Cash may not be paid for the table stake. If a player wishes to buy in or to increase his table stake using bank notes, the dealer must immediately change them into chips. 16.) Limits – The type of limit is determined before the game begins: split limit / pot limit / no limit. The limit determines the size of possible bets and the amount of. Know Your Ranges. Since you’ll be playing anonymous poker at Ignition, there will be limited.

In order to get anything out of this blog, you should first know what I am referring to when I say, “cash game.” A cash game, which is sometimes referred to as a ring game, is a poker game where the chips represent actual monetary values, and the players bet these chips against each other until the game breaks. This poker format has been offered in nearly every casino around the world ever since the poker boom happened in 2003, when people all over the globe became interested in poker

For the purpose of this blog, I will be talking specifically about No Limit Hold’em cash games since that is where most of my experience lies. No Limit Hold’em is a poker game where each player is dealt two cards and they have to make the best five-card hand possible using the five community cards that are dealt on the table.

The main difference between the two is the minimum number of big blinds that they permit players to sit with. While most poker rooms on the internet allow players to sit with 20 big blinds, most casinos impose a minimum of 50 big blinds. For the purpose of this blog, I will consider 50 big blinds or less to be a short-stack and anything over 100 big blinds to be deep-stacked.

As someone who was a professional poker player for the last 12 years, I have a lot of opinions on this topic that might be interesting to those who are considering playing this strategy in a live cash game. In order to analyze this topic, a ton of experience is necessary, and I feel that my experiences contain some wisdom that should be shared.

I have experimented extensively with both buying in short and buying in deep, so I have a unique perspective on the situation. To share this unique perspective, I have decided to compile a list of reasons why I feel that buying in short-stacked to Vegas cash games is ideal.

Simpler Strategy

It may sound weird, but sitting down with less money makes it easier to play a solid strategy. When I buy in short at a casino, I am avoiding mixed-stack play. This means that I am almost always going to have the smallest stack at the table, so I don’t need to consider different stack sizes, I just need to consider my own.

The reason for this is that the smallest stack is considered the effective stack, and this is the most that I can lose in a hand. Other players do not have this luxury because they have to worry about other people who have more chips than I do, even if it is a smaller stack than their own. They simply cannot ignore the fact that they can lose more money against other players than they can against me, which makes them take my bets less seriously. This is the opposite of what they should be doing because I will be really strong most of the time I play a hand while short stacking.

For this reason, it is very easy to just buy in with a short stack and wait for a good hand. No one at the table is aware of how I play at this point, and it does not cost them very much to call my all-in compared to other people at the table. This strategy is so effective and simple that many players complain when I use it and have a winning session.

Disguise Ability

In my opinion, one of the best parts of short stacking is that I get to look like a complete newbie. Nearly every cash game professional in the world lives by the motto that you should always sit with as much money as possible. Therefore, if I am not following this guideline, it appears that I have no idea it even exists.

The reason why these pros like to sit with as much money as possible is that they assume everyone has much less skill than they have, and they want to raise their potential earnings ceiling. If I appear to be oblivious to this, it will seem as if I rarely come across players with less skill than myself or that I simply do not care about winning.

Another great part of short stacking is that I am able to disguise my deep stack strategies until I actually double up a few times. Sometimes, if I am running really bad, my deep stack strategy might not even be exposed to these players because I will not double-up at all.

Higher Win Rate for Tournament Players

Not everyone who plays in Vegas cash games is an everyday cash game grinder. Some players who specialize in tournaments occasionally feel like dabbling in some cash games from time to time. One reason for this could be that they do not have enough time to play a full multi-table tournament. Another plausible scenario is that they are burned out from playing these tournaments so much and they want a change of pace.

As a player who was strictly a tournament professional for ten years of my 12-year career, I found the transition to cash games much easier with a small buy in. This is because the effective stacks in multi-table tournaments are usually under 100 big blinds. Tournament players do not have enough experience or practice playing with such deep stacks.

For these tournament grinders, buying in with a short stack is an amazing and profitable idea. Most tournament players are rarely faced with deep stack decisions for 600 big blind pots while playing tournaments, but this happens in cash games all the time.

Anytime you are in a situation which you are not used to being in, you run the risk of doing things that are not very smart. Nearly every single tournament player’s database of hands that I have ever seen shows that they are a losing player when their stack is over 100 big blinds, which further proves my assumptions to be correct.

Less Risk for Free Drinks

One of my favorite perks of playing in a land-based casino is the fact that most of them reward free drinks to their poker players while they are playing. Well, I shouldn’t say they are free. I do still have to tip the waitress $1. These waitresses usually come around every 20-30 minutes, so this is a great chance to get a bunch of drinks for a lower price than normal in a reasonable amount of time.

You might be saying to yourself “But I can get free drinks at slot machines too!”. The difference is, a slot machine is a game where gamblers are playing against the house while poker is a game where players are playing against other people. This makes poker a much easier game to breakeven in, and thus makes it a better game to play while targeting free drinks. I always make sure to leave the table after three or four drinks because poker is not a game that you want to partake in when you are really drunk.

Misrepresent Bankroll

One of the keys of poker is to try and appear to be something you are not. The art of deception is invaluable when you are trying to outsmart people. One way to achieve this deception is to buy in with a short stack.

Whenever I see people buying into a poker game with a short stack, my first thought is that maybe they are too poor to afford a full stack. Once you get above the $1/$2 stakes, this becomes more and more prevalent.

You might be asking yourself, why is it so good to appear poorer than you are? Well, poker is a game of applying pressure to your opponents. When poker players are looking for a target to apply pressure to, they’re usually looking for those who are weak and scared. Someone who is poor will most likely play scared and shy away from calling all-in without the best hand.

To bring it all together, I want to seem poor so that players will incorrectly apply pressure to me and assume that I am playing scared when, in fact, I am not. This will cause them to make giant mistakes for my entire stack, and I should be able to fool people for at least a few hours before they realize I am not playing as scared as my short stack might indicate.

Hit and Run

If you are looking to play a short session, buying in with a small amount of money goes hand in hand with the infamous hit and run routine. This is because when you have less money, it is easier to get a hand that is worth going all-in on. The faster you get all of your chips in, the faster you will either double-up or go home, which makes short stacking an ideal strategy for quick hit and run sessions.

One of the extra perks of this strategy is that it will make people at the table extremely irritated that you are leaving. For some reason, people get upset when other players decide to leave a game they just started, which is silly in my opinion.

This anger of the players at the table will not benefit you during the current poker session, due to the fact that you are leaving. However, when you return at a later date to play more sessions, those people who were angry will certainly remember you and proceed to target you in an aggressive manner with their play.

Anytime people are angry in poker, they make terrible decisions because they are blinded by their frustration and cannot think straight. I don’t know about you, but that is exactly the type of player I want to play against.

Exceptions to the Rule

Regarding poker hand strategy, it is usually incorrect to ALWAYS do the same action in every similar situation. This applies to buying in short as well as hand strategy because occasionally I will come across times where buying in with a short stack is a bad idea. It’s important to be able to identify the times when these exceptions present themselves so that you can capitalize on them accordingly.

Easy Players

One of the times that I want to buy in with a big stack is when one of the worst players I have ever laid eyes upon is sitting at the table with a bunch of money. This is a dream scenario, and buying in short in this situation could end up costing me a lot of profit.

The chances of getting all of my money all-in against that terrible player are higher than the chances of getting it all-in against everyone else at the table. Since this player presumably does not seem to care about whether he wins or loses, I will have the best hand most of the time that these clashes occur. Therefore, if I am not sitting with just as much money as this weak player is sitting with, I am making a big mistake.

Too Rich to Care

If I am ever in a situation where I have a ton of money in my bankroll compared to the stakes being played at the poker table, I will occasionally opt to sit with a large stack. I do this just to have fun at such low stakes since I usually feel like I will want to play big pots.

Therefore, buying in with a large stack will give me a better chance at having fun than buying in short will. It is very tough to play large pots with a short stack unless you double-up a few times, and this could take hours.

Strategy Not Effective

Sometimes a situation arises in which I am playing in games in where everyone at the table is familiar with my short stacked strategies. This usually happens whenever I have played in the same place multiple times and have gained a reputation as a short stacker. It also comes up whenever I play in a home game with a bunch of friends who already know my style.

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This situation is not ideal for a short stacker like myself, so when I am faced with this dilemma, I like to buy in for a full stack and throw everybody off. This makes my strategy a lot less predictable against this specific group of players, which is always a good thing in poker. There is also a slight chance that they have never seen me play with a deep stack, so they will be completely unaware of my deep stack strategies.

Conclusion

Casino Poker Cash Game Strategy

When participating in the poker cash games of Las Vegas, it is wise to buy in for a small amount for numerous reasons. There are some exceptions to this rule, but in general, I recommend buying in for the absolute minimum of 50 big blinds. This will ensure that you take fewer risks while getting free drinks, your strategy will be simpler to execute, and, if you are a tournament player, your win rate will be higher.

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I have tested this strategy out for years, and I have been extremely happy with the results. Feel free to wade through the short stacking waters for yourself next time a cash game breaks out in a Vegas casino so you can enjoy all of the benefits that I just described.

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