ON THE BUTTON: Fishing in Cash Games

"There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot." - Steven Wright

Aug. 23, 2007

By Nick Lanteri
Bodog Nation Contributing Writer

What better way to spend the dog days of August than to go fishing. I live on Long Island, a place with beautiful beaches, lots of good weather in the summer and plenty of good fishing spots.
 
Guess what? I hate the outdoors.
 
I do my fishing indoors, on my home computer or laptop, playing online ring games on Bodog. You'll find plenty of fish there, playing both low- and high-limit cash games. The difference is that sometimes when you reel in these fish, they bite back and take a chunk out of you with a lucky river card. That's OK because tight aggressive players need fish at the tables. The key is to stay composed and focused and to stick to the basic strategy of playing only strong starting hands, which keeps you profitable in the long run. Don't call off your money pre-flop and gamble with these loose aggressive types, unless you have the goods.
 
The problem I'm faced with while playing online ring games is this: Am I trying to make money or am I just trying to protect my stack? In casinos, most big bets or pot-sized bets are respected and players fold. You protect your hand by betting it strong. I don't see too much wackiness in live poker games, except for the occasional maniac at the $1/$2 No Limit table who keeps pulling out wads of $100 bills.
 
Like it or not, online poker is a totally different dynamic. Players don't have to face the music sitting in the comfort of their own home, and you see many more reckless plays because of that, even worse than the loose aggressive players in casinos who play a lot of pots and are there just to gamble. That's why online poker seems rigged to some, because bad players will make bad calls and sometimes those bad calls are rewarded.

Therefore, when it comes to cash game poker online, I don't always make pot-sized bets after flopping top pair because the majority of online players don't fold, whether or not they're getting the right pot odds. Have you ever called a bet with a flush draw, even though you weren't getting 3-1 odds? We've all done it. I find myself doing it more if I'm down a few bucks and trying to get even or finish ahead for the session.
 
I swear, sometimes I feel like I do better when I check-call everything to the river, because that gives the loose aggressive player a chance to bluff off his money. Of course, I don't make a habit of that and would never recommend playing that style of poker at the cash game tables, whether it's online or in the casinos.

 
Trapping the fish

When playing a cash game online, let the loose aggressive players "run over you," as Phil Hellmuth would say, because they hardly ever slow down, and when the time comes that you're holding the nuts, they will pay you off unless you scare them away. Be patient, set the trap, and then re-raise them all-in when they are pot-committed. Most often, they will call you.

Stay cool and let the fish dig their own graves.

Here's an example in a $0.50/$1 No Limit cash game where most players don't let the loose aggressive player (LAP) dig their own grave. You're in middle position and dealt pocket 8s. The player under the gun calls and you raise three times the big blind to $3. The player on the button calls and the LAP in the big blind (they love to see flops, don't they?) calls before the action returns to the player who called under the gun. He thinks about it, and then throws in $2 more. Four players. There is $12.50 in the pot.
 
The flop is Kd-8h-3c, giving you the set and no flush or straight draws. Perfect flop for trips. The LAP in the big blind, as expected, leads out with a bet of $6.25, or half the pot. You've been waiting all day to trap this guy, and the time has finally arrived. The player under the gun folds and now the action is on you with the player on the button left to act. Look at the texture of the flop. There are no draws to protect against, and we don't want anyone holding top pair to go away. Most players overplay their set in this spot, and raise everyone off the hand. Do not raise. Instead, let's call the $6.25 because you can be sure the LAP will fire another shell.
 
Two players remain. It's down to you and the LAP, and there is $25 in the pot with the turn card to come. The turn is 9c, so now there is a club flush draw and straight draw on the board. The LAP leads out quickly again, this time a pot-sized bet of $25 (he still has more than $150 behind him, and you do too). What could this guy have? Now it's time to find out, so we re-raise to $75 to try and price him out in case he is on a draw (he needs 3-1 odds to be priced in if he is on a flush draw).

 
Always re-raise the bet enough where you won't give your opponent proper pot odds to call, although, like I said before, sometimes all logic goes out the window online. Now if the LAP wants to see the river card, it will cost him $50 more into a pot of $125. That's not 3-1 odds, but the LAP calls anyway (of course he does), and now there is $175 in the pot with two players left to the river. The river is 6c… uh oh, not runner-runner flush. Remember, we have trip 8s on a board of Kd-8h-3c-9c-6c. The LAP is taking an awful long time on this decision and you're hating life right about now, but after 10-15 seconds he finally checks. It would be a mistake to come this far and bet into the nuts, so let's check in position and take the pot right here. The problem with making another bet here is that you're giving your opponent a chance to bluff at the pot, and you'd be forced to call off more money just to see if your trip has held up. No reason for more decisions now.
 
You check, your opponent shows K-J offsuit (he had top pair all along, but didn't re-raise because he was worried about a hand such as A-K or K-Q due to your pre-flop raise) and you just won a pot of $175, all because you slow played the flop and didn't raise the LAP's lead-out bet.
 
So remember, when holding trips, you can almost always wait until the turn. Most of the time, any players at the table holding top pair will call your re-raise on the turn, because they feel pot-committed with only a river card to come. But beware, because slowplaying allows an opponent to hang around in pots where they might have otherwise released their hand.

TOP PHOTO: Poker Cash Game.