How the Money Moves Around the Table
How do some people get big stacks in cash games? Usually, by winning one big hand. Sometimes it’s from good play, and sometimes it’s from coming behind.
I was thinking about this yesterday in my usual 6-max online cash game. I had KK on the button and of course raised it up. A pretty big fish in the blinds re-raised me. I came back over the top of him all-in; he thought and called, and I was pleased since I’d seen him do this with all sorts of weak aces and small pairs. He showed A9o and flopped top 2 pair to take down the pot. The very next hand, the fish called off an entire buy-in with top pair/weak kicker against a strong player to my left.
The end results is that I was down a buy-in, the fish was dead even, and the tougher player was up a buy-in. It was going to be a lot tougher to get that buy-in back from the good player, and the fish no longer had a deep stack to go after. There’s a brief moment when the fish is ready to be fleeced, and I couldn’t capitalize quickly enough. It seems that in cash games, and probably tournaments too, the money moves around in this manner: a weak player wins a big pot, often through a suck-out, and then calls off his stack against a better player.
Moments like this make me question the wisdom of pre-flop all-ins; you know you’re ahead, but you’re removing your large post-flop edge from the play. I was a big enough favorite (>70% equity against offsuit A-rag) to get all of my money in there; but weak players offer you opportunities where your equity on the flop is 90% or more. 70% equity might be selling yourself short and giving him too easy a time of it.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
I just took my first trip to Commerce casino in LA this weekend. There was more action than I have ever seen. It was insane. I was playing $5-$10 no limit and huge stacks pushing all in with junk, like 99 or AJo. And people calling huge bets down with bottom pair. They guy next to me was a solid player, and he said that most tables were like that at Commerce. It was just crazy….and I thought wonderful until I started taking beats.
I had my all in preflop kings busted by queens. I only tried to bluff twice in eleven hours and got called both times. I had my queen high flush get beat by two pair boating up on the river. I got all in preflop with AQ against a guy who had been playing any and every two, and his 89 caught an 8 on the river. The final doozie was getting my aces all in preflop against K10. Of course he makes two pair. And just like you said, all of these (with one exception) were against rotten players who proceeded to donate my money to other tough spots at the table. So frustrating and really funny because I was thinking the exact same thing as you–why not get it in preflop, when I know I’m ahead? But then again, I think bad players are more willing to shove preflop with worse cards than they are once they’ve seen a flop. Looking back on my session, I think that if I would have aimed for a little less variance, I would have faired better.
Man Amarillosb that is sick…I’ve been wanting to go to Commerce but man if the action is like that in a 5-10nl game, I’d hate to see the lower stakes NL and LH games. I usually play 4-8, 6-12, 8-16 LHM or 1-2NL and lately have been taking some sick beats. I know it is variance but man, I don’t know if I could stand to lose some of those hands with the buy-in required for those games.
I just took my first trip to Commerce casino in LA this weekend. There was more action than I have ever seen. It was insane. I was playing $5-$10 no limit and huge stacks pushing all in with junk, like 99 or AJo. And people calling huge bets down with bottom pair. They guy next to me was a solid player, and he said that most tables were like that at Commerce. It was just crazy….and I thought wonderful until I started taking beats.
I had my all in preflop kings busted by queens. I only tried to bluff twice in eleven hours and got called both times. I had my queen high flush get beat by two pair boating up on the river. I got all in preflop with AQ against a guy who had been playing any and every two, and his 89 caught an 8 on the river. The final doozie was getting my aces all in preflop against K10. Of course he makes two pair. And just like you said, all of these (with one exception) were against rotten players who proceeded to donate my money to other tough spots at the table. So frustrating and really funny because I was thinking the exact same thing as you. Why not get it in preflop, but then again, I think bad players are more willing to shove preflop with worse cards than they are once they’ve seen a flop. Looking back on my session, I think that if I would have aimed for a little less variance, I wouldn’t have lost so much money.