Ask BlackRain79 Anything About Cash Games

Nathan Williams

Nathan Williams

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Hey everyone,

My name is Nathan "BlackRain79" Williams. I am a 10+ year poker pro, 3 time poker author and the founder of www.blackrain79.com

It was also around 7 years ago that I decided to sell everything I own, hop on a one way flight to Bangkok, Thailand and travel the world. I am from Vancouver, canada by the way.

I have been active here on CardsChat for many years and this is the only major poker forum that I consistently recommend, besides my own.

And that is because I have always found CardsChat to be a positive, welcoming environment especially for beginners who want to learn and improve.

Throughout my own poker career I have been mostly a cash game specialist and I am best known for having some of the highest winnings in online poker history at the micro stakes.

I would be happy to answer any poker questions you may have. Or anything else in general! :)

Although for specific poker hands, please post those in the relevant poker hand analysis sections here on CC. I will be active there also.

Thanks

Nathan
 
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Nathan Williams

Nathan Williams

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terryk said:
You almost make me want to play cash,,,,,almost lol,,, A big thanks for helping my fellow CC'ers! :rock: Blackrain Rules!
Click to expand...

Thanks Terry! There is plenty of money in tournaments as well :D
 
Nathan Williams

Nathan Williams

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BullXT said:
Hey Nathan!
I watched almost every videos in your youtube channel and learned a lot, thanks for share your knowledge. my question is: what is your current bankroll?
Click to expand...

Hey BullXT,

Thanks for watching my poker YouTube videos!

Oh boy, that's a bit personal no? Haha. My poker bankroll is low 5 figures, this is the money that I set aside for poker only.

Keep in mind that I focus on small stakes games almost exclusively because this is what I teach as well.

If/when I ever decide to tackle mid or high stakes games again, I would use a much bigger bankroll than this.
 
Nathan Williams

Nathan Williams

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mountainfox said:
What are the pros and cons of buying in minimum and maximum at a cash game? Which do you recommend?
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Hey mountainfox,

I have always been a full stacked (buy-in full for the maximum) player so I will be a bit biased here. I think that with a max buy-in you simply allow yourself to win the maximum. And this trumps all.

For me personally, I believe that the mental game is extremely important. So when I sit down to play poker I am very confident in my abilities and I believe I am the best player at the table. So therefore, I want to have the most money possible in front of me, so I can win the most.

Now, I understand the allure of playing on a short stack though. It lowers your risk considerably. Also, if you are playing on a short bankroll, it essentially gives you more "bullets" as well.

I guess lastly, a shorter buy-in also makes your decisions much easier. Much like in the mid to late stages of a tournament, most of your decisions will take place preflop and on the flop. This removes complex turn and river decisions from ever happening.

I would argue that it is precisely these complex turn and river decisions though that is going to help you become a much better player.

I hope this helps.
 
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puzzlefish

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Nathan, how much money do you make on average per month off of cash games in online poker these days? As compared to back in the days that you set your records?

Would you say that your brand and products are more or less successful as a source of income nowadays than your actual online poker grind?
 
Nathan Williams

Nathan Williams

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puzzlefish said:
Nathan, how much money do you make on average per month off of cash games in online poker these days? As compared to back in the days that you set your records?

Would you say that your brand and products are more or less successful as a source of income nowadays than your actual online poker grind?
Click to expand...

Hey puzzlefish,

It really depends. I travel a lot these days so some months I am not able to play much poker, whereas other months I am able to play a lot.

My winrates have decreased since the "heyday" of the poker boom like most people but I am still able to consistently post pretty good results in small stakes games. A big key to that is table selection which is something that I have been preaching the importance of for years now.

I also spend a lot of time on my brand and products these days as you mention. And I have also been recommending that poker pros do this for many years. Famous poker pros like Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth are some of the best ever at marketing themselves and creating significant income sources away from the poker tables.

If you plan to survive in this game over the long haul, this is extremely important and also just plain smart :)
 
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cs_rlewis

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Hey Nathan thanks for sharing your time.
What would you say are ideal stats for cbeting to win consistently at higher limits?
I know a lot of advice say it's generally 60%, 50%, 50% for flop, turn and river respectively - I think this is good advice for beginning players however I think once you go higher in the limits you might need to increase these numbers - more specifically the turn and river to about 55-60%

What do you think?
 
onondaga

onondaga

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Have no questions right now, but already subscribed to this thread! :top: Thanks you are here "BlackRain79"!
 
BUSB0Y

BUSB0Y

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Nathan Williams said:
Hey everyone,

My name is Nathan "BlackRain79" Williams. I am a 10+ year poker pro, 3 time poker author and the founder of www.blackrain79.com

It was also around 7 years ago that I decided to sell everything I own, hop on a one way flight to Bangkok, Thailand and travel the world. I am from Vancouver, Canada by the way.

I have been active here on CardsChat for many years and this is the only major poker forum that I consistently recommend, besides my own.

And that is because I have always found CardsChat to be a positive, welcoming environment especially for beginners who want to learn and improve.

Throughout my own poker career I have been mostly a cash game specialist and I am best known for having some of the highest winnings in online poker history at the micro stakes.

I would be happy to answer any poker questions you may have. Or anything else in general! :)

Although for specific poker hands, please post those in the relevant poker hand analysis sections here on CC. I will be active there also.

Thanks

Nathan
Click to expand...


Hi Nathan,

Long-time follower and fan-- are you able to beat $2NL on America's Cardroom specifically? I'm having an unbelievably hard time beating this limit in this poker room in particular.
 
Martin

Martin

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Hi Nathan

Great to have you at CardsChat, I have always been a recreational tournament player but find these days I have less and less time to concentrate on tournaments, I have been thinking of trying cash games, have dabbled a little with zoom games in the past, what should a below average tournament player like myself look out for playing cash?
 
Nathan Williams

Nathan Williams

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cs_rlewis said:
Hey Nathan thanks for sharing your time.
What would you say are ideal stats for cbeting to win consistently at higher limits?
I know a lot of advice say it's generally 60%, 50%, 50% for flop, turn and river respectively - I think this is good advice for beginning players however I think once you go higher in the limits you might need to increase these numbers - more specifically the turn and river to about 55-60%

What do you think?
Click to expand...

Hey cs_rlewis,

This is a really hard question to answer because it is so often going to be player dependent. I think 60/50/50 is pretty good default (in a vacuum) advice.

But my approach to poker how always been about playing the player or what some people call "exploitative strategy" these days.

So versus a TAG I might go 60/50/50 but versus a Nit I might go 70/50/30. And versus a LAG I might go something like 50/40/30 to induce more bluffs.

With rec players it will be almost totally dependent on the strength of my hand because as we all know, it is pretty hard to bluff them. So if I have something good it might be 90/80/80. If I have nothing it might be 60/20/20.

I hope this helps. I really can't give an answer on what the best overall CBet flop/turn/river stats are because for me, it depends so much on the player type, and my hand strength in the case of rec players.

Edit: I just read your question again and I realized that maybe you are talking about bet sizing? My reply above is assuming that your question was about bet frequency. Bet sizing is a whole different story.
 
Nathan Williams

Nathan Williams

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YKCaiTLH1314 said:
Nice to see you here Nat. Thanks to you, took me 4 months to read everything you posted on your site...you owed me 4 months of my life...lol
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Hey YK,

I apologize for those 4 months haha, I hope you learned a bit about poker though! I have written over 700 poker articles on my website now, so if anybody read them all, they are truly a hero of mine! :D
 
Nathan Williams

Nathan Williams

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BUSB0Y said:
Hi Nathan,

Long-time follower and fan-- are you able to beat $2NL on America's Cardroom specifically? I'm having an unbelievably hard time beating this limit in this poker room in particular.
Click to expand...

Hey BUSB0Y,

Thanks for the support! I try not to comment on individual poker sites too much because you almost never have a big enough sample to say anything definitive.

It can even depend on what time of the day you play. I live in Asia most of the year so I often deal with different regs when I am over here, as opposed to when I am back home in Canada due to the timezones.

Overall though, NL2 games have tightened up a fair bit over the years on most sites. With that said, most of the regulars are still relative beginners who make a lot of fundamental mistakes.

My advice would be to start studying and learning about player types and how to exploit each one. This is something that I discuss a lot on my blog, in my books and videos.

Because then you can have a general gameplan for large groups of players. For example, you will find a lot of overly weak and tight players at NL2 these days, often called "nits."

They don't like to put a lot of money in the pot without a big hand. So these players are excellent opportunities for bluffing. You want to use scare cards against them on the turn and river in particular, to make them fold a better hand than yours.

This article of mine about double barreling scare cards might help you more:

https://www.blackrain79.com/2017/02/when-to-double-barrel-the-turn.html

I hope this helps.
 
Last edited:
Nathan Williams

Nathan Williams

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Martin said:
Hi Nathan

Great to have you at CardsChat, I have always been a recreational tournament player but find these days I have less and less time to concentrate on tournaments, I have been thinking of trying cash games, have dabbled a little with zoom games in the past, what should a below average tournament player like myself look out for playing cash?
Click to expand...

Hey Martin,

You mentioned time in your question and this is one of the big benefits of cash games in my experience and why I play them. I love the fact that you can just get up and leave at any time. And also sit down to play at any time.

For someone who is looking to make the switch from tournaments to cash games, I would recommend starting at the lower limits.

The average cash game player is more skilled than the average tournament player in my opinion. And this is because in cash games the stacks are often deeper and this forces you to make more complex decisions especially on the turn and the river.

This is not a slight at tournament players. It just is what it is. Deeper stacks = more complex decisions. The biggest difference that you are going to notice in cash games is a lot more play on the turn and river.

So I would really focus on learning what kind of cards to double barrel depending on the player type, who to call down light against and when to bluff the river.

Your tournament history should give you a pretty good basis for preflop and flop play in cash games, but it is likely that you will need to focus on improving your play on later streets.

Hope this helps.
 
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