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UncleConRon
Visionary
Silver Level
My opinion
Cash games are really easier then tournament games cause you can find out where on the button a player is winning and on the button where you are winning. The problem is they don't sit long. Like in live casino.
Cash games are really easier then tournament games cause you can find out where on the button a player is winning and on the button where you are winning. The problem is they don't sit long. Like in live casino.
Ovuvuevuevue
Rock Star
Silver Level
Cash games are simple in a way because there's no changing blinds or player pool adjustments you need to make; you play good hands and that's it. In tournaments you need to consider many more factors to play as close to perfect as possible like stack size in relation to blinds, players remaining, ICM, stuff like that. So read up on tournament strategy to see if that's more your thing.
Misaki
Visionary
Silver Level
if cash games would be easy like you think then everyone would play cash games and make money. Every format of poker is complicated if you really want to be a winning player. Just things are different.
muse713
Visionary
Silver Level
Cash games can be brutal, with that said it still has a lower variance than tournaments.
POKERRANSOM
Enthusiast
Silver Level
im not sure i understand variance. could you explain varuance as it relates to poker please.
POKERRANSOM
Enthusiast
Silver Level
Very good post right here because its on the money tournaments have so many factors to consider before. thank you
muse713
Visionary
Silver Level
VITOS
Visionary
Bronze Level
The first and most important advantage of a cache over tournaments consists in freedom of action. Tournament players are deprived of luxury to leave a game when it wants to them. Bothered to play, choose: or to cross through itself, coping with fatigue, hunger and boredom, or to give the stack to other player — and then yours bay-in departs to a pipe. Cash player himself defines how his game session will long last: 1 hour, 2, 10 or even 48 hours. In a cache it is possible to rise at any time because of a table and to leave to have a bite, having reserved the game place. Only in a cache it is possible to leave, without having won anything and without having lost anything. It is only possible to leave a tournament either with a board, or on a board. And, at last, a cache player it is not necessary to adapt to the tournament schedule of a series. You solve, to begin to play at 16:00, 20:00 or is deep after midnight. In a cache a game begins when is against whom to play. On the one hand, a game happens not always, but it is possible to play against these players so much how many you wish.
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c0rnBr34d
Visionary
Silver Level
You are contradicting yourself in this post. If cash games were really instant profits with minimal effort and time then why are you doing better in the harder more complicated environment? I'll answer that for you. Because they are both complicated and difficult.
There are many books and articles about the difference between cash games and tourneys. I'll share some of the common differences that I agree with here. Tournaments tend to draw more casual weaker and recreational players. I'm by no means saying the whole field is like this. But new guys trying poker are more likely to try a small buy in tournament where they get to potentially play for hours for a small investment like they saw on TV. Cash games usually require a larger upfront investment all of which can be lost on any given hand if you're playing NLHE. This can scare away weaker players as well. Again, this is not to say there aren't huge fish and whales that show up to cash games and dump hundreds of BB quickly. I'm just talking about what is more likely. There are tons of different tournament formats from heads up to thousands of players MTT from Hyper Turbos to 50 minute+ blind levels so there are different skill sets that will be needed for different formats but in general as the blinds and antes go up in a tournament in order to be a successful tournament player you have to either be uber lucky or you need to understand and excel at short stack poker. In many tournament formats your stack depth can be 20-50BB for much of the time. You will also not be able to be as patient or tight in a tournament as you will blind and ante off your stack. This is vastly different than cash (especially live cash) where you can buy in for 100-300 BB and see 500 BB stacks at the table. You will also find OMCs, nits, rocks in cash games that only wait for top 5% hands to play. On the up side, unless you're playing some type of zoom format you are likely getting to sit at the same table for longer with the same players in a cash game which can give you more reads. Other players are reading you as well though so if you have leaks in your game they may identify and exploit them after a while. In my opinion I don't think either format is "easier" they are just different. What is "hard" in my opinion is being able to consistently not only make the money but run deep in the larger field tournaments where the real profit is made. This is also widely agreed upon that a good tournament player could go on a much longer downswing than a good cash player depending on the tournament format. The big upside of the tournaments is obviously making the final table in a big MTT where your ROI is going to crush that of a cash game player. But how often can you realistically final table a large MTT? It's debatable but realistically you have to play great and win a bunch of coin flips and probably suck out a few times and be lucky enough for others not to suck out on you too much. This kind of turned into a long rambling post, sorry hope it helps a bit anyways.
BlackJesus
Visionary
Silver Level
In the long run, tournaments are far, far better rewarding than cash games.
It is a shame on me how late I realized this, but that is a mistake of my own.
If there is an advice I could give - master the tournaments, do not bother with cash games. They are OK if you want to just waste some time, but for profit or bankroll advancements tournaments are the place to be.
It is a shame on me how late I realized this, but that is a mistake of my own.
If there is an advice I could give - master the tournaments, do not bother with cash games. They are OK if you want to just waste some time, but for profit or bankroll advancements tournaments are the place to be.
TPC
Legend
Silver Level
You should get good at both. A decent cash game player can hold their own in a tournament. I don't think a decent tournament player can hold their own in a cash game. Get good at cash games. That's your bread and butter of consistent money coming in. Tournaments should be for a big score here and there. Play cash during the weekend and tournaments on the weekend.
