Quote:
Originally Posted by sledracer01  the biggest difference in cash tourney, is that in a cash game ur goignt o find more people play a lot losser hands because they know at any point in time they can re buy for more money , but in a tourney people r trying to last the longest and be the winner so ur going to wind that there going to play only premeium hands. |
Well, this may be correct in some cases. And it certainly does describe my experience with really low limits and small stack cash games. The main problem I have with it is that it's backwards. Tournament survival depends on increasing your chip-stack. Because the blinds are always rushing up behind you, there isn't enough time to wait for premium hands. You need to make a move and get in there and pick up chips. The correct play, especially deeper into the tournament, is aggressive play. Not loose play... but aggression with hands which figure to be ahead. You'll be pushing a lot more marginal edges and depending a lot more on fold equity when making a bet with a hand. It's this reason that you might make a large bet with A-10 (or even a much weaker hand) from the cut-off after it's folded around to you. The chip increase from picking up the blinds without a contest is probably worth the bet. In some cases, the money already in the pot will represent a gain of more than 10% of your stack.
In a cash game, picking up the blinds means less. If you're playing 300BB deep, picking up the blinds will increase your stack by 1.5BB ... about 0.5%. This means you have much less of an incentive to play a marginal hand. With a very deep stack, the mathematically correct play is to be more conservative. You stand to gain very little (proportionately) by risking chips on a weak hand compared to how much you're putting at risk by getting involved in the pot. Do I still open with a raise from the cut-off with A-10? Yes, most likely... but I am going to be extremely cautious if I get called or someone plays back at me. Usually people who play deep-stacks know that risking their entire stack with a marginal hand isn't worth it so you're likely to see action only from better hands. Sure, you can always rebuy but that doesn't make it right to invest money with a poor hand.
If you are going to play a marginal hand, you want it to be one that will make you a lot of money if you hit the flop strongly but be very easy to get away from if you don't. This is one reason that I would rather call a raise with 9-8 suited than A-10. With the 9-8, if I don't flop two-pair or better... or a strong draw... I am out of the hand when someone bets. With A-10... if the flop comes A-J-7... and someone bets out... suddenly I have a hard decision to make. Against most of the hands I could be facing, I have serious kicker problems. If the flop comes 10-6-2 rainbow (about as good as it gets for this hand), I am still in serious trouble if I am up against an over-pair or several other plausible hands. And, even if I am not already dead... if a K, Q, or J comes... I may have to let my hand go on the turn. It gets even worse if the cards are close together and possible straight draws are out or there are two cards of the same suit because almost a dozen cards become hazardous on the turn and, again, I may have to be folding to serious action.
There are many poor players who do play very loose in a cash game. If you find yourself at a table with them, you must tighten up even more because you'll be facing 5 or 6 limpers seeing the flops with almost any two cards... and you run a greater risk of them hitting the oddest looking flops. Generally, the loosest players won't sit with 200BB or more because they will be loosing too much money too quickly. At 100BB (which is pretty normal for online games), they still are going to be steady money losers... and might resort to buying in short so they risk losing less with the second best hand when they have it -- and they often will. Depending on the limits you are playing at, how many people are on the table, and the general knowledge of the game the other players have... a cash game should be tighter than a tournament. It's not often the case... and the reverse is too often true... How many times have I seen someone blinded off in a tournament waiting for Aces? How many times have I seen someone open-shove 150+BB in a cash game? Probably too many to count. But these should be the exceptions and not the rule.
Note: Another reason it pays to be tighter in a cash game is that you're going to be strongly betting hands you do play. The idea is to get the other players to put as much money as possible in while they have the worst hand. Since you'll be trying to slowly build a pot large enough to entice them to keep playing without scaring them away, you are going to invest much more than 1 or 2 BBs on a hand. Not all those hands will pan out... and money you don't lose spends just as well as money won. Invest money on the best hands... cut your losses on those which don't figure to return a profit.
Edit: Also keep in mind that the depth of your stack is not the number of chips you have on the table. It is related to the number of chips the other person has also. If you have a 300BB stack and on the flop are alone in a pot with someone who has a 50BB stack... you're not playing deep-stack poker for that hand. Your stack is effectively 50BB, as is his. If most of the players you are playing have large stacks also, this applies more. If most have very short stacks then your options are limited to the depth of their stack. Usually the minimum buy-in for a table determines if it's going to be deep-stack or not, unless you're against players who understand the value of buying in for the max (which is the smart move).