Difficulty Level of No Limit Holdem Online Cash Games

Online cash games in today’s poker world are some of the hardest games to play in, but if you go about learning how to play them correctly they can be very profitable. One of the first things you should look to do before you even deposit to play is to look at what level you want to play. The level to start off at is just as important as anything you can look to do in online cash games. Even some of the best players in the world today started off playing the micro stakes games as low as 5/10 cent with a $10 buy-in.

Online cash games have become increasingly harder to beat simply because of the technology surrounding the game. The use of something like a HUD can tell an individual player tons of statistics about you that you might not be aware of. Tracking systems basically will tell the player what your tendencies are and how to exploit you throughout the course of a session. If you are looking to play cash games online, even at the micro stakes, you should purchase a tracking system and look to fully understand all of the features that the tracking system offers.

What Level to start off at

The level to start off at depends entirely on the player and the bankroll that they have. If you have $1,000 to start off, you shouldn’t play higher that .25/.50 which allows a maximum buy-in of $50, but to be safe you should play .10/.25 with a maximum buy-in of $25. The reason to start off here is to gauge how comfortable you are with the tables. If you feel very comfortable and can make 4 or 5 buy-ins per day at 25 NL then you can start to take some shots playing 50 NL. You don’t want to move up to fast however as it could result in you losing all of your money.

This is a common mistake most players make when they first become acquainted with online poker. The reason most players make this mistake is because they want to have more money as is a natural reaction when you begin to start winning. You always want to never be at risk of going broke and you also never want to over exude your poker bankroll. To do these two things you need to always have a clear mind and remain focused on long term goals.

If you are good enough, after a decent period of time playing poker online you can move up in limits, and make more money, but the determining factor is when to move up. When to move up is when you have doubled your money at one limit. This could be a week, two weeks or even a month sometimes. It is up to you to determine when is correct, and it just has to make sense to you in a monetary way.

Moving up in Limits

When you should move up is when you feel comfortable enough to move up. If you don’t feel comfortable and you are getting run over in a higher stakes game then you shouldn’t move up in limits, but rather take a step back and analyze your game. Moving up in limits depends entirely on your results in previous games and confidence. If you are playing with no confidence you could even see it to be ideal to stop playing for a day or two and analyze hand histories.

The way you play hands in situations is as important as anything. You want to get the most for your buck at all times when playing online cash games. Also, you want to play perfect throughout sessions and not dump money when you don’t have to. Playing perfect is all a matter of repetition. The more hands you play at a limit the more comfortable you will be. You can begin to determine who is a fish and who is a shark. You want to always sit in games with fish as opposed to sharks because fish will make way more mistakes.

In return for fish making big mistakes this will make you more money in the long run. If you sit in games with very good players you will have a lot of trouble winning significant amounts of money and you might even lose in the long run or break even. This is not what you want to happen. Ideally, if you sit with fish you will win more money and this is always what you should look to do.

The higher up you go in limits the less fish you see at the tables simply because players are more creative with plays and just better in general. The better players have earned their way to the top tier stakes through hours on end of grinding games and building their bankrolls. For you to get to that point it could take you a couple of years or maybe only a couple of months. It depends entirely on effort on your part.

The games online today as soon as you get above 200 NL are very difficult to win in. There simply aren’t too many bad players who sit in these games anymore, and it is rare to find a ton of bad players at one table. The poker boom a couple of years ago has brought tons of young internet kids to the virtual felt and they are almost all very good players in their own right. Some have faded and some have been able to become great poker players.

If you are looking to find easy money in cash games it just isn’t there in today’s online poker world. If you are just starting off with cash games you should look to play low stakes and figure out the best games for you to play in, and what games you can beat. When you do that then you are taking a nice step in the right direction.