How to play cash games - by Anthony Fish

Bloggers / Dave Allan / 14 August 2009 / Leave a Comment

Our old friend Anthony Fish has resurfaced on the Betfair cash tables no doubt skint from his STT experience. We caught up with Anthony as he logged onto the Betfair Poker client and he kindly agreed to talk us through his session.

"I went bust last night due to some bad beats, not my poor play, so I need to make another deposit. I want to play the $1/$2 short-handed tables so I am making a deposit of $400 which should be more than enough in my opinion. With my new bankroll I decide to sit at the first table I can find at my stakes that has a seat free. There's no point in scouting out the tables before hand as they are all much of a muchness.

After buying in for $30 the software asks if I want to post the big blind, of course I do! I want in on the action right away, who cares if I am posting out of position, I might get dealt pocket aces. Unfortunately I do not, instead I find 10-7 of spades, my favourite hand and I am looking for an excuse not to get involved.

A player UTG with a $570 stack makes a raise to $8, obviously trying to steal the blinds. I'm in decent shape even if he has a pocket pair as I have six outs and he only has two. With this in mind I decide to make a raise to $24 to show him who is boss. Everyone folds around to the initial raiser and he makes it $80 to go, obviously he's serious about his hand and I decide to fold, saving myself the $6 still in my stack. Time to reload.

A couple of people typed "LOL" in the chatbox, I think this is because the UTG player didn't get any real action with what was obviously Aces and they are trying to tilt him. I look down and see more suited connectors, this time 9h7h and elect to limp. Three see a flop of 9c2s6d, bingo! Top pair. Both blinds check and I lead out for $10 into the $6 pot for value.

The small blind folds but the big blind bets enough to put me all-in. He's obviously tilting from the last hand so I make the call and show him my pair of nines with a seven kicker. I'm preparing to see the pot slide my way but the fish in the big blind had a pair of sixes and flopped a set. WTF. The turn and river blank out and it's time to reload again. I make a note that the big blind probably can't even spell poker.

I'm down $60 at the minute so in order to win my money back I change tables to a $2.50/$5 and buy in for the rest of my bankroll, $340. I've heard plenty of people say move up where they respect your raises so hopefully this advice will run true. I again post the big blind out as soon as I sit down and I'm delighted to find black Kings in the hole. When the action is folded to me I shove all-in, I mean why not, I want all my money in the middle with such a big hand. Both blinds fold and I scoop $7.50. Shame but profit is profit.

I fold a couple of hands to try and give the image of a tight player, open-folding a pair of sevens and ace-queen before finding Queen-Jack UTG. I make a min-raise to $10 and see a guy in middle position raise to $40. Everyone folds and I just call to trap him.

The flop comes down QJT, woot! Two pairs for me! Obviously I am delighted and move-all-in and get a call from the donkey who re-raised me. Unfortunately, he had been dealt AK and was really lucky to flop a Broadway straight, how unlucky is that? I hate this game sometimes. After berating Mr Big Slick for being such a rubbish player I leave the table and try to calm down after suffering more bad beats. I'll get them next time."

Find Anthony on the Betfair Cash Tables