NLHE Cash Games - Small Stakes - FullRing

You will find various approaches and strategies that I employ while playing NLHE small stakes online poker in this article. Now that is a tongue twister!Let me start off by saying I have battled long wars at the poker table of the past 4 years, and I have come to one major conclusion in today’s poker age;  Attack or be attacked. If you are not the aggressor in today’s games you will not survive. It really is that simple. Passive play can get you by so far, but if you are not beating people into the pot with constant C-Bets, and hand protection you simply are losing equity in the long run.

For today’s example we will be focusing on stakes from .50/$1 - $1/$2. Do not let those stakes fool you. The action can get fast and explosive.

Full ring NLHE is all about table selection. If you can employ proper table selection you have ultimately accomplished the first major step in succeeding in NLHE. Without straying from our topic today, when deciding on whether the table you are looking at is the table for you, there are a few key things to look for.

First and what I consider to the foremost is “average pot”. If a table has an extremely high average pot amount if usually means there is at the minimum, one extremely loose (fish) gambler at the table.

Another deciding factor for myself when choosing my prey, is the average amount of players per flop. If you are looking at a full-ring game (9-10 players, site dependant) and the average amount of players taking a flop is 4+ this is a great game to sit into. With proper patience and hand selection this game has the potential to be very profitable.

With table selection out of the way, let’s assume you picked a great table. You have sat down and are waiting to post when the BB comes around to you. In the dead time, don’t be a victim of ‘web browsing’.  You have decided it is time to play poker, so mentally be prepared to focus on poker. One of the key mistakes new or even veteran players make is allowing themselves to lose focus. You could be the greatest player in the world, but if you cannot keep focus as the table, you have become the hunted.

9 Handed NLHE – Commonly known as ‘Fullring’ or ‘FR’

Fullring plays much different than the more common 6 max games. First off, hand selection becomes a lot more tight in FR as opposed to the uber aggressive 6 man tables for the simple fact that at least 3 more people have been dealt cards. This means that instead of being in the ‘blinds’ every 4 hands on a 6 man table, you have 7 hands on a FR table before the blinds hit you. This allows you to play more premium hands and sit back and let people make mistakes that you can capitalize on.

So you are on the usual folding spell when the following hand comes up. You have picked up the 78hh on the button after UTG,UTG+1, MP 2 and the CO limp. You call the $2 bb and both blinds come along. You see the flop 7 handed!

In situations like these that are far too common at the small stakes games, I live by one simple rule of thumb. Do not go bust in an un-raised pot. There are a pile of players here, who could have any 2 possible cards given the way the hand developed. So please if you are going to play suited connectors, play them with caution. Trust me; it will be in your best interest to not stack off on an 8 high board.

In a low stakes game like the $1/$2 plays, I believe you should always protect your hands and stay away from trapping generally. Now if you raised it preflop with AA and the flop comes A33 and there are many opponents remaining in the hand, than by all means go right ahead and check trap the flop. In general however I think with the skill set of the players at this level it is far more profitable to ram and jam your monster hands. Far too many players will make the mistake of ‘trapping’ only to have the board come runner runner on them which leads to a hard decision.

Playing small to middle pairs – 22-99

I believe one of the toughest dilemmas a poker player has, is how to play those small to medium pocket pairs.

My own personal approach to playing small to medium pairs in a $1/$2 FR game is pretty simple. I always raise my pairs if I am first to act, even the baby ones like 22, 33. A lot of people prefer to limp the small pairs in the hopes of flopping a set and breaking an opponent. My theory is along those lines but a bit different. I like to be the initial raiser for a few reasons. First being, you give yourself the advantage of picking up the blinds preflop when everyone folds. Next is the best case scenario. You raise with 33 for example and the flop comes 379 rainbow. You throw out your usual continuation bet, and people read it exactly as that. A continuation bet. I find you get far more action playing your flopped set this way as opposed to limping in early.

Let’s assume you limp into the pot UTG+1. Two people limp behind you and then MP2 raises it to $13 dollars. Now what do you do? Your implied odds with flopping a set just are not there anymore. Had you raised preflop and MP2 reraised you, the decision to either fold or call become a lot clearer.