Playing the River in Cash Games

Playing the River in Cash Games is the hardest part of playing cash games after clearing your poker bonus requirements. Throughout the course of a hand you will want to gain the most and lose the least. In order to do this you will have to be able to put your opponent on a hand first and then a hand that you can beat. If you cannot put your opponent on a hand by the turn then you are in trouble playing the river and will end up stuck and facing a big bet most of the time. If you can put your opponent on something that you can beat or a hand that you can take off the pot on the river then you are in much better shape playing the hand. The river is a card where a lot of the time the most risk and greatest reward will come. If you can put your opponent on a busted draw a lot of the time they may fire, but most likely they will check the river to you. If you are playing in position it makes reading a hands value far easier than if you were playing a hand out of position. Most of the time if you can put them on a busted flush draw then you can take the pot away easily sometimes by evening just checking and winning. Other times you will have to make empty bets to win the pot. The best way to look at playing rivers is from playing in position. If you are checking and calling with top pair a lot of the time that ends up giving your opponent a free river card, and a chance to make a better hand than yours. If you are letting your opponent see the river cheaply with a draw you haven’t made the correct plays on the flop and turn.

To avoid getting yourself stuck in a pot on the river and facing a big bet you should take control of the pot on either the flop or the turn. If you can realize if you have the best hand by the turn, or best draw then a lot of the money should go in then. If you see that your opponent is on a draw, and that draw misses the river, but you have also missed the river you can take a shot at the pot to win it. But, one thing to keep in mind when playing is to gain two streets of equity in cash games. This means collecting a bet on either the flop and river or any combination of flop, turn, and river. If you can do this then that is maximizing your winnings and if you can bet all three streets and get calls most likely being an all-in bet on the river then that is ideal. Most of the time though in a spot where you can get three streets of equity it will be a cooler. If you can play rivers correctly it doesn’t necessarily mean getting all the money from your opponent. It more so means getting the most that you can for what cards you are holding. If you can do that, then you are doing a good job.