10 Tips on How to Select Cash Poker Games by Todd Witteles

Who is Todd Witteles?

Todd Witteles, more known as Dan Druff, is an established professional poker player who built a career primarily in cash games. He also has more than $1M total live earnings in tournaments including the best cash of $347,385 for his only victory on WSOP 2005.

Besides playing poker, Todd manages the website Poker Fraud Alert that specializes in exposing dishonest poker players and informing the community about them.

Tip #1: Search for Tables with Fewer Good Players

First of all Todd’s claims that the absence of good players is more important than the presence of bad ones:

“The very best game you’ll find is where you’re substantially better than everyone in the game, even if there are no outright fish. If you feel like you have “control” of the action, and everyone seems a good deal less skilled than you, then you’ve found a great game where you will win a lot of money, provided you run at least okay.”

Avoid obsession over finding games featuring polar players like megafish or maniacs. Focused on finding those where you won’t be competing with a bunch of good players for chips of a few precious recreational players instead. Here are Todd’s words to remind yourself why you need to do so:

“You’re much better off in a game where there are no players at the table who can compete with you.”

Tip #2: Choose Games According to Your Bankroll

When deciding where to play, always check out your bankroll limits and choose the game only within it and never beyond. It’s important not only for monetary reasons but because of different field specifics.

So, if your bankroll can support it, Todd recommends to play the second-biggest running game of whatever variant you choose:

“Let’s say there’s a poker room spreading from 1-2 to 10-20 NL, with the second-biggest game being 5-10. Let’s say your bankroll can support playing at any of these. Should you play the 10-20?

Probably not. Unless you can tell it’s a really good game, stick to the 5-10. The 10-20 will suck up all the best players, leaving the 5-10 to be much softer. The second-biggest game of any variant is almost always much easier than the biggest one.”

Tip #3: Be Careful of Overaggressive or Overly Loose Players

While in some cases game style is quite indicative of poker skills, in reality this isn’t an axiom at all.

One of the examples is the overaggressive or overly loose player that in Todd’s experience may actually be better than you:

“It is easy to dismiss loose, overly aggressive players as “morons” who make the game “great”. Don’t make that mistake. You may not understand their playstyle, and even if you do, it’s possible you will have a hard time dealing with them.”

Todd believes that the best games are the ones where people are passive calling stations, and don’t put you to the test very often. But he reminds that there is an exception:

“The only exception is a super-maniac who is absolutely spewing, to where you just need to wait for a spot to pick him off.”

Tip #4: Beware of Getting Rub Over Shorthanded at Limit Games

Since limit games cost you more per round than NL games, due to the bigger blinds, to play them shorthanded without proper experience and knowledge can be pretty damaging for your bankroll.

That’s how Todd explains it:

“For example, a 5-10 NL is roughly equivalent to a 30-60 or 40-80 Limit Hold’em game, in terms of what you can expect to win or lose in a typical session. However, the blinds are far bigger at the limit game, which means you will get clobbered if you are too tight.

In shorthanded limit games, there is no such thing as waiting for a good spot. You need to play a lot of hands, other than complete trash, and battle if you hit any piece of the flop. It plays completely different than full ring. If you don’t have experience playing shorthanded limit poker, you’re best off leaving the table when it gets short.”

Tip #5: Go Off The Beaten Path

If you want to play live poker cash games and have an option to do so — go out and explore different casinos and poker rooms. It is vital for your success to find better games, especially in the US where some rooms are loaded with solid professionals.

To make the search easier Todd recommends using apps like Poker Atlas and BravoPokerLive to see most (but not all) of the games running at local rooms. Another option is just directly go to rooms and talk to players there:

“The less-visited venues also often have better games. For example, at the WSOP, don’t automatically fall in love with playing the WSOP cash area, the Bellagio, or the Aria.

I’m not saying these will always be bad games, but you might want to look at what is offered at other rooms in the city. Don’t go where the best players are likely to go.”

Tip #6: Remember That Tight Games Aren’t Worth Sticking Around

If you see that nobody at the table is interested to put chips in the pot — swatch tables or leave: it’s not worth your time, as Todd says: 

“If the game is incredibly tight, don’t bother. You simply won’t make much money from taking advantage of a game where the entire table doesn’t want to chase or gamble, even if you adjust to be looser and attempt to exploit this.”

The only exception here is overly tight shorthanded limit games where you can still do well.

Tip #7: Don’t Ruin The Vibe of The Game

The half of a good game is a good vibe supported by every player at the table. So, if you come to the table and see some mood patterns fueling action — Todd advices to follow them even if it isn’t your style of behavior:

“If one or more fish are being loud and acting crazy, act crazy along with them. If everyone wants to straddle, happily agree, even if you hate it. If you take bad beats, don’t get overly emotional about it, and definitely don’t act angry at other players. If you’re fortunate enough to be at a game where everyone is having fun and being loose with money, don’t ruin it.”

Do not overestimate the importance of being on the same wave at the table. Remember, that poker is a very social game that keeps living as long as recreational players find it fun and entertaining for them.

Tip #8: Be Discreet When Sitting Directly Left Of The Worst Player

While the direct left of the worst player is traditionally considered to be the best seat, you shouldn’t be seemingly overexcited or obnoxious on live cash games when you sit there. As Todd reminds, being bad as a poker players doesn’t automatically make people stupid: 

“Bad poker players are not necessarily morons. In fact, some are very smart and work in very difficult professions. You never want them to feel like the sucker, or that you’re trying to gain edges on them.”

If you had a chance to sit directly left of this type of player, try to not show that this is important for you. In fact, the best way will be to act cool:

“It can suck to have the worst player at the table to your left, to where he’s either always re-raising with junk, or always cold-calling and leaving you confused out of position. If a seat opens up to his left, you can take it, but don’t be obvious about it. Wait a little bit before grabbing the seat. If someone says they want it instead, at that point you can object if you have seniority at the table, but don’t act like it’s too important.

Say something like, “Actually, I wanted to move there, I just got distracted and didn’t mention it yet.” If nobody is trying to take it, wait for maybe 10 minutes before moving. Preferably, move after you lose a hand, and say something like, “This seat is no good anymore, I’ll take that one”, or “I can’t win in this seat”, and then move.

This will prevent the bad player from realizing that you’re moving to get position on him, and it won’t ruin the vibe of the game. Remember, someone will probably get that seat soon enough, so it might as well be you.”

Do not also forget to act professionally and ethically:

“There’s ways to do it with subtlety, so you don’t look like a predatory bumhunter. Don’t chase the bad player around the table if he moves right after you. Accept seat-moving defeat at that point, and don’t try to move again for a while. In fact, sometimes the bad player will move back to give you position on him, so the problem will sometimes take care of itself anyway”.

Tip #9: Don’t Go to Cash Tables Being Frustrated

We all know that playing tilted is never good for your bankroll nor for your mental health. But sometimes changing the type of game can seem as a good solution to not only stop tilting but also chase some losses.

And this actually also a bad idea, as Todd emphasizes, especially if you decide to play cash after being frustratingly busted from tournament:

“It can be tempting to get “unstuck” a tournament buy-in by moving to cash after busting a tournament. If it’s a mundane bust, such as an early-event fail where nothing goes your way, then there’s no harm jumping into cash.

However, if you have just bubbled a tournament, just lost your big stack when running deep, just went out by losing a huge pot via a beat or cooler, or just went out 9th at a final table, it’s probably time to take a break.”

Tip #10: Think About Where You Are & When You’re Playing

Not every day, every time and even every period of the year in some places are equally good for playing cash games. It isn’t so crucial for online poker, of course, but for live cash games the wrong place and the wrong time can literally bring you unpleasant or unsatisfying experiences (and much less money than you expected), as Todd warns:

“An Omaha 8-or-better cash game probably isn’t going to be that great when a lot of people are in town for a WSOP O8 event. In fact, the WSOP brings a lot of good players to Vegas whom you’ve never seen before, but are very skilled, so that’s often the time the games in general are the worst. Your game selection goal should be to end up with the fewest likely good players at the table, and the most unskilled ones.

A weekend like March Madness will bring a lot of recreational players to Vegas, for example. If you’re not playing a Limit Hold’em WSOP event, but you’re a good Limit Hold’em player, during the event is the best time to jump into the Limit Hold’em cash games, as that’s when the good players will be gone. Same with any other variant which is likely to attract away a lot of the better players.”

When deciding, where and when to play cash games, you should firstly find out answers tp four Todd’s questions:

1. Who, in general, is likely to be at your cash table?
2. Why are these people here?
3. Where did they come from?
4. How skilled are they likely to be?

So, when you answer that to yourself — pick the times when the expected player group will be least skilled and bring your best to the table.

Poker Players’ Comments to These Tips

A few members of poker community reacted to Todd’s post leaving their comments with questions and their own experiences:

jambandsroasted: You think loose aggressive players can be good? It seems like a very hard way to profit long term.

Todd Witteles: Yes, they can be very good, especially against players who can’t handle them. If you control the action at the table, that’s a big edge, and it’s hard to lose provided the cards break average or better.

Jay “JWIN” Nguyen: Too many good tips to quote them all but I like the tip about straying off path. Some of the best games I’ve found were outside of the popular rooms even if I had to drive a little. Gotta do your recon and not just head to the popular room.

James Tian: I have been playing cash for 12yrs and on and off for over 15yrs before no longer needing to grind it anymore and now I just play part time.

I have read your tips and I would say the most important tip is the one about mostly choosing to play the second biggest game in the room even if you are rolled for the biggest game. And you need to be a good short handed player as well and be the one that crushes all the other winning players (who are too tight/inexperienced at short handed) when the game is 4-6max, especially true for games with a straddle.

BC: I agree with all that. Wondering which cities you think are great for NL and PLO though? I tend to think Vegas is highly overrated. I lived in LA for 7 years and it was incredible but that was pre solver era.

Lucky Jack: I should probably work on game selection. In my first year of poker, I did meet a pro in Vegas who did mention playing in the second biggest game in the room is a cheat code. I follow it because it made sense to me, but thanks for all the other tips.