Tournament Strategy
vs. Cash Table Strategy
There is a big
difference between playing tournaments and cash tables in
pocker and your
style is going to change quite a bit. In nine player tournaments you
want to simply finish the tournament in at least third place so that you
win some money. In a nine player cash game there is no ending to the
game so therefore your goals are to finish with as much money as you
can. As you can see the two end goals are completely different and
therefore your strategy is going to need to reflect that.
A nine player sit and
go tournament pays out the top three places so your goal is to finish in
the top three every time so that you always win some money. When you’re
playing a tournament and you manage to double up then your strategy
should become to sit back and relax until the final three. A lot of
players continue playing for the chips and end up making a mistake and
finishing in less then third place when they already had it locked up.
In a cash game when you double up you want to continue doubling up and
therefore your strategy should be to continue playing pots.
Tournament play is a
lot tighter than cash table games and if you go from cash tables into
tournaments thinking you can push people around you’re wrong. You need
to play tight in tournaments to consistently finish in the top three
positions and if you play loosely then you’ll notice you’re not winning
enough top three finishes to be profitable.
Poker Tournaments are
typically very quick and take roughly 30-60 minutes to complete so if
you double up once then you’re safe usually to finish in the top three.
On cash tables the
action is a lot looser and you need to be ready to spend a lot more then
you would on tournaments. You could potentially lose your entire
bankroll in one hand on a cash table whereas in a tournament you’d only
lose the tournament buy-in fee. Tournaments will stretch your bankroll
if you’re new to poker and you’ll also have a better chance of winning
in tournaments due to the top three winning. This means that you have a
33% chance of winning money in every nine player sit and go tournament.
To be able to play cash
table games you’re going to need a bankroll and also not be afraid to
make calls. People will throw around a lot of chips and it will
intimidate most people, but don’t be thrown off your hand due to a bet.
If you feel that you have your opponent beat then you need to make the
call even if they throw in a large bet. Players who play too tight in
cash tables will get raised every hand there in and will limit your
chances of winning money. You need to loosen up a little bit when going
from tournaments to cash tables if you want to make any money.
You can practice both
your cash game and tournament strategies at
freepoker
sites like fulltilt.net
and
pokerstars.net
