Capture the Flag

David Oppenheim has been a profitable cash-game player since he was 19 years old. He lives in Los Angeles and plays in the biggest cash games he can find, though he tries not to play poker more than four days a week. Oppenheim recently began to play tournament poker, but cash games are still where he makes the most money.

Lizzy Harrison: What factors make up a good cash game?

David Oppenheim: People who are not professionals make up the best game for a professional to play in. Another thing that is really important is how the people in the game are doing. Basically, anytime a player is losing money in a game, and it gets to be a lot of money, it affects his play.

LH: What is your preferred game, and why?

DO: If I had a preference, it would be limit hold'em. But, nobody will play me in that game anymore, so I never really get to play it. Now, I just play whatever everyone else is playing.

LH: Why won't people play limit hold'em with you?

DO: I guess I have a reputation as being a really good limit hold'em player, or at least I used to. I probably don't even have it anymore. But limit hold'em used to be my game of choice, before people stopped playing with me.

LH: What about your least favorite?

DO: I do have a least favorite game, but I can't tell you what it is, because people will try to take advantage of me in that game.

LH: When you first started playing cash games, what games and stakes did you play?

DO: When I first started playing seriously, I was 18 years old and in college. I played $10-$20 limit hold'em for about 13 months. I made about $45,000 playing $10-$20. At the time, it was a lot of money, and I felt very wealthy for a college kid. From there, I basically jumped in stakes; in the next eight months, I was playing $200-$400.

LH: What changes did you make to your game as you moved up in limits?

DO: My game continued to evolve. Poker is a pretty complicated game, and even though I thought I was the greatest thing on the planet in that first year, I was a far inferior player compared to the player I am today. Your game evolves as you move up in limits and play against better competition. I think that you get better for as long as you are playing, until you reach a certain age at which your skills begin to diminish. But the learning curve changes; I won't improve as much in the next five years as I did in the previous five years, because when you are starting, you have so much more to learn. If you are not learning, you are basically not playing your best; you should always try to learn from other players.

LH: How do you select the game to play in?

DO: I play whatever the biggest game in the room is. The games I play are always between $2,000-$4,000 and $4,000-$8,000, a mixture of limit, pot-limit, and no-limit. On this trip [to Las Vegas],the limit games are $3,000-$6,000. The blinds are $1,000-$2,000 in the no-limit games. Every weekend in Los Angeles, I play in a $4,000-$8,000 seven-card stud game. Phil Ivey, Ted Forrest, Larry Flynt, John Hennigan, and Danny Robison play in that game; so did the late Chip Reese.

LH: How should a player determine when he is ready to move up in stakes?

DO: That is a very good question, and I hope that I can give a good answer for the young players who are coming up. I think that the way that I did it is the only way to do it. Play a game for a certain amount of time, whatever game that may be. You have to beat that game consistently, and then you can move up slowly. Remember, as you move up, the games will get harder. It is really important for young players not to try to move up too fast. I was once told by a very good player that the tortoise wins the race.

LH: What is the most common mistake you see inexperienced cash-game players make?

DO: To be a really good cash-game player, you need lots of experience. The best way to put it is that inexperienced players are not very seasoned. Emotionally, they get upset when things go wrong and they do not play the same way they were playing when they first arrived. They need to learn to play their best at all times, even when the cards are going against them.

LH: What skills are more important in cash games than they are in tournaments?

DO: I believe that in tournaments, especially in the later stages, it becomes more of a calculated mathematical game - not in all situations, but in a lot of them. In cash games, I really think that the math kind of gets thrown out. It is more of a feel thing.

LH: Did you ever receive any advice that changed the way that you play cash games?

DO: I have received a lot of advice, which has really helped me improve. I listened to the players who had been around for a long time. The one thing I specifically remember is a trite saying that David Heyden told me. He was known as one of the best seven-card stud players for many years. He told me that the tortoise wins the race. I have not always listened to that, since I often have jumped into bigger and bigger games rather quickly, but I think I have been pretty good at managing my money.

LH: What advice would you give a successful tournament player if he wanted to move into the cash-game arena?

DO: I would say that he should be humble and watch good players. Try to learn from the players around you; that is the best advice I can give.

LH: Which poker players have most influenced your game?

DO: I talk to my close friends about poker. Phil Ivey, John Hennigan, and I talk about poker here and there. But as far as influence, one of the big influences on me was a guy named Jack Lewis; he is dead now. When I was really young, about 19 years old, I started playing heads up with him. We played limit hold'em, and we moved up the limits together. He had great playing ability. We played each other for about a year straight, and he had a big influence on me. Lewis had a passion for the game; he really loved to play poker and he had a competitive spirit. I think that I fed off that, and it shaped me into the person I am right now. He taught me to be a good player. He also helped me to understand that a lot of poker players don't want to play against better players because they don't want to lose, but even if you play against a better player and lose in a particular session, there is still positive equity, because it will make you a better player.

LH: What characteristics do great cash-game players share?

DO: That is an easy one; the top cash-game players hate to lose. They are unattractively competitive. They just cannot stand to lose at whatever they do, whether it is pitching pennies, shooting free throws, or playing poker. They just have an innate refusal to lose.

LH: Which cash-game players do you most respect, and why?

DO: I think the fantastic cash-game players are Phil Ivey, David Benyamine, Patrik Antonius, and Doyle Brunson. Doyle is still an unbelievable player, after all of these years, and he astonishes me every time we play.