Ask BlackRain79 Anything About Cash Games

One thing I'm really having trouble with is being able to get into hands at the lowest stakes. The tables I'm playing out have weak players and if I can isolated one or two of them I can usually win the hand. The issue I run into is that I'll often find myself on the table with a good hand in EP where I open and face just absolutely ridiculous bets by the time it gets back around to me or I have a decent hand in LP but by the time the betting gets back to me there's already 4 or 5 in the pot and usually one or two raises. I try to counter this by playing a tighter range in general but then I'm playing so few hands that any wins I do get are basically breaking even with what I lose in the blinds. What strategy would you suggest to counter this at the micros?

Hi, Nathan! I need some help here.
I think NL10 Zoom is unbeatable. It is impossible to win even a blind for 100 hands. The regulars are 98%. The rake is huge, 10/100.
I have 30k hands and I can't win nothing. Everyone play GTO. I can't win, I assume no one can. What do you think , Nathan? If you disagree, can you show us some proof? We need PROOF!!! 200k hands with at least 100k hands played after 2018...
Also I think NL25 is "super" unbeatable. The regs are 99.5%. This also can be a proof. NL50 is "very super" D) unbeatable. The regs are 99.99%. Can be proof as well. No matter your sample or not.
Many people are asking for this. I just speak, because of them. I can't show some proof, maybe you can. Or some friend of yours.
Thank you in advance!

https://www.cardschat.com/forum/cash-games-11/cant-beat-10nl-blitz-fast-fold-466577/

The topic. If you have interest...

Nathan Williams said:

Hey everyone,

My name is Nathan "BlackRain79" Williams. I am a 10+ year poker pro, 3 time poker author and the founder of www.blackrain79.com

It was also around 7 years ago that I decided to sell everything I own, hop on a one way flight to Bangkok, Thailand and travel the world. I am from Vancouver, Canada by the way.

I have been active here on CardsChat for many years and this is the only major poker forum that I consistently recommend, besides my own.

And that is because I have always found CardsChat to be a positive, welcoming environment especially for beginners who want to learn and improve.

Throughout my own poker career I have been mostly a cash game specialist and I am best known for having some of the highest winnings in online poker history at the micro stakes.

I would be happy to answer any poker questions you may have. Or anything else in general!

Although for specific poker hands, please post those in the relevant poker hand analysis sections here on CC. I will be active there also.

Thanks

Nathan

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Hi Nathan, which cash games do you recommend to earn a steady stream of profit taking into account the rake? And at what rate? Some people say 5BB for every 100 hands is a good result.
I havent played cash games yet, but learning quite fast. I'm a very methodic guy and numbers are my thing, have the confidence to thrill in poker.
Thank you beforehand!

quant1986 said:

Hi Nathan,

I have two general preflop questions for you. Assuming 100BB deep, NL5,

1. Would you recommend to have any 3bet cold-call range ?
2. Would you defend squeeze as preflop raise caller e.g. LJ opened, you called with TT from BTN and action back to you when LJ folded after SB/BB squeezed?

Thanks

Click to expand...

Hey quant,

1. Depends on 6max vs FR, positions at the table and the opponents involved. Generally going to have a small 3bet cold-call range though.

2. Again, too difficult to answer without knowing much more info about the players involved, positions at the table etc.

I have a Facebook group where you can go ahead and post your hand histories to get expert advice from myself and many other serious players:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/blackrain79pokertalk

You can also post your hand histories and get feedback right here on CC:

https://www.cardschat.com/forum/cash-game-hand-analysis-50

DRIVEN said:

What to do against villain which plays, bets and calls very wide range (even junk)?
He almost always wins (beats my QQ with 23 catching trips)

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I wrote an article about how to beat those exact type of players here:

https://www.blackrain79.com/2015/04/how-to-play-against-fish-who-doesnt.html

DoIHaveAFlush said:

Hi Nathan,

One challenge I'm confronted with is the following scenario on the flop:

Usually, one villain raises between 2.5BB and 3BB from EP to MP, I'm either on the BU or on SB or BB. I have quite a decent hand, such as AJo or JTs, so I call.

The flop comes - as an example - 5J8 rainbow. I bet 3/4 pot having top pair with strong kicker - villain goes all-in. I have no read on the opponent, since this happens in early rounds of cash game or early stage of an MTT. Villain and myself are both middle stacks. I did call, assuming the opponent has an overcard, such as AKs or AQo and tries to scare me off. What I saw was however an overpair - KK. Obviously, I lost all chips.

Something similar happened with me having flopped top pair on the flop (99), villain shoves all-in and shows TT. (Note, this second example was a totally different game with different players).

So, I'm realizing that I have some gaps in terms of assessing possibilities of overpairs on the flop. I know there's no always and no never in poker, but if you face a shove on a rainbow flop having toppair and strong kicker - would you assume it is always an overpair? For me, this bet size is really polarizing, it means: either this guy got the goods or he got air. What do you think? How should i approach when facing this kind of shoving on the flop on low stakes cash games and freeroll MTTs?

Cheers

Click to expand...

Hi DoIHaveAFlush,

Sorry but I am just answering very basic poker questions in this thread. For in depth hand history analysis like this, please post the hand here on CC in the hand history forum.

I also have a private Facebook group (linked above), where you can post your hands and get expert advice.

thatguy6793 said:

One thing I'm really having trouble with is being able to get into hands at the lowest stakes. The tables I'm playing out have weak players and if I can isolated one or two of them I can usually win the hand. The issue I run into is that I'll often find myself on the table with a good hand in EP where I open and face just absolutely ridiculous bets by the time it gets back around to me or I have a decent hand in LP but by the time the betting gets back to me there's already 4 or 5 in the pot and usually one or two raises. I try to counter this by playing a tighter range in general but then I'm playing so few hands that any wins I do get are basically breaking even with what I lose in the blinds. What strategy would you suggest to counter this at the micros?

Click to expand...

Hey thatguy,

It is difficult to answer this without knowing anything about your hand strength, the player types involved, 6max vs FR and so on. In general though, you want to keep the good aggro players on your right. This is a fundamental tenet of good table selection. If you happen to have a bunch of good aggro players on your left, my suggestion is simple, leave the table.

UkoChebuko said:

Hi, Nathan! I need some help here.
I think NL10 Zoom is unbeatable. It is impossible to win even a blind for 100 hands. The regulars are 98%. The rake is huge, 10/100.
I have 30k hands and I can't win nothing. Everyone play GTO. I can't win, I assume no one can. What do you think , Nathan? If you disagree, can you show us some proof? We need PROOF!!! 200k hands with at least 100k hands played after 2018...
Also I think NL25 is "super" unbeatable. The regs are 99.5%. This also can be a proof. NL50 is "very super" D) unbeatable. The regs are 99.99%. Can be proof as well. No matter your sample or not.
Many people are asking for this. I just speak, because of them. I can't show some proof, maybe you can. Or some friend of yours.
Thank you in advance!

Click to expand...

It looks like you have been banned from CC, so I doubt you will see this. But I have answered these questions in many articles on my website. I also have written complete guides (and books) on how to completely smash games like NL10.

Highsolation said:

Hi Nathan, which cash games do you recommend to earn a steady stream of profit taking into account the rake? And at what rate? Some people say 5BB for every 100 hands is a good result.
I havent played cash games yet, but learning quite fast. I'm a very methodic guy and numbers are my thing, have the confidence to thrill in poker.
Thank you beforehand!

Click to expand...

Hi Highsolation,

This is going to depend on your skill level, your bankroll and many other factors. As for winrate, anything above 0 is good because most people do not win at poker in the long run. My advice is always to stay focused on improving your own game and not worrying about comparing your winrate with other people.

Would you tighten up RFI in these ante game from EP against line Ups w/ high VPIP recs in MP/ CO/ BU as oftentimes they'll flat your opens and BB will like CC and now we have to play MW pot OOP and our equity becomes diluted against often hard to define ranges/ tendencies as it's easy to ascertain high VPIP/ PFR but other tendencies, like float flop or raise F cbet, aren't.

Ofc there isn't an Equilibria MW as it is no longer zero sum, but from my limited knowledge, I think cbet freq' MW is often much lower. The BB often interprets the misnomer that when CO/ BU CC he is getting better pot odds and is incentivised to overcall but this again is untrue I believe as MW, equity is diluted and he is actually incentivised to tighten up v EP w/ presence of CC. the premise is we should loosen up against rec line ups and modulate our action to "accommodate" fish into the pot. My RFI from EP was mainly prioritizing "immediate equity holdings (KTo>65s)and was opening 66 at mixed freq' and T9s+ but have adapted RFI from EP to include 65s+ for board coverage and ofc loosen up considerably from CO+. as we can somewhat summise that alot of these players developing flatting ranges in MP/ CO (& BU) are likely small-middling PP heavy (aswell as some weaker BW holdings) (although you'll see the odd AA [emoji57]) so on low board textures our EV is utterly abismal OOP and Against a condensed range the dichotomy between our wider uncapped range fairs pretty poorly. So oftentimes not peeling A high too liberally against float flop on these type of textures.

Also another quick one, how would you approach players choosing 75% + sizing on rag flops having high cbet% (albeit often over small sample) in say a BBvBU spot?

Thanks Bro.

Hey Nathan! I recently subscribed you in YouTube. I know you are succesful already in micros, did you ever think taking it to the next level? Play on some of the most highstakes games online??

Hey Nathan, my name is Alex. I'm going through a bit of a rough patch in poker and could use some advice. I've been running terribly for a while now and have been going through a bit of a downswing as a result. I'm talking losing every which way you can imagine and for the most part, I'm actually still playing well and getting my money in good. I'm sure you'll be able to tell from villains hands but in case not this is NL10.



What made me come here today was a specific series of hands. I lost with KK vs Q3o all-in preflop, (managed to laugh this one off) then the hand after I flopped a boat with pocket 3's on a KK3 flop and watched the board run out KK37K and saw his K6o take it down. After that I got A5s and flopped 2-pair and ended up all in vs 43o on a flop of Q5A with two diamonds. I expected a 2 for sure but they did me one better...runner runner diamonds and his 3 of diamonds made a flush and won the hand. Then I ended my session just tilting off another buy-in for basically no reason. (Can't even remember the hand) Looking back I can laugh at this right now, even though it happened just hours ago but in the moment I was ready to hurl my computer out the window lol.

I play NL10 using a 30buy-in bankroll rule(I buy in for 100bb) and was up to 48buy-ins before this started. Now I'm around 33 after today. When I get to 75buy-ins I plan to take a 10buy-in shot at NL25 and If I lose it move back down and have 50buy-ins still for NL10. I put this part in here simply because I'm also curious what you think of this. Would you recommend I do this another way or is this a good game-plan for the long-term?

Sorry for the long post, if you made it this far thank you for taking the time to read this. Any advice on either subject is much appreciated!

Hello Nathan,
How are you?


I like a lot cash games and play only micro stakes. I believe these stakes tables are much more aggressive than the higher ones, but these aggressiveness are more for the maniac gambling side than controlled strategies. I tend to be a loose agressive player but I think, at the kind of tables I've mentioned, the better style to play would be tight or tight aggressive. Am I right?
Regards

johnmaltz19 said:

Hey Nathan! I recently subscribed you in YouTube. I know you are succesful already in micros, did you ever think taking it to the next level? Play on some of the most highstakes games online??

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Thanks for subscribing to my YouTube channel John!

I have played higher stakes in the past with success and may do so again in the future.

Rob Hobson said:

Hello Nathan,
How are you?


I like a lot cash games and play only micro stakes. I believe these stakes tables are much more aggressive than the higher ones, but these aggressiveness are more for the maniac gambling side than controlled strategies. I tend to be a loose agressive player but I think, at the kind of tables I've mentioned, the better style to play would be tight or tight aggressive. Am I right?
Regards

Click to expand...

Hey Rob,

Actually it is usually the opposite.

The levels of aggression will be higher as you move up the stakes. While you might encounter a couple "maniacs" at lower limits, most players at these stakes actually play very passively.

I talk about the style of play that I recommend for small stakes in my free poker "cheat sheet":

https://www.blackrain79.com/p/free-guide.html

Nathan Williams said:

Hey Rob,

Actually it is usually the opposite.

The levels of aggression will be higher as you move up the stakes. While you might encounter a couple "maniacs" at lower limits, most players at these stakes actually play very passively.

I talk about the style of play that I recommend for small stakes in my free poker "cheat sheet":

https://www.blackrain79.com/p/free-guide.html

Click to expand...

Thank you Nathan!

Hi, Nathan,
I've just downloaded 'Massive Profit at the Micros' and subscribed to your Youtube channel.
Thanks.

Hi Nathan
thanks you for being here



My current level...25c/50c nlhe...buy in with $50 on table...and I am playing this level well within my comfort zone...9 handed


6 handed i feel like a total fish

I play at SwC poker...bitcoin site..

I am a winning player 9 handed at this level. But 6 max i am getting spanked. This amuses me not...not one little bit.

I need insights into the differences, nuances, and alterations to my game needed in order to start spanking back.

I am particulary looking for ' range' advice.


gl always, and thanks again
Mark

Nathan, how do you approach multiway spots at the low stakes? In theory we should be betting small (25%) and prioritizing nutted draws but in practice people's ranges at these stakes are V.inelastic and often probing mindlessly into uncapped ranges. We have to be V.snug mw and the burden of defence is on all players but it's hard to find Max explo strats against weak and capped ranges in say BB barreling off for large sizing w/o monker and alot of time. I guess the optimal strategy is to just play snug and maybe size up exploitatively against VIP's and fold & watch for any reads for future spots...

Also would you suggest tightening/modifying RFI from EP against line Ups of high vpipers in MP/CO/BU?

Thanks

Rob Hobson said:

Hi, Nathan,
I've just downloaded 'Massive Profit at the Micros' and subscribed to your Youtube channel.
Thanks.

Click to expand...

Awesome Rob, hope my free poker guide and my YouTube videos help you!

Hey guys,

I just made a new video on if online poker is rigged or not. It is slightly "tongue and cheek" because I get asked this question so often.

But it does include my candid thoughts on this topic after having played 10+ million hands.

I hope this helps some of you guys who are struggling to win consistently at the micro stakes.


[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgl_YasrfcQ&t[/ame]

solver

What type of solver do you use?

ebolaking1 said:

What type of solver do you use?

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Hey ebo,

I rarely use solvers. In fact, I recommend avoiding them if you play at the lower stakes. I wrote an entire article about it on my blog here:

https://www.blackrain79.com/2020/01/poker-solver.html

Hey Nate,

I just wanted to say thank you. One day when I win the first place from wsop main event I will share 10 percent of the profit from it.

After I improved my game thanks to your free e-book, I've decided to help others learn from my mistakes and get back at cardschat forum. Who knows maybe when I qualify we may meet at the cardschat freerolls first .

Thank you, sir, you gave me a purpose in life.