Great question, and this will probably be a quite longer answer:
1. As you stated already, they differ very very much. Basically, in
cash games, you are always
deep stacked and you dont have to worry about being knocked out. You dont have to worry about maintaining a healthy stack, as the
blinds are not raising, and when there is no ante involved, you can basically be more tight (but I dont recommend this).
2. Long term, there is much
less variance in cash games compared to tournaments, becasue in turnaments you almost always have to flip a lot to go deep. However, if you are lucky, you can go very deep, even when you are no that skilled. In cash games, skill is everything, and cash games are a lot less dicy. You dont have to flip at all, you basically can play your straight strategy without changing it because of blinds, because they do not increase.
3. As someone above stated,
cash games are WAY more difficult than tournaments. Since there is less variance,
grinders stick to them and if they can adapt to an opponent and exploit him, they can earn huge amounts of money in quite a short time period. This cant happen in tournaments because you also need a lot more luck there.
4. Cash games dont need such high bankroll as tournaments. If you have at least 30-40 buy ins, you can comfortably play your stakes cash games without worrying. In tournaments you shoudl better have 80-100 buyins, which may be unreal in some cases. This is also caused by the above mentioned variance.
5. Like many live pro grinders say, the real money lies in live poker, especially in cash games. There are just so many fishy players playing the low stakes that its a literal sin not to grind them, if you are capable of doing it. For example, im right now studying hard to convert from MTT player to cash game player. I really suck at MTTs and enjoy playing cash games, but I have absolutely no experience with playing them live. I am building some bankroll so I can buy in, but I have to study a before, so I dont lose it immediately lol.
6. In
live cash games you can use
exploitative play much more than in tournaments, as you can sometimes open wider against weak opponents, who you know are fishes.
7. In cash games, You can
choose tables, which is for me the biggest advantage. You can find many articles online about the right table selection.
8. Cash games show more skill long term. Someone replied that you should avoid them - well, if you are not good at poker you probably should, but otherwise this is a very bad advice as in cash games you can greatly improve your skills and if you are really a good player, you can profit greatly.
9. Cash games offer you more freedom than tournaments - you can buy in anytime, you can sit out anytime, you can basically do everything you want at any time.
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For me, there is the great opportunity to use exploitative strategy to exploit our opponents weakness in cash games, because we have a lot of time to do so, without worrying about the blinds etc.
The first levels of tournament can be comapred to cash games, where you have more than 100 big blinds.
In my oppinion cash games put you in fear sitiuation because of the amont of money involved on the table.Cash games (as the name says) is real money and there are more pressure than MTT´s ,you have to be courage and lot´s of money in cash games and take it easy! It can be dangerous!
If somebody is worried about money, they should not play poker AT ALL EVER. You should only always play with money you dont mind loosing, otherwise its dangerous
gambling and that is not good. I remember the famous quote "In order to be a successful gambler, you must have absolutely no sense about money" or something like this. The point is, dont play with money you cant lose.
This is a great question - I have pretty much only played in tournaments but have been thinking about dabbling a bit more seriously at some live cash games.
I am just not sure how to adjust my game to be successful.
Sounds like I would need to tighten up a bit. Is there a stage in a tournament that you would play similarly in a cash game?
Read about cash games strategies a lot before trying it, otherwise you can lose a lot money, which is certainly not good (its only good when you are playing against me LOL). My number one advice is to 3-bet a lot more in live cash games, and be very conservative about calling 4-bets.
4-bets usually mean reall really strong, premium hands (KK+,AK).
Play very carefully in these spots.
Good luck to you all and dont forget that studying the game is the key to success!