56 suited in a tournament but in a cash game as long as it’s reasonable to play these spec hands then I’m going to do it. I’m in the cutoff and there’s a standard 3x raise from MP who’s pretty tight. There’s already two callers plus the BB. So I gamble. The flop is sweet for me. I nab two pair and there’s a Q out there. The original bettor had AQ and I don’t quite stack him but I did get about $30 from him in this hand.
I’m cruising still hovering around the +$200 mark when I hit a snag. My QQ gets cracked by AK on the river. Oh well I’m still up so I shrug it off. I lose another hand when I get out flushed. Now I’m back down to about $100. Hey at least I’m still positive.
The rest of the night is a wash. I win a few pots, I lose a few more. I get lucky by splitting a pot when the villain’s two pair gets counterfieted on the river. I had AJ spades while the villain has me dominated with AQ. He had about $25 on him and we’re all in on the flop. The river gives the board two pair and we chop the pot. After that hand, I kind of turned it down a little because towards the end of the night, the pots get ridiculous because the players who are down are desperately trying to win some of their losses back. I pick my spots to put in my money and wind up plus $128.
So the final tally was -$70 in tournaments and about plus $200 (give or take) in the two cash games for a net of $130. Pretty sweet especially since I got knocked out of the two tourneys I played in.
