Zen and the Art of small stakes NL Cash Games by tek
 

Zen and the Art of small stakes NL Cash Games by tek

First, what is Zen? You can read books on Zen until you are blue in the face and not know what they are babbling about.

Here it is in a nutshell. Think about the Samurai Warriors of Japan from the 1500-1800’s. They roamed around protecting their king. It was like the Highlander movies and TV shows. They had big swords and when they came upon an enemy, it was heads’ up to the death. The Ultimate in All In action! Somebody was going to bust out with their head rolling downhill. They could not afford to think about the argument this morning with their chick, bills they have to pay, kids, car repairs, future goals, etc. They had to be in the moment now, period. That is Zen and it’s a heluva a better explanation than you’ll get out of any Alan Watts or D. T. Suzuki book.

Now, how does this apply to NL cash games? You have to be in the moment there too. You don’t think about the past. You don’t think about the future (slow-playing or building pots). The goal is to win each pot at the first moment you are able to.

If you slow-play anything but the absolute nuts, someone WILL suck out on you.

Don’t worry, there will be action and pots will be built if you bet out and/or raise just like in limit games.

So just focus on your hand now and how it connects with the flop. If you hit the flop, bet it hard. Don’t worry about “losing customers”. Just get the pot ASAP.

The best strategy for NL cash games is Tight Aggressive. The blinds are so cheap that you can fold every hand for two hours and only be out $24…And you have all night to hit big hands with a big pots.

Limp to the flop. Group 1 hands might be worth $6-10 preflop. Everything else, call the BB. At the NL tables I’m at (and this should apply to yours too), after the first couple of orbits things will settle down preflop. As soon as a couple players start calling the BB and fold to a PFR, the raisers will learn that they will have to be content with picking up a few yellows OR they can call the BB like the rest of you and see the flop.

Connect with the flop and bet out or raise hard, or fold. (But if you are drawing to a straight or flush and can see the turn or river cheap, great--and if you hit, then bet it). The word cheap is used relatively speaking and will depend on your table. The point is, when you make your hand then bet hard. If someone is betting hard against your second best or un-made drawing hand, lean towards folding.

Think like the Samurai. They went in when they had the best of it and ran when they didn’t. They didn’t get second chances…

A word about bluffing. Don’t. There are too many fish swimming in each aquarium that don’t have the ability to “put you on” what you (falsely) represent. They will call you. They will beat you. One bluff called and you are a dead Samurai.

In summary, I am advocating not gambling. Yes, you could call other players’ bluffs and risk a stack or two. Yes, you could bluff and risk being called. Yes, you could gamboool it up on marginal starters and risky draws. And yes, you could slow-play and give the fish a free card to suck out on you. But if you think like a Samurai, you will play Tight Aggressive, connect cheap and bet hard and take the pots down ASAP thus adding to your war-chest and table image.

Re: Zen and the Art of small stakes NL Cash Games by tek
 

Your strategy has so little bearing to Zen and such poor command of Zen precepts that I question whether you have even read Watts and Suzuki.

Re: Zen and the Art of small stakes NL Cash Games by tek
 

...however I am pretty sure that this is a solid roadmap to succeeding at low stakes NLHE onine! Give it a whirl and see for yourself. (particularly on PartyPoker $25/NL)

Re: Zen and the Art of small stakes NL Cash Games by tek
 

This should work at a full ring table.
At 6 max., I guess, this approach could be slightly profitable, but it won't show top results.

Re: Zen and the Art of small stakes NL Cash Games by tek
 

And the London Underground is not a political movement, Otto.

Zen issues aside, good post.

Re: Zen and the Art of small stakes NL Cash Games by tek
 

I have been criticised by some for posting too much in the OOT and not putting out good content. So this post was an attempt to change that. I PM'd mythrilfox and asked him to elaborate on his reply. He kindly wrote back with a well-thought reply.

I am putting his PM reply and my reply to that PM here in order to clarify what I was getting at. I feel he has a valid claim about Zen in general if I was writing a literary piece about the genre. However, in a short article whose main thrust is relating my experience in small stakes NL cash games, it may be a moot point. I'm not teaching Asian philosophy as much as trying to make my NL opinions interesting. The original post was stimulated by someone who was asking in a different thread what it might take to make a living at nl small stakes cash games.

Here are the PM's.

PM from mythrilfox Tue Jan 04 2005 03:34 AM:

I'm not an expert by any means, but I just thought you were seriously demeaning the contributions of those who are experts. Your post is constructed like it is for children.

As for Zen and its applications to poker, the "hand" is the moment, not this very second. The hand is a moment in and of itself. Saying that Zen doesn't advocate slow-playing is completely ridiculous. Other ridiculous things include: the analogy with the Samurai running when they don't have the best of it, trying to get the pot as soon as possible, worrying about distant suckouts, never semi-bluffing, and your supposed linking of all this to Zen principles.

The point of Zen is that by staying in the moment you can focus completely on what is at hand, and not what happens before or after the hand. Your connection of this with slow-playing is tenuous.

My reply this morning:

"...you were seriously demeaning the contributions of those who are experts. Your post is constructed like it is for children."

I wrote it at 2AM (in the moment I might add) after returning home from playing in a NL cash game. My apology to the experts. As far as writing style, I try to keep it simple and to the point. I wasn’t trying to talk down to anyone.

"As for Zen and its applications to poker, the "hand" is the moment, not this very second. The hand is a moment in and of itself."

That's what I was trying to say.

"Saying that Zen doesn't advocate slow-playing is completely ridiculous."

It is my belief that slow-playing is not a good idea (and it is a topic that many writers have said about small stakes limit ad NL games). Slow-playing is not totally related to zen itself, and I may not have written that the best way. I suppose I could have said, "oh, btw on an off-topic, don't slow-play..."

"Other ridiculous things include: the analogy with the Samurai running when they don't have the best of it, trying to get the pot as soon as possible, worrying about distant suckouts, never semi-bluffing, and your supposed linking of all this to Zen principles."

I'm sure you could take apart the zen motorcycle maintenance book too, but it is a general article get people playing NL cash games to focus on the type of thing Sklansky said in Getting the Best of It and Caro says in his articles. Get the best of it and get the job done. No FPS. The fish will give you action, etc. I was trying to find a way to relate my experience with an interesting and catchy topic.

Re: Zen and the Art of small stakes NL Cash Games by tek
 

[ QUOTE ]
And the London Underground is not a political movement, Otto.

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't call me stupid.

Re: Zen and the Art of small stakes NL Cash Games by tek
 

Interesting read. Having exactly ZERO Zen background I appreciated the (apparently) VERY simplistic recap.

The "DON'T SLOW PLAY" and "DON'T BLUFF!" advice is a good reminder. "Don't" might not be the right frequency, but if I'm thinking "Don't" it will probably translate to "very rarely should I" which is probably slightly more correct than never. But your point is good - why slow play when fish will call fast play anyhow and why bluff away bets when most fish will call. A little advertising may not hurt to make sure that the fish call when you want them to, but VERY little (i.e. 1 hand early enough in the session for a small amount and the fish will think "HEY, he bluffed 4 hours ago, I bet he's doing it again! Don't let him push you around! CALL!").

I do have one issue:
[ QUOTE ]
Limp to the flop. Group 1 hands might be worth $6-10 preflop. Everything else, call the BB. At the NL tables I’m at (and this should apply to yours too), after the first couple of orbits things will settle down preflop. As soon as a couple players start calling the BB and fold to a PFR, the raisers will learn that they will have to be content with picking up a few yellows OR they can call the BB like the rest of you and see the flop.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'd love to hear more from you on this and why/how it works. Doesn't this open things up to let bad cards in cheap? Doesn't this open you up to having solid hands stolen for a raise? I'm open to learning here because sometimes I feel like I'm beating my head against the wall raising with AKs from late seeing 5 to the flop and watching the flop come 68T rainbow. And now I've got a big pot and no pair and I'm in a bad spot when someone bets out. So there's got to be some merit to what you are saying, but I just don't like letting people with weak cards play them for cheap. Like I said... would LOVE to hear more from you on this.

All other points make tons of sense - thanks for the lesson!

Play Well!
[img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]The Ugly One! [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

Re: Zen and the Art of small stakes NL Cash Games by tek
 

$6-10 pre-flop isn't totally cast in stone. If you are running well, you can slide that up. What I am saying is I will pay more to see the flop with Group 1, but I don't want to get pot committed and have a garbage flop beat me with good cards.

Group 2 down, I want to see the flop even cheaper.

Now, once I hit the flop and feel that I have the best hand, I want to bet hard to protect that hand. If someone goes over the top, I would consider that in the category of "falling into my trap". In other words, if they fold you win and if they raise you win more.

Now, if the flop gives you a draw, then you have to evaluate how much gambling you wish to do, because that is what you are now doing. And that is beyond the scope of my article. As far as letting garbage hands in preflop, that's ok. They are the ones who will pay you when you hit the flop. Or they will be the ones to fight amongst each other when you fold after not hitting the flop.

What I am advocating is folding A LOT. At $1/2 you can fold every hand for $12 an hour max. Getting cheap flops is easy and crucial. You can make your coin on the flop when you connect and put the hammer down.

I've learned from the stock market and playing NL tournaments that Greed Kills. I would rather take down a pot with whatever is in it with what I believe is the best hand (such as top two pair with no straight or flush possibility) rather than let someone drawout on a possibly bigger pot on a later street.

I've applied the greed kills concept to NL cash games and I might add, life in general. It may sound like a pussy strategy, but I want the money or whatever the situation is paying off with.

Glamor-seekers and Fancy Play Afficionados can run take their chances, but again, that is a different subject.

Re: Zen and the Art of small stakes NL Cash Games by tek
 

OK... so say 4 limpers ahead of you with A9s in the CO you limp (button folds his 72o). The flop is A 8 4 rainbow. You hit your Ace, you've got a decent kicker, there are no real straight draws (though 32o is not an off-the wall holding here) ... do you jam it now? Say you bet the pot ($10) into this and you get a c/r from one of the early limpers? Then what??? I know this is the classic "it depends" and it does, on like 1000 things starting with what sort of opponent pulled the C/R and going through what did the other 3 players do in between you guys etc etc etc. But if you don't raise that ATs from the CO you have NO idea what anyone has. You could easily be facing 84s, AJ, AQ, A4, A8 or worse 44 or 88 (I can't see AA slowplaying, but it does happen time to time).
What if the flop is 984rainbow? Does that change things?
When you say "hit" do you mean trips, 2 pair, monster draw (nut flush and open ended nut straight)? If you're talking about limping in with this and then betting the ace then I think you're going to run into trouble an aweful lot.

I understand wanting to see if the flop hits you before you start to push. Like I hinted at in my previous post the monkeys I play with won't go away even for 8 or 10BB so maybe limping is the way to go and figure out where you are after the flop before you start to commit. I'm just trying to get a better feel for when you really start to bet hard.

Again... thanks for the thoughts on this. I think more than anything the "DON'T SLOWPLAY!" advice is worth the entire read and the rest is gravy.

Thanks again,
Play Well!
[img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]The Ugly One! [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]