Getting out of tourney mentality

Am i right in thinking it is wrong to get it AIPF with AKo in cash games? I get it dealt and I'm only ever looking at how best to get my stack in and looking to see if I have them covered. I 4 bet with it, he 5-bet and I shoved, he called with JJ, only just sat down so no reads, is this correct play when hes pretty deep stacked and I'm very deepstacked (always like to BI for maximum, comes from my tourney mentality of wanting to have everyone covered so I can stack them with a good hand and I have some chips left if I lose a big hand).

I don't personally like going all in with AK unless vs a short-stack or total shoving donkey, they will have AA/KK/QQ too oft. Tourney yes, cash game nicht

It depends.

Well it was 2nd hand in, I had AKo in BB 0.02/0.05 NLHE I had a stack of $12.50 he had $11.

+1 for buying in DS IMO. I always do and see no reason not to. BI are also an immediate read at these levels in many cases. (Dont you hate these 40 BB bastards?? I sure do)

Since you have no read, it is hard to say. But since he was DS as well, it may be he bought in DS, so he is also thinking at least a bit. Did his 11$ have the rest of the table covered? That could be why he didnt top up.I am thinking he aint 5 betting here with AQ, so JJ+, AKs is pretty much his range here (AK not so likely given your holding), if my assumptions so far are correct. I personally do not want to risk 2+ BI w/o reads here.

I think a call to his 3bet the best choice here.Calling>folding>4betting here imo. BUT bet size, position, was another player also still to act???

Assuming villain is sane, you're flipping at best, so I'm not happy getting it in deep.*

IP I don't mind calling his 3bet. OOP I prob fold.



* That's what she said.

I definately think It is ok to fold not knowing in a cash game here, would I of folded? no im not that good.

Unless you have QQ+, if you don't have a read on the guy, just flat his raise, call his 3bet w/e just see a flop. With no reads on the guy you don't exactly know where you are in the hand, until you see the board. So I'd say just call next time and outplay him post flop.

problem shoving AK in cash game is that you'll likely only be called by either better hands or you'll end up in a race unless you have established a maniac table image and even then while you might think you have established a certain table image ... the reality is that multi-tablers and just the general turnover at the table can cause that image to go unnoticed

or they have some data on you and realize that you play pretty solid and would only shove premium

best to just play a standard raise and go from there ... that's one of the tough things about cash ... you will more often not get paid for big hands vs. tourney or worse be put in a spot where you have to lay down a big hand ... many more decisions are needed playing cash and you have to extract your winnings instead of them just coming your way as they can in tourney play and shorter stacks are forced to make plays and calls with the blinds going up

I'd say more decisions are need in tourney poker. You have blinds, stacks, tourney ev, equity, steals, short stacked game, deep stacked game and one wrong decision and you're gone. Cash is pretty much make the rigght decision and repeat a few 1000 times.

Cash games are like infinity more complex than tournament poker. I mean there are the very rare spots that are like, "Do I 7-bet shove on Jon Duhamel with $9 million on the line with A7o?" but most tournament spots are totally solved.

I think tournament poker is much harder both mentality and strategically. AIPF with aces and having them cracked is nowhere near as bad as AIPF with aces in a 4000 field MTT on the final table bubble where pay shoots up massively and having them cracked by chip leader with A7o when you're in second place. It takes days to recover from hands like that. Cash games just reload and just think its right, +ev is never bad. Torunament you have to think how long it will take to get into that position again. Also tournaments have so many different aspects that I said earlier, every hand late on is important, every button you have to look at the steal and every blind you have to think whether you can defend it. Tournaments are infinitely harder than cash games as you have to be good at full ring, short-stacked, deep-stacked, short handed and heads up.

Also it wasn't really $9 million on th eline, it was $3.5 million. You only need to look at how Matt Affleck went out that year to see how much more painful tournament poker is.

MTTs are more soul crushing and mentally grueling, the poker decisions aren't more difficult, however. Cash-game/HU players are much much much more skilled than MTT players.

I don't think they are, its almost a differnet style of poker. Decisions are alot more difficult though as you have to think how it will affect your later game. There is so much more to tourney play which is what makes it harder and why I think tourney players have to be much more skilled.

LOL donkaments, just no.

First off there is almost no sample at which your tournament results give a true indicator of ability. There are countless people who make a living playing tournaments or who have won millions playing tournaments who just suck at poker. There's no one who sucks at poker who can make a living playing high-stakes cash games.

Secondly there is much more meta, game flow considerations and personal history involved in cash games.

Lastly every hand becomes much more complex when you're dealing with 200 BBs behind instead of 25.

You think some of the people who make a living playing tourney poker suck? Unless they hit one lucky big one like WSOP main event then they don't make a living by being bad players.

In high stakes games there is more metagame involved but certainly not at the level most people play.

There is far more meta at your average NL25 game on Stars than anything most tournament players experience. You have players you play with for days/months/years. In a tournament you probably won't be at the same table with the same 8-9 players for more than 75 hands. By NL 50-100, the decentish regs are better than 90% of tournament pros.

They can make a living because the average tournament player is so much worse than microstakes regs. There are rich and famous players who lack even the most basic theory fundamentals who can cash on a regular basis because they understand changing dynamics, how to run over weak players and make live reads who just get wiped out playing cash games.

Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu (he is improving and working on his game, to be fair), Dennis Phillips, Scotty Nguyen -- we don't even have to get to the Jamie Gold/Jerry Yangs of the world.