Cash you can live forever, tournaments you play to survive.
(And I don't care what anyone says, to get to the final table you HAVE to have some luck, you have to hit a river card you did not expect, you can NOT play straight forward poker in tournament poker and hope to get to the final table, you have to use bluffs, and you have to have "some" luck) Just how it goes.
You have to set aside a lot of ego in tournament strategy, for cash it really is a per hand game only, you play a whole different game for each and a different mindset for each. (You use your
tells ability as your
equity gain at a cash game, you build a database in your head lol)
Many of the highest cash game earners are horrible at tournaments and vice versa. (I can find stats to prove this, but too lazy)
I would go as far to say its in comparison to be like Boxing vs MMA! Or whatever, you get the idea. You are playing on a whole different mindframe per hand. The technicalities might be the same, but the style in which you apply your tools vary almost to a difference of night and day due to pot
odds for the hand and what it is you want to accomplish as an overall goal long term. That is my take on the difference
Also, in tournaments you will find more people that "care" about the game where as cash games you will find a lot more "gamblers" - That is not to say all poker players are equally like that, just in tournament poker, you will find people that do not make silly moves to get lucky, that is if the tournament is for actual money and not for free or for a super cheap buy in. Then it can just turn to a roll the dice type game at times.
But what's interesting in tournament poker, is that as the blinds/antes increase, you almost always have to play in a
gambling sense, otherwise the blinds/antes will just eat you up. Its the stages of tournament poker which make the game so unique and strategic. Cash, each hand and orbits of betting is a single game within itself and it restarts each time.
Thats my inference on the difference as a basic thought, I could dabble into more detail of what I think, but I want to keep it short and just off the head without going to actual references etc
