Zigging When They Zag

Small stakes no-limit hold’em cash games are a potential gold mine. The players are bad. In nearly every hand, someone makes a significant mistake. It would seem that a student of the game could expect to reap massive rewards simply by sitting in a game and waiting for good hands.

But it’s not so. Many players struggle to beat these games, even as they see their opponents make obvious mistake after obvious mistake. What’s the problem?

Identifying mistakes isn’t enough. You have to do two other things. First, you have to identify the correct counter-strategy to take advantage of your opponents’ mistakes. Second, you have to execute that strategy consistently. You have to zig when they zag.
In this article, I’ll discuss a few common mistakes in small-stakes games and how to take advantage of them.

Mistake No. 1. Playing too many hands preflop for too much money.

This one is the hallmark of small-stakes games. It’s a $1-$3 game. Someone open-raises to $15, the “standard” raise in this game. Four people call.

From a theoretical perspective, this opening raise size is way too big. And that’s too many callers. People are putting way too much money into the pot with bad hands preflop.
Theoretically, the purpose of the opening raise is to attempt to win the blinds, $4 in this case. But in small-stakes live games, the blinds become almost irrelevant. In some lineups, I think you could generate $75 of preflop action with 1¢ in blind money. People are raising and calling because they want to play hands, not because they want to win what’s currently in the pot.

How do you exploit this? In games like this, I see people throw in $15 with a marginal hand and say, “pot odds.” That’s not exploiting the mistake, that’s just playing along.
The easiest way to exploit the mistake is to reraise preflop. You don’t do it every hand. But you do it more than your share of the time. Say you have a $100 stack in the big blind. Someone raises to $15, and four people call. Against many linueps, you can shove with literally any two cards and expect to profit. You’ll get called a fair bit, but if you can expect to win immediately even 25 percent of the time, it’s easily worth it.

When you’re deeper than that, you don’t necessarily shove, but you make a reraise (preferably with position) with strong hands and a smattering of bluffs. Again, with all the dead money in the pot, it’s almost automatically profitable. Calling along with hands like 8-5 suited for “pot odds” isn’t helping you.

Mistake No. 2. Calling too often with weak pairs after the flop.

“You can’t bluff these guys, they’ll call you down with bottom pair!” I’ve heard it a zillion times. It’s a pet peeve of mine to hear it, especially when it’s followed up with the self-assured and exasperating, “You just can’t beat someone who plays that badly.”

I want to say, “Well, you can’t beat someone who plays that badly …”

I understand why some players seem to struggle with opponents who call down too much postflop. It’s because they don’t make the correct adjustment.

The adjustment is simple. You bluff less (though in most cases you should still be bluffing some), and you value-bet more. Where against a normal player you might bet top pair with a good kicker for two streets of value, you go for three against this player. Where you might bet a hand like A-J on a K-J-6 flop once against a normal player, you go for two, or occasionally even three streets of value against this guy.

He calls with bad hands. That means you bet with slightly better hands. If you don’t, you’re not beating him. If you do, it’s an easy game.

Mistake No. 3. Bluffing wildly.

Most small-stakes players don’t bluff often enough. But some players catch the bluffing bug. It seems like every time a round is checked to them, they’ll bet — at least unless they actually have something.

Sometimes these guys do pretty well, especially when they vary the size of their bluffs, making some small bets and some big ones. People say (as they fold) to these chronic bluffers, “Just wait, eventually I’m going to pick up a hand against you.”

There are two problems with this strategy as many players apply it. First, they call the small bets but don’t have the guts to call the big ones. For instance, the bluffer will raise preflop, and a player will call with J-J. The flop comes K-9-6 with two hearts, and the player will check and call. The turn is the 5, and the player will check and call another smallish bet. The river is the 4, completing the flush. The player will check and then fold to a large all-in shove, saying, “I can’t call you. There’s too much out there.”

Second, they preempt the bluffs by raising early in the hand. For example, the bluffer will raise preflop, and a player will call with A-K in the blinds. The flop comes K-Q-4 rainbow, and the player will check-raise the flop. The bluffer folds.

You can’t beat a bluffer by calling early and then folding late in a hand. I hope this is obvious, but I often see players adopt this losing strategy. This isn’t to say that you should never fold to a bluffer on the river after calling early, but some players lose their guts far too easily.

You also don’t beat a bluffer by raising all your good hands early. By raising early, you just alert the bluffer to your good hand.

The correct adjustment is to check and call down with decent hands like top pair. The board will get scary sometimes, and you might have to hold your breath and stick the money in anyway. By checking and calling only, you give your opponent a false hope that his bluffs will work eventually. By bluffing so much, your opponent is giving you value for your good hands — take it. Don’t throw it back in his face by raising early, and definitely don’t give him the value by chickening out.

Final Thoughts

In your local small-stakes game, people are making mistakes left and right. These mistakes don’t benefit you, however, if you don’t take advantage of them. Someone can bluff too much, but if you keep on folding, you’re just playing into his hands. The key is to identify a mistake your opponents are making and then come up with a specific strategy to take advantage of it. If you persist in zagging blindly when your opponents zag, you’ll get nowhere, but if you stay ahead of them and zig when they zag, you’ll be duly rewarded. ♠

Ed has authored six poker books and sold more than a quarter million copies. Ed’s newest book, Reading Hands At No-Limit Hold’em, will soon be available for purchase at notedpokerauthority.com.
Find him on Facebook at facebook.com/edmillerauthor.