No-limit hold’em cash games have been the staple of internet poker over the last five years, particularly in the exciting and aggressive six-max format. In this time the highest stakes available have skyrocketed from $5/$10 to a nosebleed $500/$1,000, allowing a large number of young players to build heaving bankrolls, with many scoring winnings of $1m or more. But what does it take to win at the highest stakes and what separates low and mid-stakes grinders from those playing the bigger games?
In lower-stakes games it is ‘fairly’ easy to win simply by being reasonably competent and not making common mistakes such as playing weak hands out of position, stacking off too lightly and tripping yourself up with fancy play. By the time you reach mid-stakes games of $1/$2 up to $3/$6 you start finding that most players are much more competent, especially preflop, and understand the mechanics of the game such as three-betting, four-betting, continuation-betting, double-barrelling and so on. Often they are members of training sites and have been able to adopt the ‘standard’ strategies that have guided other players to success.
Mixing it with the big boys
Once you reach the higher-stakes games of $5/$10, $10/$20 and beyond you will encounter some incredibly strong players who not only have the mechanics of the game worked out preflop, but make few postflop errors and have well-balanced ranges for most of their actions. At this level, particularly in games that start out 100 big blinds deep, psychology plays an enormous role, since regular players rarely make large technical errors. In the $25/$50+ games, where everyone plays well, this becomes the primary factor.
At these higher-stakes games, adjusting to your opponents, understanding their thought processes and trying to outplay them becomes the main goal. This can also be seen in the general development of the game over recent years, where loose-aggressive play led to light three-betting, then light four-betting, and now light five-betting. Players are now prepared to four-bet for value with a wide range and call all-in equally so, since they expect their opponents to be three-betting light and shoving with wide ranges that might include small pairs or semi-bluff hands like suited connectors. It’s a different game!
Read part II