Transition Tips

I've been a tournament player for years, and i hardly ever venture to ring games. So my main question is what will i have to change in my play, i play tag in tourneys, will this work in ring games? What are the biggest changes from tourney to ring? I've heard that ring games take more skill than tourney's so any advice will be helpful. I know i havent given a lot of information about my play, so if u are a successful ring game player, kinda give me the basics of ur play. Last question, i have around 275.00 so should i be playing .25/.50 Thanks ahead of time

Hey, i recently (2 weeks ago) moved over to Full Ring cash games from SnG's myself, 6 max ones at that, so it was difficult for me to transition over as well. I haven't got the time at the min to give you my view on moving over but i've started a blog since the move over that you might be able to get something from in the meantime, links in my signature.

Two quick big tips for now, don't get too attached to tptk in cash games, it can be the downfall of many new to cash game players and patience, patience..... and more patience lol, cash games are for the long haul, don't get into marginal situations for your stack because there will always be another spot to get your money in better, specially at the micro stakes

Also, you can get a SHEDLOAD of good advice from the micro stakes thread in the learning poker section and read a lot of hands from the hand analysis bit.

GL and if you've got any questions i'll be happy to help you out.

p.s. cash games frickin rule, youve made the right choice in moving over lol

Didnt see the last bit of your post, your comfortably rolled for 10nl there with 25 buyins, as you havent really played any cash it'd be madness to start at 50nl with a 275 roll, bank roll management is so important.

with that size bankroll, 5 1/2 blinds does not leave any room for our old friend variance. also, there will be some transition learning from tourneys to cash. for NL cash, 20 buyins or more are recommended.

gl

I think he means 5 1/2 buyins

One immediate difference you will see is that TPTK is worth much less in a ring game than in a tournament. Very few people will put much money into a pot if they can't beat TPTK.

If you liked Harrington's tournament books, be certain to read his two volume set on Cash Games and you'll see how very different these two forms of NL Hold'em are.

I second this post. The harrington on cash games are a real help to the transition.

You play a lot deeper, typically 100bb deep. That means if you want to play for stacks without villain cooperating by raising, you need to bet pot preflop and on each of the 3 streets.

That means

- don't slowplay your monsters ever. If you want to play for stacks, you need to get money in the pot on each street.
- TPTK is not a monster. If the final pot size is about 20bb, TPTK is probably good, if it's 100bb, you're probably beat.
- the deeper you play, the more position becomes important. there are extremely few hands you want to play from early position or the blinds. You can play probably play close to 100% of your hands for a profit from the BTN in pots that are not 3bet preflop.
- the greatest thing about position is that your flop and turn bets have leverage. if villain calls, he may need to call significantly larger pot sized bets on later streets, so he is in a very difficult position to control the size of the pot.

$275 is fine for 0.05/0.10, not more. You can move up to 0.10/0.25 when you get to $500 or something like that. 50nl will have to wait until you have about $1000.

I quoted this, because you'll want to read it twice.