Every Friday, as we head into the weekend, a member of 888poker’s stable of incredible poker players publishes a video on the 888poker YouTube channel entitled “Focus Fridays.” The most recent episode features Nick “eastyyy22” Eastwood delving deep into the world of live cash games.
Eastwood starts by explaining the key differences between live and online poker.
- You are playing in person
- You can see your opponents
- Ranges are looser
- Opening raises are larger
- You often play deeper stacked
- Live cash game players are generally weaker than their online counterparts
- You are likely to be playing for higher stakes than you are used to
- Lots of pots are contested multiway
How Should Your Live Cash Game Strategy Change?
Considering all of the above differences, how should you change your cash game strategy when battling in the live arena? Eastwood states that many live cash game players love seeing flops, making flat-calling raises more profitable. You can flat-call with suited aces, suited connectors, and similar because there is little danger of your opponents squeezing you out of the pot.
Once some community cards are in view, you should adjust your bet sizes based on your opponent. In an online cash game, you may have a standard bet size on the flop, but you should always make it larger in a live game if your opponent has shown tendencies of not liking to fold. Size up your bets and rake in the extra money!
You should also consider that suited aces become more valuable because they can make nut flushes. Live poker players tend not to fold flushes, so you will always have the nut flush if you play suited aces.
Eastwood also suggests you should be smarter with your bluff catchers, favouring bluff catching with pairs rather than ace highs because most live players at lower stakes don’t bluff too thin. Additionally, be prepared to tighten up when an opponent suddenly becomes aggressive. Players tend to play passively until they make their hand, at which point they ramp up the aggression. If you see this in an opponent, you better have the goods to stand toe-to-toe with them.
Eastwood’s Biggest Live Pot
The 888poker pro ends the video with some analysis of a live hand he played in Las Vegas, which happened to be the largest pot he’d played. With $7 in the pot preflop, a player under the gun opened to $15 and the action folded to Eastwood in the cutoff. Eastwood noted that this player had hardly played a hand all night, so Eastwood was weary despite being dealt A♣K♣. Despite some reservations, Eastwood three-bet to $45. The button called, but the original raiser four-bet to $100.
At this point, Eastwood deduces his Big Slick is in bad shape so that a five-bet would be terrible. However, his hand has plenty of potential post-flop, so he called the extra $45, and the button came along for the ride, too.
The dealer fanned a J♣3â™ 2♣, and the under-the-gun player continued with a $100 bet. Eastwood goes through the hands his opponent could have, pinning him on aces or kings. Eastwood called, the button folded, and the 4♥ landed on the turn. Eastwood’s opponent bet $250, and the 888poker ambassador called.
The river was the 3♣, improving Eastwood to the nut flush. His opponent instantly checked the river and did so quite aggressively, making Eastwood believe he doesn’t have pocket jacks and that he likely has aces and is unhappy with how the board ran out. With $1,007 in the pot and the under-the-gun player having $1,100 behind, Eastwood says the only play here was to move all-in. Why? Because Mr. UTG didn’t sit there for eight hours just to fold aces on the river.
A little Hollywooding later, Eastwood indeed shoved and was called by, you guessed it, pocket aces. Eastwood used observation and sized up his bets to his advantage, something he would not have been able to do as easily playing online cash games, particularly fast-fold variants.