Cash Game Play vs Tournament Play

[Aykay1]

I started playing poker just before christmas in small stakes STT's, depositing $50 each in Ladbrokes, Stan James, Betfair and Bet Direct poker sites. After a steep learning curve to start with, i've done ok and the balances are currently Ladbrokes: $86 Stan James: $12 Betfair: $66 Bet Direct: $81 I'm pretty happy with my tournament play at the levels im playing at, so I'm thinking of starting to play cash games to get another angle on the poker world, so to speak. is there anything I should be aware of tactically/strategy wise that would differ between cash games and tournament play? i.e. level of aggression, staking, hand rankings? Thanks for your help :ok

[Masterplan]

Re: Cash Game Play vs Tournament Play cash games you will need some tools. poker tracker - available free in *places* gametime+ actually free addon for PT. aggression, i like TAG, but others do well as LAG, for low stakes TAG and playing the %s is extremely profitable. staking, for single (full) tabling, no more than 10% of your roll at any one table is what chris ferguson reccomends. personally i like multi tabling short handed. so i use a 5% rule and 4-6 tables at once. tactically you have to rememebr its about the LONG HAUL. not about your balance at any one point in time. i go by the following mindset, if any ANY point i know i ahve the best hand, regardless of what might outdraw me, i'm willing to put every chip i ahve in the pot. because even if i'm 55% to 45% over the tens of thousands of hands that i'll play, its profitable. others might disagree :) try and keep your head. dont play dominated hands, and dont go bust on top pair, it doesnt win enough :D

[GaF]

Re: Cash Game Play vs Tournament Play The big thing to be aware of is that you (and your opponents) are usually deep stacked in cash games .... so you have higher levels of implied odds than in the later stages of tournaments...... That means that you probably want to see more flops, in position, with drawing hands when you can cheaply ...... strategy is probably similar to the early stages of tournaments ....... There isn't the same time pressure - because blinds remain constant, so there's less need to "make moves" .... you'll generally need to play more solidly (especially at the lower levels). At the lower levels, patience is probably your key asset - that's more important than any poker skills..... Bankroll management is also important - try not to buy in for more than 5% of your bankroll on any single table (I count my bankroll seperately for each site, but the conventional view is that your bankroll is the total you are prepared to lose at poker .... so in theory, you could add the money from all 4 sites together). You should also generally buy in for the maximum (and top up if you drop down). There are tactics that can be played with shorter stacks, but if you want to do that, I would suggest later when you have more experience to start experimenting with that. Assuming you are working towards a basic TAG (Tight Aggressive) game, which I believe all beginners should be, then you want to have the full stack in front of you. When you hit big hands, you want to have a big enough stack to get paid off!!!! Laddies, Stan James and Betdirect all support Poker Tracker and Poker Office - would suggest you invest in a copy (can get a trial version with full functionality for a few thousand hands to make your mind up) - your opponents are using it - you are behind if you don't!!! It will also help you identify major leaks in your own game. They will also collect data at these sites when you are not playing, but have the tables open :ok iPoker (the likes for Betfred, Titan and PokerUtd) have cash tables starting at 1c/2c - I've never played them, but they might be a good starting point you, and I imagine are very soft!! The Boss (Sporting Odds, Virgin etc) have the worst standard cash games I have seen - starting at 5c/10c - PT and PO are NOT supported (which is why I believe the standard is so poor) - so they might be a good option for you if you didnt want to use PO or PT.

[voiceofjoe]

Re: Cash Game Play vs Tournament Play BTW - Laddies also have 1c/2c games. I started at this level and moved up levels when my Bankroll went to 20 max buy-ins of the level i was moving up to. If your patient, and look long term I think you can do extremley well - if you become impatient and are frustrated at the small returns from the lower levels then move up at your peril. As GAF put, far more elequently than I could, play it like the start of a deepstack tourney - that doesn't mean play every hand !! - but raising 4*BB with Aces will 8 times out of 10 mean all you win is the blinds. However raise 2 * then be aggressive after the flop and you find that people don't like giving up easily once they've invested so you can usually get someone to call a decent bet.