3 Cash Game Exploits That Print Against Today’s Regs (Backed By Data)

I shouldn’t be giving this away for free, but you’re getting lucky today.

If you want to make money playing poker, you have to craft your strategy in a way that takes advantage of certain deficiencies in your opponents’ way of playing.

In this article, I’m not going to go down the rabbit hole of how exploits work and why these leaks appear in people’s strategies. Instead, I’ll get straight to the point and provide you with 3 highly tactical exploits that are going to work in the games you’re playing.

There are 2 caveats here:

• These exploits are geared toward the regs in your games (but some work against recreational players as well).
• These exploits will work against the majority of your opponents, but not all of them.

Let’s begin!

Exploit #1: Delay More of Your Bluffs

To this day, up until the highest levels of the game, the vast majority of players still fold too often against delayed bets.

I will share with you the data that I am basing this on. Below, I use the LeakBuster pop-up that I co-created to do a statistical analysis of professional poker players’ games in single-raised pots when they are out of position as the preflop caller (e.g. Big Blind vs Button).

The data I am using is from 2025, and the stakes researched are between 500nl and 10000nl in online unfenced cash games.

Highlighted below, you see their X-XF (check flop, check-fold turn) frequencies against different sizes of delayed c-bets compared to their GTO benchmarks.

We can see that they overfold across all bet sizes, from 11% against the 30% size to 6% against the 66-75% and 120-150% sizes.

Clear Example

Say that you open-raised with Ks 6s from the Hijack and the Big Blind called.

The flop came Ad 8d 5h. The Big Blind checks, and the action is on you. Here’s what the GTO strategy looks like in this scenario, using Lucid Poker:

Hyper-mixed.

That means that we should check 22% of the time, bet 33% pot 64% of the time, and bet 75% pot 13% of the time. You don’t need to read that again.

What it actually means is that all of these three lines generate the same EV in theory.

The only difference is that we’re not actually playing against the solver. We’re playing against a player who has a specific leak on the turn.

This means that the expected value of checking is higher than what the solver calculated, as there is more fold equity in the delayed c-bet line in our real-life scenario than there is in solver-land.

This means the optimal line is to check back 100% of the time and take a stab on the turn when the opponent checks again and you still have a non-made hand.

So just to sum it up, if the turn is the Jc and the Big Blind checks to you again, you just bet. Doesn’t matter if you have trash. It will print. Thank me in the comment section afterward.

Exploit #2: Probe the Turn With More Bluffs

This spot is a cousin of the delayed c-bet spot. This is another one of those extremely common nodes of the game where you will be hard-pressed to find players who defend well.

Let’s back this up with data.

Below you’ll see the same type of spot being analyzed, but this time the focus is on the success rate of turn probe bets.

We see the same pattern of overfolding across the different bet sizes: 10% overfolding against a block bet, 8% overfolding against a medium bet, and 7% overfolding against overbets.

This means that whenever you have a hand that has no showdown value plus a little bit of equity, even an overcard, the best line to take is to fire a bet with it.

Example

Say you defend from the Big Blind against a Button open-raise. The flop comes Jc Tc 6d. You check, he checks. The turn is the 7h. It’s your turn to act. Here’s what the GTO strategy looks like:

I highlighted the hands that are either mixing between checking and betting or always checking but are still very close in EV to betting. These hands should ALWAYS bluff for 75% pot in this spot.

Exploit #3: Hero-Fold on the River in Multiway Pots After a Bet or Raise Has Occurred

This is another big one. People just don’t bluff enough.

This is true both when the pot becomes heads-up by the river after being multiway on the flop, and when the pot remains multiway through the river.

Let me first show you what the data looks like when the river ends up being heads-up.

I’ve filtered the data for pots that are <20 big blinds:

I’m gonna break down the data for you.

• When betting 10-39% pot, players had only 12% of their betting range made up of low pairs or air. For context, the GTO bluffing frequency when this size is used is ~18%. This means that this bet size is underbluffed by 6%.
• If we go to bets of 40-59% pot, we see 16% weak hands compared to the GTO bluffing frequency of 25%. That’s a 9% difference.
• We go next to the 60-89% region, we see 19% weak hands compared to the GTO bluffing frequency of 30%. That’s an astonishing 11% difference.
• For pot-sized bets (90-110%), we see 22% weak hands where GTO would have us bluffing 33% of the time. Again an 11% difference.
• And finally, for the overbets, we see 25% weak hands where GTO would have us bluffing 37% of the time or so. A 12% difference.

But hold on, it gets worse (better for your pocket). Let’s take a look at what the bluffing frequencies look like when the pot is still multiway on the river:

Boy oh boy!

We have a 7% bluffing frequency for the block bets. Optimal would be around 18%. That’s an 11% difference.

We have a 9% bluffing frequency for ~50% pot. That’s 16% under the 25% optimal bluffing frequency.

We have a 20% bluffing frequency (potentially 22% if we account for middle pairs, which could make sense as bluffs when the pot is big like this). That’s an 8% to 10% underbluff relative to the optimal bluffing frequency of 30%.That’s an 8-10% underbluff relative to the optimal bluffing frequency of 30%.

Surprisingly, we see that when the bets get really big, around pot or even an overbet, people do seem to, on average, bluff closer to optimal.

We have 29% weak hands compared to GTO’s 33%. A 4% underbluff for pot-sized bets.

And finally, we have 35% weak hands compared to GTO’s 37%. A 2% underbluff for overbets.

The adjustment is clear:

Unless you beat a significant amount of the opponent’s value range, you should fold your hand.

Example

You open-raise from the Cutoff with As 5s, and the Button and the Big Blind call.

The flop comes Ad Jc 8c. It checks around.

The turn is the 6c. The Big Blind bets 75% pot. You call, the Button folds.

The river is the 4d. The Big Blind bets 75% pot again. You should snap fold.

In this spot (>20bb in the pot, multiway flop, heads-up river), players have only bluffed 19% of the time. While it’s true that you have top pair, you have one of the lowest kickers possible. When you account for the line taken, this actually means that you don’t dominate much of the opponent’s range, as it’s extremely unlikely that a player would double barrel 75% pot on both streets with a hand like A3s in this spot.

These are scenarios where I see a ton of players punting and then complaining that they’ve run bad. You don’t need to be that guy.

Wrapping Up

These three exploits will help you win more money, guaranteed. The only caveat to all of this is that there will be players that are playing completely different from the average. It is your job to identify these players and adjust accordingly. The good part is that they are few and far between.

If you liked this article, let me know in the comment section down below. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them there as well and I’ll make sure to answer.

Till next time, good luck, grinders!

To learn more about how aggression can win you more money, read: 5 Things You Should Be Doing BvB (But Probably Aren’t).