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Originally Posted by MLGstacked  Iv'e played a lot of poker. Over the years i've discovered that I prefer and am much better at trnys than cash games. I want to get better. I know there are a lot of differences between the 2 and I would like to hear your opinion on which you like better and what your opinions and strategies are. I need some tips for cash games. Thanks |
In addition to what others have said, the relative stack sizes in a cash game make the options you have during a hand much wider. In a tournament, you might be playing with 20 big blinds in front of you -- more or less. In a cash game you might be playing with 100, 200, 500, or even more. Online most places cap the buy-in to 100-200BB... but live I have seen caps as high as 300BB or higher. Private games typically have no upper cap to the buy-in. That said, I do know a local card-room that caps the buy-in at 50BB... so the hands typically play more like tournament hands with respect to the stack sizes. As a personal matter, I like a minimum of 100BB to play... and prefer stacks even deeper than that.
The first thing these larger stacks do is increase the implied odds you can expect from a hand. If everyone has really deep stacks at the table, hitting a set with a small pair or a straight with something like 5-7 suited could have a return that makes the original pre-flop call correct. Not that these hands are always playable... but in late position, with deep enough stacks and a couple callers, I am usually strongly considering seeing a flop with them. Depending on stack sizes in a tournament, I am usually folding. I just can't get the return I need to make playing them worth while. Even if another player had a large enough stack to give me the right odds if I could get them all-in... the fact that he can't refill reduces the probability of it happening enough that I can't reasonably play them.
In a cash game, pre-flop all-ins are almost never the correct play. The stacks are just too deep for reasonable betting to get you all-in. Even with K-K vs. A-A... it is very very rare to see an all-in pre-flop with stacks 200BB+. All-ins on the flop, in a cash game, are also almost never the correct play. These are the two most common places to get all-in during a tournament because your stack size, combined with the early betting, makes any play after the flop commit you anyway. In a cash game, I find that most of my largest bets are on the turn. If someone is going to get all-in, the turn is likely to be the place. Getting all-in is rare in a cash game but it does happen. It almost never happens on the river unless the pot has grown so large that an all-in is much less than the size of the pot.
Typically, in a cash game, bets on the river are smaller and are meant to be called. Players bet the river for value, not to get you off a hand. There's always exceptions and bluffing does happen but a nice reasonable or small sized bet on the river is probably the best hand's last attempt to make more money on this pot.
Because the serious money decisions take place later in the hand, post-flop play is much more important than pre-flop. You're going to need to read the board and understand how it could hit someone's hand... and in NL you're going to have to do this nearly perfectly every single time. You can't always fear the nuts but you must be able to look at the board with the turn out and know exactly what the nuts are... and the probability that the hand could have been played to that point.
Patience is very important. You're going to be folding a lot of hands. And, even more irritating, after folding a lot of hands you'll get A-K in hearts make a reasonable raise, get called in three spots anyway... have a flop like 7-8-9 with two clubs and from the action on the flop know you need to let it go. There's nothing worse than folding a dozen hands, getting a decent hand, and having to fold it anyway.