steps to building a tournament player

hey boys,

i wonder what you think about this. i have been playing pretty solid in the cash games but would like to become a better tournament player.

i play golf and soccer and looking at those sports playing you always learn from small some to big. from the green to the tee. in this case playing cash games does not get you from A-Z.

with this in mind, i know playing within your br so playing sng and getting used to the smallest level and eventually keeping your br in mind moving to bigger sng lie 9, 9, and then work up to 45 thus have more of an idea and plan to be moving up the lader until final table.

thus tourneys feel like less of a monster and there is a learnt and appreciated way of playing with the blinds and antes moving, learning where to when to pick spots. let me know what youall think.

Are you sure cash games don't teach you something about tournaments and vice versa?

I mean, cash games taught me to watch more closely and learn more about my opponents while playing. Conversely I suspect tournaments can help to do the same thing more quickly.

Maybe I should elaborate. What I mean is, I learned to watch more and learn from playing in cash games. I had played in lots of sngs and freerolls and the like. Did reasonably well at it with the occasional final table here and there(never higher than 4th place I believe in freerolls, but lots of 1st and 2nds in sngs). But I wasn't really good(I'm still not really good but I'm learning). Someone told me that a rule of tournaments is to not play at first but "watch and learn stupid". But there was always too much adrenaline involved. It was just too exciting, and I really didn't know what to watch for or learn from.

Cash games have been teaching me what to watch for and learn from(microstakes but still). I noticed that in cash games position is important all the time. From the moment you sit, till the second you leave, you have to pay attention to position and the cards. I don't think it's as true in tournaments though. You can still play the cards positionally in a tournament, but the size of the bet's not the same. Maybe there are more beginners in tournaments(It makes sense because a lot of folks got all their winnings from freerolls so they're more comfortable in that setting). So I'm thinking that with more beginners you just have to bet way bigger all the time whatever your position. However, I noticed, once the field gets quite a bit smaller, you can start to bet more positionally. The important factor though, is I think I would still suck at playing from position if it weren't for cash games.

I wonder what Barry Greenstein would say about it. I mean, he's reputably one of the best cash game players in the world right? But he's also very successful at tournaments and has the final table experience and bracelets to prove it. Somehow I can't help but think cash games would have had to help him.

firstly in response to op, not everyone is a boy on the forum. BBB for 1 example is not, i could name more but i cant be bothered, she was first to come to mind.

Anyway Cash games and tourny games are completely different in my eyes. In cash games, you can play a lot more tight and wait since blidns dont go up, so you can pick your spots. You can also mix it up in cash games and play more suited connectors or just low connectors in hope of winning big pot.

In tournies however you need to pick up the action more and build chips early by generally being a lot more aggresive, stealing a lot more, playing position a lot more. Raising with mediocre hands to build pots. If you havent played any big tournies i reccomend played 1$ or freerolls just so that you can get a feel of how the blinds rise and how you need to get involved more. Just remember at these levels pople will call raises with any 2 cards and you will see a lot more donk play then at 5$+ stakes

Hope that helps

i didnt mean to offend the other team. i see the same difference between cash games and tourney. somehow being focus and watching and playing in position is key to all poker games but playing with variables like number of players in tourney, growing stacks, diminishing stacks, escalating blinds all add to another dimension to tourney compared to sitting on a cash games table, fold 300 hands, what a hand, trap and get paid. I do see that tourney play is in need of a few different tactics and getting maximum extraction of your hand is uber important. no use wasting flopping the nutflush with an AI and no callers? might not have that type a hand that would put you in a position to beat up others?

if anyone else has more info on what steps a player would need to take in order to prepare successfully for tourney play please add.

maybe this is the criteria

mid to low 20s, college drop out, endless cans of redbull.
only kidding.

in a nutshell my proposal

1 table sng
2 table sng
4 table mtt
gradual, and then you are off.

not entirely, because you arent really going up in difficulty, you are just reducing your odds to win, but the players around you will be of the same skill. So just play the game you do best and have most fun at

to me the word survival comes to mind sng or mtt you don't get to say oh well and pull out your wallet and rebuy stack size is very important to how you play . cash game if you loose all but 1 chip you didn't due well ,if you have one chip when you get to the money in sng or mtt, well now the blinds are so big get lucky and win a hand or to and you are your back with the chip leaders