Soft Poker Sites for Cash Games & Tournaments

Finding and Crushing the Softest Poker Sites Online

I know exactly where all the bad online poker players are. I've seen the coastline and I've dived into the ocean. I've seen entire schools of fish, all moving in circles, chasing their tails; all trying in vain to swim, unharmed, with the sharks. But no matter how fast a fish moves, it's rarely fast enough; sharks are smarter, faster, and more determined than they. One step forward, for a fish, is really one step backwards. Us sharks work on a higher level. We take a fish's stride and double it. We are always ahead of the game. As long as there are good players like us, there will be fish to feed on. It's just a matter of finding them at the softest poker sites online.

Are There Still Soft Poker Sites?

Yes! There are still sites out there filled to the brim with terrible players. Don't believe the hype-masters screaming "zOMG everyone's solid!" They are wrong. In fact, very few players are anywhere close to 'solid.' And most of those who fancy themselves 'solid' players are, in fact, quite bad themselves. It's natural for us, as humans, to look past our own deficiencies. The ego is funny like that. In order to maintain the illusion of its superiority, the ego props up delusions. And there are tons of bad poker players out there running on nothing but delusion. So when you take these delusional poker players, a few players who are just in it for fun, and throw them onto a poker site, what do you get?

A veritable ocean of fish.

They all swim in the same pool: the softest poker sites online.

What Makes a Soft Poker Site "Soft"?

It doesn't take any otherworldly vision to find the softest poker sites online. All you need to do is open your eyes. Be willing to try a new site. Don't succumb to group-thinking.Follow your own path.

Here are a few things you want to pay attention to when looking for a soft poker site. If you see any of the following qualities in a poker room, chances are it's a soft site:

1. A casino or sportsbook in parallel to the poker room. Many poker rooms are owned by companies that also run online casinos and sportsbooks. This means that much of the site's clientele will be  action-crazy gamblers. These sites -- like 888 Poker, Sportsbook Poker, and Bovada Poker -- cater to folks who don't consider themselves poker professionals; folks who don't know the odds; folks who think it's all about luck, and that they are themselves lucky. These people will often sit at the poker tables, just to hack around, while also donking away money at the roulette table or while watching the sports game they placed a bet on. Instant edge for sharks like us.

2. Low-limit tournament traffic. Bad players tend to like tournaments more than cash games. Bad players also tend to play at stakes where the money isn't going to break them. So a site that runs lots of $2 to $50 buy-in tournaments is likely to have a sizeable pool of fish ready for the picking. Bad players will often open a cashgame table (or two, or three) while they play a more slow-paced tournament. It's on these fish-filled cash tables that you'll find your biggest edge.

3. Cashgames with high PF% statistics.When table selecting, pay close attention to the PF% statistic in the poker room lobby. The higher above 25% this number is (for short-handed games) the softer the table. A site with consistently high PF% stats at the cashgame tables is a goldmine for us sharks.

How Do I Beat the Softest Poker Sites?

Just because a poker room is soft doesn't mean you can sit back and print money effortlessly. You still need to play strategically. You must be vigilant at all times. Know your fish to stack your fish.

The most common type of fish you'll find on the softer sites is the calling station. The calling station plays a passive style of poker. He likes to call -- a lot. And he doesn't like to raise -- at all.

So we see that if a calling station always calls, we probably shouldn't bluff a lot. Bluffing requires the aggressor to have fold equity; and calling stations give none. Moving a calling station off of a hand is like removing Donald Trump's hairpiece; it's a near-impossibly difficult task. So if we're playing strategically, it's best not to try.

Crushing calling stations is pretty easy when we understand that. All we need to do is pump the value preflop, and push our marginal edges postflop. If we've got a premium hand, we raise preflop; we know our opponent will call anything. If we've got a speculative hand, we raise preflop; and postflop we play a strict fit-or-fold game. It is really that easy.

What are the Softest Poker Sites Online?

I'm certain that now, having read the above, you will be able to find the softest poker sites effortlessly. You know how to fish. You know how to fry. You can make it on your own.

But I'm going to tell you what the softest poker sites are, anyway.

1. 888 Poker. Undeniably a goldmine. 888 doesn't accept American players, so its name is rarely spoken on the 'big' strategy forums. Simply put, the good regulars don't talk about or play on 888. And many players that do play on 888 are, frankly, terrible. You'll find lots of casino spillovers here, ready and willing to give you their money. Amazingly, they seem to have fun while doing so.

2. Play Aces by Sportsbook.com. Same as 888, but on a lesser scale. The name says it all -- Play Aces is a poker site run by a sportsbook. And the sportsbook is the company's main business. You'll find poker-playing sports bettors at these tables; not poker players who happen to bet sports. Easy money.

3. Bovada Poker. Bovada is renowned for its soft games. Like 888 and Sportsbook, Bovada also runs a casino. So your opponents will be, by and large, gamblers. Bovada is also unique in that it actively thinks of ways to attract bad players to the site. For example, mass-multitablers are out of luck at Bovada: 4 tables at a time, please. If you think this might cut into your own winrate, don't worry; the players really are bad enough to justify playing fewer tables.