Ask BlackRain79 Anything About Cash Games

[darkvick]

Hello guys, How do you play AJo pre flop on the UTG in a full ring game?

Do you fold a 3-bet?

 

[JhonnyThe357]

Manual review

Hey Nathan was hoping you could give me some advice on a hand I played for $1/$3 no limit cash. We are playing around $900 effective. I have $900 in the back, Button has about $800 in the back and Straddler has about $300 in the back. Straddler is an upward-looking player. Button is a solid player given the stakes. On the hand, the button ended up limping in, which came as a surprise to me because he hadn't done it before and he's a solid player, so the thought of him trying to play AA in a tricky way crossed my mind, just to provide some backstory for the hand.

Button: Limps
BB (Me): increase to 25$ with JTo
6$ Straddler: Calls

Failure: Rainbow JT2
Me: check (my thought behind this was that I practically have the board covered and expected Straddler or Button to try the pot)
Straddler: bet $60
Button: increase to $150
Me: raise it to $500 (this is the part I contend with and I'm not sure I made the right decision. The only legit hand I can actually put the limper on is 22 after thinking about it (after the fact)
Straddler: bends
Button: think a little and go all-in (this is where I realized I was screwed, but I made the call anyway, since I basically committed to the pot). Button turns out to be 22 and I lose a huge pot.

I was hoping that you could provide some kind of advice on what I should have done differently.

I would have played like you 😅🥲 Hard to fold a hand like this after putting in so many chips, increasing the chances of him having a pair of 22s. After all, in my mind, if he had a pair of 22s, he would naturally fold pre flop.

 

[Limited_Al]

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

Hello Nathan! Thanks for taking the time to answer questions. Have read a lot of your content to help tackle the frenzy that is 2NL and it does help.

One question though… When you started taking the poker grind to a serious level, how many tables did you run at one time? I’ve made a mistake (and lost money) by trying to start off with 4 tables, and I’ve found that if I just focus on one table my bankroll improves. I suspect that you slowly add in more tables over time, but when did you move to 2, 4, 8, etc tables and how did you do it?

I’m guessing that you are able to add more tables when your PokerTracker details are more accurate and you have more notes on players? That way you don’t need to check every showdown to see what cards people are going in with.

Thanks, and good luck at the tables!

- Limited AL

 

[Limited_Al]

Hello guys, How do you play AJo pre flop on the UTG in a full ring game?

Do you fold a 3-bet?

Personally I’d open to 3BB, then depending on the size of the 3-bet I’d either call or fold. If they just clicked your bet to 4BB, then I’d pay to see a flop thinking I’m behind. Any higher than this and I’d fold.

I have myself down as a bit of a tighter player though, so may not be perfect advice

Hope this helps!

 

[Nathan Williams]

Hey Nathan!

I'm really impressed with your stuff, the youtube channel is looking super fly!

What would be the best way to connect? DMs? DMs on some Socials?

I would really love to pick your brain for a bit if you have time. Now that I got my book finished, I'd love to talk to someone who's done that before and done great things since

Major props to you my man!

Thanks Evan, DM'd you on Twitter.

 

[Nathan Williams]

What is the best hint to be able to read hands better postflop?

I think it's all about understanding the player type. I typically discuss the 5 major ones in all my books and videos, Nit, TAG, LAG, Whale and Maniac.

Once you understand the tendencies of each of these, it becomes pretty easy to read their hand postflop.

 

[Nathan Williams]

Hey Nathan, how are you? i hope you are good, i see on you youtube channel, many considering is possible to be crushing at micro stakes, also be profitable, but now to get into my question, did you think what type of game are more easily to crush at micro stakes? mtt or cash games? when i say micro stakes, think abount avg buy-in: $4 or maybe $5 and cash game nl2 or nl5. and also did you preffer a poker site to play?

Hey Magnus, thanks for watching my YT videos, glad they help!

I actually just made a video answering your question last week, which might help. I discuss the most profitable games to play.

 

[Nathan Williams]

What stakes do you recommend to make a decent profit?

It really depends on what you mean by "decent profit" because that is going to be different for everyone. But in general, I have always thought that NL25 is sort of the first stake that feels like real money to me online. If you play tourneys, maybe $10 buyins. I think in live poker any game you can make a decent profit.

 

[Nathan Williams]

I always worry a lot when playing cash games, I have a constant desire to win more, and as a result I lose

Play within your bankroll so you don't need to worry about losing. And use a proven winning strategy and you should have success over the long run.

I have a free "cheat sheet" where I teach my strategy to beat small stakes:

Free Poker Cheat Sheet

Get the FREE poker cheat sheet written by 10+ year poker pro Nathan "BlackRain79" Williams. Learn how to make $2000+ per month playing poker.

www.blackrain79.com

 

[Nathan Williams]

I want to begin using multi-tabling software and have considered both Tile&Stack and Jurogin. T&S requires a yearly subscription fee but the latter is free. What is your take on either or do you have a favorite software in mind? Thank you and I'm a subscriber to your youtube channel.

Glad my YT videos help, thanks for watching! I am actually not a big multi-tabler anymore, so I am not up to date on the latest software. I play 4 tables max usually, higher stakes.

 

[Nathan Williams]

Hello Nathan
Let's say you are playing a live $1-$2 cash game with 100 BBs to start, how many BBs should you win before you start considering that it's time to cash out?

I try not to pay attention to my winnings (or losses) for individual sessions. Instead I just focus on playing for a set period of time or number of hands. I only quit early if I am feeling tilted or the games are bad (no fish).

 

[Nathan Williams]

just wanna thank you for the informative chatting.

Did you have a especial aproche to play the "flash" "rush and cash" cash games, those games where when you fold you are send to other table. In sites like gg poker you have some basics information from each player, how is this information important in this kind of cash game.

Thanks oak, glad my poker advice has been helping you!

I think you mean Zoom style poker games? Yes, I have a big strategy article for that on my website:

Zoom Poker Strategy - The Essential Guide [2024]

The #1 zoom poker strategy guide on the internet today, written by a 10+ year poker pro. Study these Zoom poker strategies to crush zoom poker games.

www.blackrain79.com

 

[Nathan Williams]

Hello people. How to play AA pair pre flop, without being too passive, but also without scaring the other players out of the hand?

I wouldn't worry about scaring people out in low stakes games. If they like their hand, they will play it. So I suggest playing AA strong, raising or re-raising.

 

[Nathan Williams]

Hello Nathan! Thanks for taking the time to answer questions. Have read a lot of your content to help tackle the frenzy that is 2NL and it does help.

One question though… When you started taking the poker grind to a serious level, how many tables did you run at one time? I’ve made a mistake (and lost money) by trying to start off with 4 tables, and I’ve found that if I just focus on one table my bankroll improves. I suspect that you slowly add in more tables over time, but when did you move to 2, 4, 8, etc tables and how did you do it?

I’m guessing that you are able to add more tables when your PokerTracker details are more accurate and you have more notes on players? That way you don’t need to check every showdown to see what cards people are going in with.

Thanks, and good luck at the tables!

- Limited AL

Glad my poker advice has been helping you Limited AL!

I started originally playing just one table and then slowly adding one more at a time to build up to 20+. I always suggest starting out with 1 and just adding more when/if you feel comfortable.

Software like PokerTracker and mass-tabling aids definitely can help especially when playing a lot of tables at once.

But having automatic decision making in your mind (i.e. never having to think about what hands to raise preflop or what flops to c-bet) also helps a lot as well. That's something you just gain through experience.

 

[Azimusback]

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

Mr. Nathan,

I d like to express my appreciation for your hard and clean work.
It's almost a sin that you put all that useful advice out there for everyone to see, you are making the tables harder to play !!
Take care.

 

[Moncie Lee]

I’m new here and just posted Should I fold?
I’m reaching out to find a way to determine EV of a hand facing two all ins. At what point does a strong hand become a coin flip? How can this be determined?
As a student of the game, I am familiar with you and I respect your opinion. I have flopzilla. Can I use it to evaluate situations like this? How?

 

[June4Spades]

It is really impressive that you are able to play 20 tables. I guess that is above the attention level of a flight control operator;-)

 

[D0nk3y Hunt3r]

Nathan, appreciated you thread here, I'd like to ask about bleeding out. I mean what do you do when you are card dead for long time and you're just paying blinds, plus on few stealing attempts you had to fold. Do you use an automatic reload?

 

[Artbart805]

1/2 cash
mid postion JJ
early postion all in $53
Call

Late postion All in $350

Thoughts?

 

[dionn98]

 

[dionn98]

 

[Station_Master]

Just fold it pre not even open, and if you do open it's a clear fold to 3bet

 

[Station_Master]

Hello guys, How do you play AJo pre flop on the UTG in a full ring game?

Do you fold a 3-bet?

Replying to this.

 

[Station_Master]

Nathan, just curious what stakes do you play these days, still microstakes or do you play higher?

 

[Ripelnet]

nathan I improved my game a lot, thanks to your videos