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My questions is specific to cash games.

I have a certain PF range that I play when I am playing 6max (10NL) online that has been working pretty well for me.

At 6 max everyone plays a pretty straight forward game having a tight calling/raising PF range.

When I play at my live Casino it is the exact opposite. There are a lot of players that see the flop and have very loose ranges.

Should I tighten up against the live players or should I open up with more hands (open up my range PF)?

The blinds are $1/$2 with min buy-in $50 and max buy-in $300

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  • What are the blinds and the stack at your casino?
    – disco beat
    Commented Jul 27, 2015 at 17:47
  • @discobeat I updated the question. The blinds are $1/$2. Min buy-in is $50 and Max buy-in is $300. I also updated my question to reflect that I am specifically asking my question with regards to cash games. Thanks!
    – Juan Velez
    Commented Jul 27, 2015 at 19:26

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As everybody buys in with 100 or more blinds, cash game goal is usually more lose than tournament. You have to enlarge your preflop range, especially in late position, to see more flops. You also have to strenghten your post flop play, as everything starts here in the hand. Get disciplined and don't play with your ego, the count is made at the end of the night/week/life :)

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I would not be surprised by the looseness in live 6-max; people there are only playing 1-table where online you can be against knowledgable multitablers playing more than 8-tables at once and being more tight than usual, although you're still in a very aggressive game type (6-max), regardless it's live or online.

You should continue using the exact same 6-max chart in live games if that serves you well, although try to balance by folding some hands you were used to raise routinely in online 6-max, like say A8o or Q9s in button/co if these people keep calling you anyhow, thinking you're very loose for a 6-max. I would get tighten a bit with these marginal late raises, but not so much, mostly because my usual 6-max late street hand raises are not getting respect.

On the other hand, i would be much more aggressive (that means more $$ goes to pot) with my monster hand like AKo and overpairs. If these guys keep calling you preflop, make them call more money to balance your loses.

You're just playing in 1-table against people who may be not used in 6-max aggression or not playing online at all and be annoyed a bit, thinking you're reckless, although this is just a guess.

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The generally accepted response to playing against loose players is to tighten up. It's not easy to do, because it's hard to watch hand after hand being won with K8o and other garbage, but the numbers back you. Change your strategy once you have a much better read of the players around you.

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  • Tighten up vs loose players makes sense but does the fact that you are facing 8 or 9 players (full ring) vs 5 player (Short Handed) PF also warrant tightening up?
    – Juan Velez
    Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 18:36
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    The fact that there are more players in a full ring game is exactly why a tighter strategy works. A tight strategy in 6 max is deadly... you see a blind every 5 hands, and by the time you get a decent holding (25 hands or so), you've blown through 5BB, and if you raise and all fold (which is common for tight players) you win 1 or 2BB, a net loss of 3BB. In a full ring game, you'll only spend 2 or 2.5 BB in 25 hands, and you'll win more.
    – ChristopherBrown
    Commented Oct 19, 2015 at 21:06
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Play YOUR game. If you stick to your preferences you will remain in your comfort zone which aids proper decision making. If you are concerned about other people calling out of YOUR range/s you are realizing that your range/s , which presumably have served you well, are adequate for your game and intents. Being a social experiment, poker ranges have become the cash cows for grinders. Tell me, when have you seen someone fold pocket aces in Texas Holdem as the second to act? Welp, when I'm the first to act and you know me, you will likely not even call a mild raise with those pocket aces because you know that I seldom try to make a pair rake a pot. My range is flush or better or straight garbage cracking your pocket pair, which is rather immune to the math odds calculators because of stack manipulation, showing bluffs, folding winners and showing, and calling Jesus off the cross with 83 off suit when you tried to ram your AK home on a garbage board. When I see people making suggestions based on opinions in books it makes me practice my poker face trying not to grin. Playing a savant at Harahs in New Orleans I noticed he was crunching the numbers in real time...so, I struck up a conversation about the velocity of acceleration over time the Voyager spacecraft experienced to reach 11.57mi/sec from encountering Saturn....so much for the "odds calculator". Once he realized I was doing rocket science in my head while I played poker too the odds didn't factor as much as the paranoia of the social aspect of someone as smart, or smarter at the table. If I sat there and played this guys game he was going to bust me up focusing on HIS range. So, I made his range change by threatening his odds prowess with a rival calculator, thus, he played my game. Experienced poker players "open up their ranges" to get you out of YOUR game and take your chips.

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    This, like many of your other answers, just appears to be telling a story, and not answering the question.
    – Herb
    Commented Sep 9, 2017 at 23:27
  • "Should I tighten up against the live players or should I open up with more hands (open up my range PF)?" was the question. My answer was the first sentence of the reply. "Play YOUR game. If you stick to your preferences you will remain in your comfort zone which aids proper decision making." Using experiences to illustrate teh response is what the instructions promote. Giving an example of how to make others play YOUR game instead of you exiting your comfort zone/s is holistic coaching.
    – user5467
    Commented Sep 9, 2017 at 23:32

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