First time playing 1/2NL

[Naram Brikha]

I’m new to cash games. I got invited to a private club game and decided to play. I usually play small stakes tournaments and this game got out of control quickly. I definitely understand how people say they feel others are going after them. So I think part of the problem for me is that instead of playing with tournament money, every dollar I was playing with was real…so there was that. And then these were all strangers. I’ve played tournaments at friends houses and even at a couple casinos, but this was way different. Everything I’ve read and watched and studied seemed to go out the window. On top of that, these guys were 7-betting preflop with hands like QJs and AJo. It was bizarre to me. I couldn’t tell who was making a move on the pot or who had me beat. The one time I flopped a strong hand I messed it up. Limped in with 94s and flopped two pair. I was out of position and bet 5 dollars and the two guys in the pot with me folded. I made a couple good moves. First hand I got was pocket 8s and I raised UTG to 10 and one guy reraised to 25. I call and see K-6-2 rainbow on the flop. I check and he bet 45. I made the lay down and he told me he had pocket 9s. Later I semi bluffed a guy off a weak A pair with a pair of 9s. I moved all in when I was down to my last 40 dollars with AKo and the guy who called had KQo. I won that pot. Outside of that, I folded most of my hands and only won about 4 pots in 2.5 hrs. Is this how first cash game outtings usually go? I’m stuck 300 dollars and feel like I was shot in the gut with a cannon. I partially wanted to vent and also wanted to know if this is how cash games usually play and feel like. Not gonna stop going, but I wanted to have a better understanding and mindset of the game when I go next time.

[John S]

No, this is an extremely atypical game. If guys are 7-betting pre, that means one of two things. Either you have 2 maniacs just attacking each other, or you have two guys that know each other really well and are trying to get one over on each other. Probably both.

There are a ton of pointers I could give you, but I’ll start with these 2.

1. You have to be comfortable losing the money you have on the table. If you’re not, you’re not playing right and making the right decisions if you’re worried about how much the actual money is rather than if the decision is right. I know that’s hard to do, but once I was able to get over that my game got much better.

2. Focus on pre-flop strategy at first. Pre-flop is a huge part of what makes you profit at low levels. A solid pre-flop game is most of the battle. At this table, you would want to play tight and let the other players make the mistakes.

Good luck out there.

[Chuck M]

I doubt they were really 7-betting. Maybe you mean they were raising 7x (7 times the amount of the blind), but that’s not the same at all… 7betting is almost impossible with 100bb, it must be a min-raises war.

And for live cash game, at 1/2 level, it’s pretty usual to see 7x opens, especially if there are a few limps in front of the raiser.

7-betting would mean the 6th raise.
Think of it as the BB being the 1st bet.
An open raise would bet a “2-bet”.
Then a re-raise is a 3bet.

Let’s say :
– player A opened to 6,
– player B raised to 18 (that’s a 3bet).
– Then A decided to re-raise to 40 (that’d be a 4bet)
– “B” would raise to 80 (even tho the min raise allowed would be to 62) but let’s say he chooses to make it 80. (5bet)
– “A” wants to raise again, and makes it 140.
– “B” finally makes it 200 and is all-in. (that’s a 7-bet).

For the rest, I totally agree with John S.

It’s not the best idea to limp-in, but if you choose to do so, make sure you’re in late position.
And just don’t play 94s, especially out of position 😉

and yeah, it’s normal to fold the majority of our hands, we could assume 7 or 8 out of 10 hands are going into the muck preflop. (on average)

[Hans Griese]

Its more of the same advice here as John. I’m only about 100 hours into my live game life. Took me a while to realize that being afraid to lose my money was costing me my money – was a single hand actually (KKs vs AK and I folded on a nothing flop…..I had the KKs…..shhhh)

If the table seems really loose, widen your range a little bit, but still focus on TAG poker – you will win less hands, but when you win you can really take the loose players to value town.

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