Poker is a game of skill, not a game of luck. If you’re looking to make a little (or a lot) of extra cash the next time you play, check out these tips for beating small stakes poker cash games.

Fold your weak hands. Realistically, you only need to play the strongest 20% of your hands. If you only play hands like AQ, AK, the big pocket pairs and the small pocket pairs, you’ll be on the right track. Playing a tight preflop game is one of the easiest and fastest ways to gain an advantage in a small stakes poker game. By simply tightening up and sticking with stronger hands, you’ll already have a major advantage over the competition. Don’t call after the flop with weak draws and weak hands. Only continue past the flop if you have top pair or better or a draw to the nuts. Bet your strong hands like you mean it. The point of the game is to make money with your strong hands! It’s crazy how often I see people checking or betting the minimum with their strong hands. Not only does betting your strong hands get money in the pot but it also reduces your opponents’ pot odds for chasing draws. Make all your bets be 75% to 100% the size of the pot. Don’t waste your time bluffing. Bluffs rarely succeed in small stakes games and even when they do succeed, they’re pointless. A straight-forward poker strategy where you bet your best hands and fold your worst hands will pay off ten times more in small stakes poker games. Learn to handle (and expect) bad beats. Your opponents in small stakes games will put more bad beats on you because they will chase more draws and play more junky hands. That’s a good thing, though, because that means they are giving away all kinds of money the rest of the time.

Just remember that these are only quick-fix tips. If you have a poker game coming up in a few hours and don’t have the time to research a bunch of strategy, these will get you by for now.