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Some of the best cash games players approach the game with a mix of exploitative strategies to be used against weak opponents with obvious flaws in their games, and optimal ones against tougher players whose skills are better honed.
However, in reality you will not encounter many such opponents unless you rise to the bigger games. So it is useful to look at things from the opposite end of the scale and see how to exploit the bad players you will come across – particularly at the lower limits. After all, the aim of poker is to win the most money, not to play the most unexploitable game!
LOW STAKES
In the lowest level games you can almost throw subtlety out of the window, and simply watch for the glaring weaknesses your opponents will exhibit – whether they are calling stations, rocks or maniacs – then react with simple strategies.
Against calling stations you should aim to show down good hands and get maximum value for them, whilst avoiding making futile and expensive bluffs.
Against rocks you should punish their tightness with aggression and bluffing to steal pots from them remorselessly. And against maniacs you should aim to trap, letting them bluff into your strong hands and trying to find the best moment to raise and get a lot of money in against them.
MEDIUM STAKES
As you move up the levels, these players will become less plentiful and you will start to encounter more tight, predictable and solid players. These are the players you can hone your skills against, as by observing them you will develop a good idea of what ranges of hands they have at any given point as well as what they are likely to do with them based on the board and your actions.
These descriptions tend to cover the majority of the players you will encounter even in as high as $5/$10 no-limit ring games – although there are likely to be some decent players at each level and more at the short-handed games that require more frequent and tougher decisions.
They will probably exhibit a few basic flaws on which you can make detailed notes and these technical errors and repetitive behaviours are what you must then aim to counter. For example, if a player limps and folds to a raise too often, raise more to steal their money. If they are overly aggressive pre-flop, resteal by re-raising them with a wider range. If they continuation bet too little, steal the pot on the flop, or if they do it too much, raise them or call with weak holdings and ‘float’, hoping to steal later in the hand.
The latter is particularly effective as many average players play badly on the turn and will often check too much with no hand, allowing you to pick up the pot there. Also, watch for players who check-call a lot with medium strength hands out of position, as you will be able to play your cards easily against them, while keeping them guessing the whole way.
HIGH-STAKES
Even if you move up to the $10/$20 games and above, it is still possible to find major ways to exploit your opponents, even if they are fairly experienced. But to do this you have to understand the meta-game factors that come into play that have very little to do with the cards.
For example, with the recent changes in poker legislation the regulars have been forced to focus on exploiting other regulars’ games. This is usually either through detailed statistical analysis like Poker Tracker or trying to take advantage of multi-tablers who play a robotic style by stealing from them more than normal. And this bears testament to one of the key lessons of poker – do what’s necessary to win, and try to stay one step ahead of your opponents. That is a simple truth that applies at every level.
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