Changing Your Game For Tournaments

One difference between tournament poker and cash games is that tournaments are single-unit events, while ring games are more of a group of subsequent single events. Each hand of a cash game is a single unit. You can get up and leave after any hand is complete. On the other hand, a tournament works differently. Your action early in the tournament is linked to later phases of the tournament, and you cannot just get up and walk away. The basic element of a cash game is a hand; whereas the basic element of the tournament is the tournament. In a tournament, you can lose 10 hands in a row and then win the whole thing on the 11th hand. The only hand that matters is the last, but in cash games, every hand matters equally.

In tournaments, one smart strategy is to study your opponents and then use what you learn to the best of your ability when you are dealt a strong hand. The bigger picture isn’t really relevant in cash games like it is in tournaments though, which you should be prepared for when you switch back and forth between cash games and tournaments.

Bankroll
Many people believe that the only true way to judge the score of a poker game is by a player’s bankroll. The ideal definition of a good cash game player is one whose bankroll increases regularly. A player who is winning will generally show a profit of around two to three big blinds each hour; therefore, a winning player will show physical progress in the enlargement of his bankroll. Now consider the bankroll swings of a tournament player, who may play the best poker he’s ever played in his life but still ended up with nothing. So in order to differentiate between cash games and tournaments, one way to think of it is in terms of profit/loss.

If you go back and forth between the two realms of poker, make sure you don’t measure your tournament success by how much you made or lost on one single tournament. Instead, average it out over the past year’s worth of your tournament history. Cash games, on the other hand, can be gauged in terms of gains and losses.

Success
Tournaments also differ from cash games in terms of success. In tournament, mathematically, for the success of most players is minimal. In an optimal pay structure, 10% of the field will cash, but what about the other 90%? They are essentially all losers, in terms of payouts. In tournament play, you have to come out in the winning 10% at least some of the time, or it’s not worth it. However, in cash games, you only have to beat one other player per hand to win.

This is a motivational vice for many cash game players. They enjoy the frequent, hefty, and often lucky wins that cash games provide. Tournament players, on the other hand, must realize that they aren’t going to feel on top of the world every day. In fact, they are only really going to show profit and feel the adrenalin rush very little. But when it does happen, it’s worth the wait and possibly tenfold the rush you’d get from winning a good hand at a cash game.

Time
When switching from the tournament mindset to the cash game mindset, you’ll have to also consider the factor of time. Tournaments require a much longer time commitment than cash games (if you’re lucky). Cash games can span from one hand to one million hands. You can work around your own schedule. Tournaments, however, do not afford you the luxury of playing whenever you feel like it. You have to be mentally on point for the entire duration of the tournament, until of course you get knocked out.

The longer you stay in the tournament, the better, but placing just outside the bubble could take days and yield no payout whatsoever. Meanwhile, if you had taken the buy-in for the tournament and played in a cash game here and there, when you so pleased, you might have come out with a higher profit margin in relation to your time.

Atmosphere
Playing cash games is also much more relaxing, in general. The atmosphere is more laid back for most players and the vibe is more social than competitive. While the action can heat up for a hand once in a while, it’s nothing like the intense and persistent stress that tournament play typically generates.

The Bottom Line
Many players like to play hard in a couple tournaments and then use cash games as a cool down. It makes some people feel better to win a couple pots in a few minutes after they invested so much time into a tournament and lost everything. Still yet, other players play some tight cash games to acquire enough chips to buy into a tournament. Others just get a quick fix at the cash tables when they don’t have time to sit down at a tournament. The fact is, a versatile poker player will typically understand both types of poker and will probably play both, though not all players enjoy both. There are plenty of professional poker players who strictly play in tournaments because they just don’t care for cash games, and vice versa.