Beating Good Players in Low Limit Cash Games

Many people like to scoff at low limit cash games because they are full of beginners and people who don't really know what they are doing. However, the truth is that in today's games, even at the lowest limits, there are capable players to be found.

Now, of course, in any cash game you’re in, you should focus on finding the bad players and exploiting their weaknesses. However, at some point you’re going to have to engage with these more skilled opponents.

For this reason, in this article I will discuss some of the ways to combat and even overcome to some of the best players you will find at these lower limits.

1. Keep good players on your right in the cash game

The first thing you should do to be more successful against better players in cash games is more of a logistical approach than a strategic one – try to keep those better players to your right instead of your left whenever possible.

The power of position in poker is very important. It is so significant that when comparing two equally skilled opponents, the one who is in position relative to the other will have a huge advantage in the long run.

This is because the player in position will act last in almost every hand. These players will be able to make their value bets and bluffs already knowing what you think about your hand. You, on the other hand, will always be playing in the dark.

This is simply too difficult to overcome when you are dealing with someone who has similar or superior skills to you. Always try to keep such players on your right.

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2. Discover the imbalances in your game

From a strategic point of view, in poker we win by finding imbalances in our opponents' game and exploiting these imbalances in a logical way.

For example, if someone is 3-betting 10% or more preflop, then that player clearly has a lot of weak hands and even some outright bluffs in that 3-betting range, since no one gets dealt premium hands that often.

You take advantage of this imbalance by 4-betting them lighter and flexing them. with a wider range, especially in position with the intention of taking down the pot after the flop.

Against someone who is only 3-betting 2% of the time, however, this approach would be very damaging. Instead, you should shorten your 4-betting range to literally only premium hands and flatten in position with some speculative hands if the implied odds are good.

The best thing about low stakes cash games is the fact that even the best players will have imbalances in their games. Perhaps these imbalances will show up in other areas like continuation bets., barrels, float or bluff a lot or a little on the river.

Once you discover these weaknesses in your games, there will always be a logical counter to exploit them.

3. Apply the float and take more pots on later streets

At the risk of suggesting that we play a bit unbalanced against the top regs, it's important to fight for pots a bit more against them, especially on the turn and river. This is best done in position (for the reasons already stated above) and often after floating.

The reason this strategy works so well is because of another major weakness of all low limit players, including the good ones, is not wanting to truly fight for pots.

That is, when you can apply enough pressure and their entire stack may be at risk, they will often fold if they don't have a very strong hand, and we know how difficult it is to have a really strong hand.

For this reason, it might be a good idea to float. the flop with many hands that have some sort of equity, for example, gutshot, middle pair, bottom pair or even A-high. Then, if on the turn they bet again, you can choose to float again and test your tendency on the river. You can also use the commonly underused, but very effective semi-bluff raise on the turn.

If they simply fold and check the turn, then you can make a bet and often take down the pot.

Always remember that most of the time no one has a good hand in hold'em. Use the strength of your position to your advantage – especially against the better players – by fighting for more pots on later streets when no one has anything really good.

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4. Try to tilt the good players

The last strategy is less technical and has more to do with the mental side of cash game play. You can spend years studying advanced theory, but at the end of the day, good players don’t make many mistakes. That’s why they’re hard to beat.

However, the great thing about lower stakes is that almost all of them have serious weaknesses in their mental game. What I mean is that players at these stakes don't handle adversity as well as players at higher stakes. They tend to take it personally, get upset, and let it affect their game.

So how do you tilt someone? Well, you can do it by getting good cards against them over and over again. However, relying on a lucky streak to tilt someone is a very poor strategy for obvious reasons.

The best way to tilt someone is to “get into it,” metaphorically speaking. I’m not talking about chat antics or other tactics that break good etiquette. I’m talking about tilting opponents by the way they play—that is, by getting involved in more hands, fighting for more pots as suggested above, and by constantly raising against them preflop as well.

I will often pick a good regular that I have position on and try to fight for every pot and be as annoying as possible. This is done with the sole intention of trying to tilt him or at least make him think more about me.

It should be noted that I will only do this in one particular session and revert to normal play in future sessions. If you try to play like a maniac against the best regulars all the time, then sooner or later you will be exploited.

Final Considerations

There is no surefire way to beat the best players. You will never dominate them because they simply don't make enough mistakes to allow that to happen. That's why I'm a big advocate of table selection and keeping things simple by playing against recreational players whenever possible.

However, even against the best regulars at the low stakes, you can improve your odds by keeping them to your right and even trying to tilt them with some very aggressive or annoying play during a particular session.

You should also look for where the imbalances are in your game and fight for more pots post-flop against them, even when you don’t have a great hand. Follow these strategies and you’ll find that you can lose less and even make a profit against these good low-stakes players.

Article translated & adapted from the original: Outplaying Good Players in Small Stakes Cash Games