Ask Gripsed Anything About Cash Games

[Evan Jarvis]

Hi, thank you for sharing!! Do you think I need a HUD to be successful online?

Hey Joose, great question!

I've found over the years that if I am only playing 1 (or occasionally 2) tables that I can do fine without a HUD. And I use note taking to keep me extra engaged with the game and paying attention to the table to collect information.

That being said, anytime I wanted to push myself into a more grinding mode. Anytime I wanted to play 4, 6, 8, 12+ tables then a HUD becomes a non negotiable.

It's important to be acquiring information during the session, this is what helps to make the best decisions. And a hud can do that 'paying attention' for you where we as humans can't really do that ourselves. The information it can provide is pretty incredible.

Here's a video on how i like to set up my HUD

Hope that helps!

 

[Evan Jarvis]

I really like the gripsed tournaments that take place in the American card room but as I don't play a lot of cash games I have no doubts.

Hey Spectral Wave! So Happy to hear you're enjoying the events!!!

I put a lot of thought and planning into the structures, so I'm really glad to get this feedback!

For anyone who wasn't familiar with our Millionaire homegame league

Here's the league info & weekend schedule --> http://gripsed.com/venom

As for cash games it's important to know how to play deeper stacked poker
This is the best video I have on the topic

And here's a longer playlist which can help you out!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBrNnyWekagO_N2USvvxB2ykzb_kQn0hy

Hope you enjoy it

 

[Evan Jarvis]

Hi Evan, I've got a question about heads up. I have been playing 9/6 max for a number of years and have just decided to move over to heads up. I did play some before when I was part of a training site (which I won't name) but their policy in the early days was basically to bumhunt until you were more competent. It was a successful strategy for what it was but I want to get good. Do you think it makes sense to play the "decent" regs at micro stakes 0.01/0.02, 0.02/0.05 which sacrifices winning money but should improve ability or do you think the bumhunt approach makes more sense?

Also do you have much experience with heads up? If so, how do you compare a decent micro stakes reg to the general player pool in pokerstars' 0.25/0.50 zoom heads up. To be a reg in that game is basically my target for now.

Hey Testy, great question!

To start I'll answer the second question.
I don't personally have a lot of experience with headsup (other than at the end of SNGs or

Tournaments). I played some Spin n Gos which involved headsup play but I never got into pure HU poker. I prefered to get on tables with multiple spots to profit from, and often the value in those games was just much better than the value in the headsup game.

Onto the first question

Yes, what you are suggesting is a great way to get better faster.
A lot of pros think about it as 'paying tuition' to play against better players, but you will get much more quality learning than you would via bumhunting.

Challenge yourself in tough games to learn and improve

Game select super hard when you want to maximize your $/hr

You're on the right path in thinking about making your play choices based on your unique goals. Good luck!

 

[Elfina777]

I don't like to play cash games, they can take your entire stack from you with a strong card, you need to play there, if you have a lot of free money, players with a small budget play only at tables for 2-10 cents and try to win at least 1- 2 $

 

[Evan Jarvis]

I don't like to play cash games, they can take your entire stack from you with a strong card, you need to play there, if you have a lot of free money, players with a small budget play only at tables for 2-10 cents and try to win at least 1- 2 $

It's very true that because of the risks that come with deepstack play, bankroll management is of the utmost importance to be successful in cash games.

That's why I always made bankroll management the first topic in my courses

Understanding how to construct your ranges is also a major key for success in cash games

Hope you find the videos helpful, good luck and happy stackin!

 

[Testy_Calls]

Hey Testy, great question!

To start I'll answer the second question.
I don't personally have a lot of experience with headsup (other than at the end of SNGs or

Tournaments). I played some Spin n Gos which involved headsup play but I never got into pure HU poker. I prefered to get on tables with multiple spots to profit from, and often the value in those games was just much better than the value in the headsup game.

Onto the first question

Yes, what you are suggesting is a great way to get better faster.
A lot of pros think about it as 'paying tuition' to play against better players, but you will get much more quality learning than you would via bumhunting.

Challenge yourself in tough games to learn and improve

Game select super hard when you want to maximize your $/hr

You're on the right path in thinking about making your play choices based on your unique goals. Good luck!

Do you do coaching for profits?

 

[StreetPhd]

Hi thwenth,

I don't quite understand your question. In poker the best hand will not always win, even in many of the most favorable situations the best hand is an 80% favorite and not 100%.

Randomness determines who will win, and while the software is the place in which the randomness happens, it is not choosing one player over another.

The key with this issue, of anger, of disappointment, or feeling thigns are rigged against you is to evaluate your level of entitlement.

If for whatever reason you think you deserve more, to win all the time, to do better than others, then you are experiencing entitlement which is unhealthy and doesn't serve you. If however you accept the reality that everyone wins their fair share of hands, and just as often as they will get lucky do to will you, then you can play from a health place.

If entitlement is in your game, it's better to address this before playing more poker. When you have unrealistic expectations about how often or how much you should win, you will usually end up experiencing disappointment which can lead to beliefs that the game is rigged against you because your mind is trying to rationalize/justify your position that you should win.

Hope that helps!

I am not convinced and by the tone/tenor of your response, you are off!

 

[pltelles]

I believe that in the long run statistically the chances are equal, what determines success is the player's posture and knowing how to take advantage of a favorable situation.

 

[Evan Jarvis]

Do you do coaching for profits?

No, I only do coaching by the hour http://gripsed.com/coaching

But currently I'm mostly focusing on building up my stream and am not currently accepting new students.

That might change in May/June though!

 

[Evan Jarvis]

I believe that in the long run statistically the chances are equal, what determines success is the player's posture and knowing how to take advantage of a favorable situation.

This is a great point and outlook my friend!

The player who can keep their 'posture' right as you say is the player who able to stay on their A-game more often than their opponents.

This is the mental game of poker, and it's certainly what separates the goods from the greats!

 

[Evan Jarvis]

Just giving this a lil bump, will be on for the next hour and love to answer to questions!

Also we've got some big events coming at the end of the month
$800 Freeroll on ACR on April 30th
$250 Streamdeck giveaway also being drawn April 30th
https://twitter.com/GripsedPoker/status/1380888912168636416?s=20


Good luck everyone playing!

 

[Evan Jarvis]

Going to put in a few hors in the thread this weekend

If you've got any Cash Games questions ask away!

P.S. Have been investing a lot of time into my new cash game book this month, it's coming along really nicely, and the great questions from this thread are helping to make sure I cover all the essentials for mastering cash game play teachings!

so THANK YOU CardsChatters!!!

 

[Tony0]

When you have flopped a nutted hand and intend to shove on the river, are there any tips for flop and turn bet sizes to avoid having to overbet river? I really struggle to calculate it.

 

[abgvedr]

Thank YOU Evan for sharing your wisdom with us.
One more queston. What do you do when sombody have it all the time. Bets, calls, calls again, raises and stuff. Especially on some SB when you are on BB and he bets all the time. And you can't seem to hit any flop whatsoever. It's like so frustrating like a guy raises 5 times in a row, i give up 2 times, have some decent preflop headsup hand but miss the flop, i mean this really start tilting me. And the time i finally hit some top pair vs him with some QJ, raise reraise him but yeah hes got kings man. How do you play that stuff man.

Going to put in a few hors in the thread this weekend

If you've got any Cash Games questions ask away!

P.S. Have been investing a lot of time into my new cash game book this month, it's coming along really nicely, and the great questions from this thread are helping to make sure I cover all the essentials for mastering cash game play teachings!

so THANK YOU CardsChatters!!!

 

[Kehzi]

Hey Evan, first off thanks for taking the time to help out the community!

How do you feel about fast fold poker formats? Are they worth playing to make a profit or do they mess with the fundamentals of poker too much bouncing you between tables and positions?

Second, whats your stance on mult-tabling, do you think it should be done or to focus all attention on playing one table as well as possible?

Thanks!

 

[Evan Jarvis]

Hey Evan, first off thanks for taking the time to help out the community!

How do you feel about fast fold poker formats? Are they worth playing to make a profit or do they mess with the fundamentals of poker too much bouncing you between tables and positions?

Second, whats your stance on mult-tabling, do you think it should be done or to focus all attention on playing one table as well as possible?

Thanks!

Hey Kehzi,

Great questions, thanks for asking!

Personally I'm not a huge fan of the fast fold poker formats.
I like to be able to get reads on my opponent, make a player profile on them and adjust from there. I find that much more difficult to do when i see so few hands from a player.

If you have a solid approach of GTO play though and are just sticking to a balanced style of play then you can do fine in the zoom/rush/fast fold pools and it enables you to get many more hands in per hour.

It really comes down to what pace of play you prefer and if you like to build profiles on your opponents or like playing hands with little additional information.

As for multitabling, I'm a big fan of it, it's how I was able to extract a lot of value out of the cash games I played over my online career. The key with multitabling is to not play too many tables, and at the same time not play too few tables.

Here's a video I made which will help you find the sweet spot for you (and it may change over time)

It's important also to not get accustomed to only being able to play when you are 8, 10, 12 tabling or whatever. If you are unable to focus when just playing 1 or 2 games then you may be finding yourself multitabling too much for the rush and for the high of it, rather than for finding the most value and maximizing your hourly rate.

Hope that helps!

 

[Evan Jarvis]

Thank YOU Evan for sharing your wisdom with us.
One more queston. What do you do when sombody have it all the time. Bets, calls, calls again, raises and stuff. Especially on some SB when you are on BB and he bets all the time. And you can't seem to hit any flop whatsoever. It's like so frustrating like a guy raises 5 times in a row, i give up 2 times, have some decent preflop headsup hand but miss the flop, i mean this really start tilting me. And the time i finally hit some top pair vs him with some QJ, raise reraise him but yeah hes got kings man. How do you play that stuff man.

Well from the small blind you could just opt to fold a lot of hands to avoid that out of position situation where you are at a pretty big disadvantage.

It's better to focus on playing as much as you can in position with strong holdings. That's where you're going to make your money. And this is why against tough players limping the small blind to keep pots small is a valid strategy.

Against players who are very aggressive the adjustment is to slowplay a bit more often, have more traps in your range, so that you can 'have it' when they are firing away at you.

You can also try to change seats, or in the worst cases just change tables.

If someone is truly playing extremely well and they have position on you, it's worth asking if there is enough value in the game to justify staying on the table.

So to summarize, the options are
a) keep pots smaller when out of position
b) slowplay more hands so that you can handle their aggression
c) change seats to get position on the player giving you a hard time
d) change tables and find yourself a better game

Also, remember to not take it personally. Sometimes players just catch a rush of hot cards, they aren't necessarily outplaying you, they're just on a heater. If you can know that this is a possibility you'll be less likely to have your ego and emotions get involved and therefore be less likely to make reactive plays which you might later regret.

Remember the Matt Jarvis mantra from the 2010 wsop Final Table
-No Ego
-No Emotions
-Just Poker

 

[Evan Jarvis]

When you have flopped a nutted hand and intend to shove on the river, are there any tips for flop and turn bet sizes to avoid having to overbet river? I really struggle to calculate it.

This is one where working on your math skills will help, kumon has great programs for this

But... Check the Stack to Pot ratio on the flop and then plan accordingly

Example
Pot = $20
Stacks = $190

Stack to pot Ratio = 190:20 = 9.5:1

To get all in by betting pot the following ratios are helpful to know
1 SPR = 1 pot size bet to get all in
4 SPR = 2 pot sized bets to get all in
13 SPR = 3 pot sized bets to get all in

Let's test it... with spr 13
on flop the pot is 1x (where x = pot size bet)

we bet pot, opponent calls, now the pot has grown to 3x

on the turn we bet pot again (which is now 3x), opponent calls, pot has grown to 9x

on river we bet pot again which is 9x, opponent calls

how many x's (pot sized bets) did we get in?
9 on river + 3 on turn + 1 on flop = 13

So with an SPR of 13 you need to bet pot on all 3 streets to get all in on river, and to have a pot sized bet left which is what you're asking about.

If SPR is less than 13 you can use smaller bet sizes and end up with a pot sized bet on the river, a little algebra practice will help you get it down

Some homework you can try

If you bet 3/4 pot on flop and turn, what would SPR need to be for you to have a pot sized bet left on the river?

What about if you bet 1/2 pot on flop and turn?

what about 1/4 pot on flop and turn?

And then you can mix it up, 1/4 on flop, 1/2 on turn
3/4 on flop, 1/2 on turn
etc.

Play around with it, do some practice and it will become second nature.

A great way to do this is to take actual chips and cut them out so you can visually see what the process looks like, this makes it much easier to remember.

And if you are thinking about SPR, especially on turn, you should be able to pretty effectively set yourself up for an ideal bet size on the river... in my upcoming book I mention that

If you want a call on the river, try to set up for an SPR of 0.75-0.5 on the river
If you want a fold on the river, try to set up for an SPR of 1.5-2 on the river

And I promise as you start thinking about it this way, and if you do some practice, it will become second nature every time you reach the turn to know what size to bet for your desired outcome.

 

[BrainMasher1]

Question about pot odds

Hello Gripsed,

I have been playing tournys, but now want to play cash games aswell.
Now cash games is way more following pod odds as tourny is ( at least thats wat i think, Please correct me if i am wrong)
Just played my first cash game $0,02-$0,05 6max table with 5 players on it.
I had a hand 9Q'sD in button.
Lojack raises to 3,4BB, Highjack folds, i call, SB folds and BB also calls.
Flop comes as 97j'sH, BB checks, Lojack checks and i check too.
Turn is 9S BB checks, Lojack bets 3BB pot was then 13,2BB.
I calculated my pot odds as followed: 13,2BB + my call 3BB, so total pot was 16,3BB
Then did 3/16,3=0,1840*100=18,40% pot odds. Did i calculate this correctly ?
Now for my outs it was: 1x9, 3x7, 3xJ and 3xQ witch gives me 10 outs. 10*2=20% on my outs. So card odss are 20% and pot odds are 18,40%, when card odds are higher the the pot odds i should call right ?
To finish the hand, i called, BB also called. Then river card was Qc.
BB checks, Lojack checks and i made a bet of 6BB as i had the nuts. The BB called and Lojack folled. BB had AQ'o, I won the hand.

Played only 6 hand and made $1,50 with it.

Edit: in the post above mine, you say:
This is one where working on your math skills will help, kumon has great programs for this

Do you maybe have a link for the programs ?

Greeting

 

[BrainMasher1]

This is the link to my other question:
https://www.cardschat.com/forum/learning-poker-57/card-pot-odds-489950/

It is the last post i made in it.

Thanks man!

 

[LetterRip]

In some of your training videos you have mentioned that KK typically is worth 5BB, is there a list of what the typical preflop hands value is or is this something from analysing your own database? If so could could you make the information available?

 

[Vallet]

Hello Evan. I have a question that is my Achilles ' heel. Do I need to play big pots on the preflop with good cards (JJ, QQ, AJ, AQ, AK) when the opponent makes a huge crazy raise of 10, 15, 20BB ? Because the villains often continue their aggression, regardless of whether they hit the flop or not.

 

[scottychase]

Give me some good tips for a 1/2 table!

 

[Evan Jarvis]

Give me some good tips for a 1/2 table!

I think this is my best video for those loose (but soft) live 1/2 games

for a more thorough in depth training that will also help a ton check out this playlist (any amount of time you put in from 2-8 hours

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBrNnyWekagO_N2USvvxB2ykzb_kQn0hy

Good luck with the content, and Happy stackin on the tables!

 

[Evan Jarvis]

Hello Evan. I have a question that is my Achilles ' heel. Do I need to play big pots on the preflop with good cards (JJ, QQ, AJ, AQ, AK) when the opponent makes a huge crazy raise of 10, 15, 20BB ? Because the villains often continue their aggression, regardless of whether they hit the flop or not.

Nope, you most certainly do not (but I understand your feeling that you need to)

The main question is, is this a player who plays a lot of hands and always for big raises, or do they actually play very few hands (very tight) and when they enter it's for big amounts.

If you're up against tight players you certainly don't need to give them much action. If stacks are <40BB ok you probably want to get in with these hands, but if they are 80+ and you think it's a tight player you can be cautious.

It's also always ok to just call with ace king vs a tight range, it's not a hand you always have to reraise.

That being said, if you're in a game where players just make large raises in general, then you should be calling to see to flop (or even 3 betting small to have the pot heads up) and be willing to go with your hand on good flops (unless you are say 150-200 big blinds deep in which case again play safe).

VS early position raises I always play a little cautious, but the most important thing is the type of player opening. Because even against a late position raise, if the player is ultra tight I'm not trying to get over invested with JJ or AK

If it's against a loose opponent, then I'm calling and looking for safe flops. If they are loose they will have enough bluffs and worse hands to justify getting in. And if it's a loose player and they are raising from late position like cutoff or hijack, then i'm often 3betting the AK and JJ+ hands and willing to get it in for 100 big blinds or less.

Know your opponent, that's always going to be the biggest key when deciding how to play these strong but not nutted hands.

Hope that helps!