Capture the Flag: Where Top Cash-Game Pros Talk Strategy

Lyle Berman is one of the players in the "big game," but only when he can find the time, which is not as often as he would like, due to his position as the chairman of the board of World Poker Tour Enterprises. He was first exposed to the game of poker as a child, and more than 20 years ago, he sharpened his skills by studying Doyle Brunson's book, Super/System. Berman is the epitome of both a professional poker player and an industry professional, and that is why, in 2002, he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame.

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

Lyle Berman: The quality that would make a great game for me would be bad players, but, unfortunately, really bad players do not frequent the high-stakes poker games that I do. There are about 25 people who frequently play in the high-stakes games. What makes a game good is when there are players with a variety of styles at the table. You want some fast players; those are the players who mix it up, like Gus Hansen, Eli Elezra, and David Benyamine. Players like that make a game much more enjoyable because they create action. Therefore, they force the other people at the table to play a little differently than they normally would.

LH: What is your preferred game, and why?

LB: Speaking in terms of stakes, my preferred games are no-limit games. I think I play no-limit games better than limit games. They are a little bit more exciting, intuitively, because on each hand, you can win a lot of money or lose it all. In regard to my favorite games, I would have to say deuce-to-seven no-limit and pot-limit Omaha.

LH: What about your least-favorite game?

LB: I don't like seven-card stud eight-or-better very much. I also don't like razz. They are slow games, and everyone plays them pretty well. That makes them kind of like the flip of a coin.

LH: What are the highest stakes you have played?

LB: The game I play in now is, basically, the biggest game I have ever played. We play the limit games at $2,000-$4,000 or $4,000-$8,000. The no-limit games and the pot-limit games are capped, and the caps generally run from $50,000 to $100,000 depending on the stakes of the game being played. If the blinds are $2,000-$4,000, the cap is $50,000; if the blinds are $3,000-$6,000, the cap is $75,000; and if the blinds are $4,000-$8,000, the cap is $100,000. Once in a while, it gets crazy, and someone will put the extra blind in, so it goes to $8,000-$16,000. Years ago, we played $10,000-$20,000, and those pots really got up there.

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

LB: I think that is really simple. If you can beat the game lower than the game you want to play, you are ready to play the game you want to play. But, for example, if you can beat the $50-$100 games, do not immediately go up to $500-$1,000 games. Take it slow. If you are a consistent winner at one level, you should go up to just the next level. If you are the best player in a game, but you do not have the bankroll for it, you are going to go broke because nothing goes straight up a mountain. You really need a bankroll of a certain amount, a multiple of the big blind. The biggest problem for good poker players is that they want to play in a game that is four times as big as they can afford because they want to take a shot. You hear it all of the time: "I'm going to take a shot at that game!" It is true that they might win when they try to take a shot, but if they are playing over their heads, not necessarily in terms of ability, but in terms of bankroll, they are much more likely to be drowned. If you cannot afford a game, you cannot play well in it.

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

LB: Unfortunately, I do not play with inexperienced players. I think that the biggest mistake I see in our game is tilt. Everybody has a tilt factor. Good poker players play solidly at the beginning of a session, but after they get stuck a couple of hundred thousand dollars, it is not as easy to be very self-disciplined. The biggest mistake that I see is players who enter too many pots.

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

LB: There is really a completely different set of skills. First off, in cash games, one of the biggest skills is bankroll management, and that is irrelevant in tournaments. There is no bankroll management in tournaments; if you buy into an event, all you can lose is the $10,000 that you paid to enter. If I am a great player and I take a bad beat and start to steam off all of my chips in three out of 10 tournaments, so what? I probably was not going to win those tournaments anyway. If I play well in seven out of 10 tournaments, that is wonderful. If you steam in a live cash game, you can lose everything in one day. So, that is one skill that is really important in cash games. Another thing is that in tournaments, especially during the early stages, you are playing with a lot of very inexperienced poker players. You just do not get that in our cash game; everybody is a good poker player. A lot of tournament players come to our game, and we beat their brains out. They cannot beat it because they are used to playing in games in which fear is a factor. I have had hands in tournaments that I have thrown away, but would have played in a cash game. The worst thing that can happen in a cash game is that I lose $50,000 or $100,000, and I have to pull out more money. But in a tournament, I do not want to go broke. The intimidation factor in tournaments makes it much, much easier to bluff than in a cash game.

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

LB: It is really simple: Start in a game that you are comfortable in and keep track of how you do. You cannot move up in stakes until you beat the game you are playing. Beat it does not mean for one day or even one week; it means that you have to consistently build a bankroll to a certain level in order to move up to the next level. It is a general truism that every time you move up a level, you get to become a better poker player.

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

LB: They do not care about money. They can just throw $30,000, $40,000, or $50,000 into a pot. When I rake a pot, I always joke, "I just won a car!" The other day, I called a $30,000 bet and lost the pot. I should not have called; I was a little too flippant on that hand. Afterward, I thought to myself, "$30,000 really is a car -- a decent car." Great cash-game players must have a total disregard for money, but they also have to have skill. They have to know the odds, and they have to be able to read their opponents. Most importantly, they have to enjoy playing poker. The people I play with all enjoy the game; they can play 24 hours straight without any problem.

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

LB: I admire the cash-game players who play very well. When Phil Ivey played five years ago, he was not that good. He has really evolved into a very good poker player. It is fun to watch players like Gus Hansen and David Benyamine; they play so many more hands! I would say that they play too many hands, but I will tell you that they have the skill to analyze the hands correctly on the flop. But they do rob a lot! And Eli Elezra is fun to play with because he plays every hand. Somehow, he wins, too! Really, I like playing with and respect all of them.