In Punta Cana Some Cash Game Thoughts

I am in Punta Cana, in the Dominican Republic, enjoying some time off. I am going to discuss some cash game strategy today. I get a lot of emails asking questions about how to pick a cash game with respect to size of the game and how big a bankroll is needed. Keep in mind these are some of the things which work for me and are not hard and fast rules. Let's begin at the beginning, and that's with game selection. I am often asked how big a game should I play and do you care who you are playing against. These are important issues. The size of a cash game and how much to buy in is a complicated decision process. Everyone has a comfort level. After my first real tournament cash a couple of years ago at The Commerce I had almost 40k in my hands and I had never played a game bigger than 10-20, usually preferring the 5-10. So I sat in a 20-40 with about 25% of my winnings in front of me. I played for about an hour and broke about even, but felt very uncomfortable with the size of the game. There is a certain amount of excitement that comes from playing stakes that are above our comfort zone. By doing this we are able to push our limits and expand our playing envelope. This can be both a good and a bad thing. Your wins and losses will be larger, as will the swings and therefore the risk.

The basic strategy I employ, and I believe is the backbone of gambling strategy in general, is press your bets or move up when you are winning and pull back when you are losing. Unfortunately this is often times hard to do for some. Our first instinct is to try and get our money back when we are losing, so we increase the size of our bets and perhaps play more hands. Nothing could be worse when losing. Just like the gambler playing roulette and bets on red again and again, doubling his bet with each loss, eventually you are betting a huge amount just to win a tiny amount. I have heard many a gambler, whether it's black jack, craps, roulette, or even sports betting, say I have to win sooner or later. While there is some truth to that you are going broke waiting for that to happen. Las Vegas is built on a small percentage advantage and people chasing their losses until the money runs out. In poker the same thing happens. One loses a large pot or pots for a variety of reasons; cold deck, bad beat, or our own bad play, and goes on tilt. We start playing more hands and "gambling" more, and like Yogi Berra says, it's like déjà vu all over again, and the next thing you know you're out of money. The correct response is to tighten up your game or take a break, not to chase in a tilted fashion. There was a player the other night in the 20-40 no limit game at The Commerce who was very inexperienced and was playing way above his skill set. His hand selection, betting patterns, and play overall were horrible. He bought in initially for 5k which didn't last long. Then he re-bought for another 3k (which looked like his cased 3k) and although he doubled up against a good player, getting very lucky (2 outer on the river) he again went bust very quickly, playing almost every hand, and calling almost any pre-flop raise. His girlfriend was sitting with him the whole time trying to get him to leave and he was snapping at her. I left the game shortly after that and noticed the two of them with multiple credit cards in hand at the ATM/cash advance machine engaged in a rather loud argument. I don't think the adage "unlucky at cards, lucky at love" was going to happen to him, at least not in the foreseeable future.

Okay, so we have picked a size game we want to play within our comfort zone. Now we have to chose how much to buy in for. Some games give you a range from minimum to maximum, others have only a minimum. This is another area where skill, confidence, comfort level and style of play as well as size of bankroll come into play. In general I like to have at least 50-100 big blinds. So for a 10-20 NLH game 1000-2000 would be reasonable. Some players just play for entertainment, both cash games and tournaments. The money they put towards poker comes out of their disposable income while others have a true poker bankroll. If you are going to try and become a winning player and play for more than just entertainment I think it is a good idea to keep track of your sessions, buy-in amounts, length of play, type of game and win/loss. Now don't get me wrong, I think playing just for entertainment is fine. Most poker players probably fall into this category. In general, if there is an amount that is set aside for poker only a small percentage should be put in play at any one time. Otherwise you risk being wiped out be a bad run. I feel that no more than 5% of your bankroll should be in play at one time, and maybe that number should be 2.5%. So to play a $2,000 buy in game you should have a poker bankroll of somewhere between $40,000 and $80,000 to be moderately safe. As your bankroll grows, you can increase the amount you put in play proportionally. I know more than a few players that sit with their whole bankroll in front of them, and if they go bust, they try to borrow from anyone they can. Poker can be streaky, with both good and bad runs lasting for quite a while. You need to be able to weather the storm. We have all heard the stories about the players who started with some small amount of money and ran it up by increasing the size of the game they were playing rapidly. Usually, these stories don't have a happy ending. When the running well stops, and I assure you it always does, the money disappears quickly, very quickly.

http://www.cardplayer.com/players/results/Roy-Winston/36778

The Oracle